Staging & development environments on WP Engine
How to use WP Engine's staging and development environments to test changes safely before they go live.
WP Engine offers a flexible multi-environment setup. Instead of just a live and staging site, each site can have up to three separate environments: Production, Staging, and Development.
Quick summary
Each WP Engine site can have a Production environment (your live site), plus optional Staging and Development environments. Each one is a separate copy of WordPress. You can copy content between environments and push changes to production when they're ready. We use this workflow to keep your live site stable while building and testing.
Understanding WP Engine's environments
| Environment | Purpose | Publicly visible? |
|---|---|---|
| Production | Your live website | Yes |
| Staging | Testing before going live | Not meant for the public. It has its own address, and you can turn on password protection |
| Development | Active development work | Not meant for the public. It has its own address, and you can turn on password protection |
WP Engine suggests Staging for smaller changes, like plugin updates, and Development for bigger work, like building a new theme. A common workflow moves changes from Development to Staging to Production, but you can copy between any two environments.
Password protection is a switch on each environment's Overview page in the User Portal. The username is always the environment's name.
How to access environments
Log in to the WP Engine User Portal at my.wpengine.com.
Click your site's name on the Sites page. This opens the Overview page for its Production environment.
Look for the environment selector. The site's name appears at the top of the page, with its environments listed next to it: "Production," plus "Staging" and "Development" if they've been added.
Click an environment name to switch to managing that environment. Each has its own URL, backups, and settings.
Copying the production site to staging
To start working on staging with a fresh copy of your live site:
Open your site in the User Portal and switch to the Staging environment.
Open the Actions menu and choose "Pull from." Select Production as the environment to copy from. (Copying works in either direction: "Push to" sends the current environment's content somewhere else.)
Choose what to copy. Full copies all files and all database tables. Custom lets you pick files, the database (or only some tables), or both, from the current site or from a backup.
Confirm the copy. Click Review details, check your choices, then click Pull changes. Whatever you copy overwrites what's on staging. WP Engine backs up staging before and after the copy.
Pushing staging to production
When the work on staging has been tested and approved:
Switch to the Staging environment in the User Portal.
Open the Actions menu and choose "Push to." Select Production as the destination.
Choose what to push. Pick Full or Custom. WP Engine advises against pushing the whole database to production, because it replaces the live database and can wipe out new orders or new users. With Custom, you can push only the files, or only some database tables.
Confirm the push. Click Review details, check your choices, then click Push changes. WP Engine backs up the production site before and after the copy, and clears its cache.
Verify the production site. Open your live site and confirm everything looks correct.
Pushing to production overwrites your live site
If the push includes the database, anything added to the live site since you last copied it to staging, such as new orders, users or posts, is overwritten. A files push also removes any file on the live site that isn't on staging, such as newly uploaded images. Coordinate with us before any push to avoid data loss.
Accessing the staging site URL
The staging environment has its own URL (separate from your live domain). It's built from the environment's name and looks like environmentname.wpenginepowered.com.
Ask us for the staging URL and password if you want to preview work in progress.
Common questions
Is staging included on all WP Engine plans?
Yes, on WP Engine's current plans. Staging and development environments are included, and each site can have up to three environments: one Production, one Staging and one Development. Staging and Development are optional, so they're added when you need them. The exception is a sandbox site, which has a Development environment only.
Can I edit the staging site directly?
Yes, staging is a full WordPress installation you can log in to and edit. Coordinate with us if we're actively working on staging to avoid conflicting changes.
What happens to the staging site's data when I push to production?
Whatever you include in the push replaces what's on production. If you include the database, any content updated on production after the last copy to staging will be overwritten. Always communicate before pushing.
Does WP Engine have a one-click push like Flywheel?
Yes, WP Engine allows pushing between environments. Use Push to or Pull from in an environment's Actions menu. You choose what to copy and review it before anything changes.
Related guides
- What is a staging site?
- The WP Engine User Portal explained
- Backups on WP Engine
- Staging sites on Flywheel
- Staging on Kinsta
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