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 one of the most flexible multi-environment setups in managed WordPress hosting. Instead of just a live and staging site, you can have up to three separate environments: Production, Staging, and Development.
Quick summary
WP Engine gives each site a Production environment (your live site) and a Staging environment. Higher plans also include a Development environment. 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 | No (password-protected) |
| Development | Active development work | No (password-protected) |
Development is typically where new features are built. Changes flow from Development → Staging → Production.
How to access environments
Log in to the WP Engine User Portal at my.wpengine.com.
Click on your site to open its management page.
Look for the environment selector. It usually appears near the top of the site page, showing "Production," "Staging," and (if available) "Development."
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.
Look for a "Copy" or "Clone" option. WP Engine allows you to copy Production to Staging (or vice versa).
Choose what to copy — files, database, or both.
Confirm the copy. Any existing staging content will be overwritten.
Pushing staging to production
When the work on staging has been tested and approved:
Switch to the Staging environment in the User Portal.
Look for a "Push to Production" or "Deploy to Production" option.
Choose what to push — files, database, or both. Usually both for a full site push.
Confirm the push. WP Engine may automatically back up the production site before overwriting it.
Verify the production site. Open your live site and confirm everything looks correct.
Pushing to production overwrites your live site
Any content added to the production site after you last copied it to staging will be lost when you push staging to production. 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). You can find it in the environment's overview in the User Portal. The URL typically looks something like yoursitename.staging.wpengine.com.
Ask us for the staging URL and password if you want to preview work in progress.
Common questions
Related guides
- What is a staging site?
- The WP Engine User Portal explained
- Backups on WP Engine
- Staging sites on Flywheel
- Staging on Kinsta
Need a hand?
Learn more
The WP Engine User Portal explained
A plain-English tour of the WP Engine User Portal — what each section does and how to find key features for your site.
Backups on WP Engine
How WP Engine's backup system (Backup Points) works, how to restore a backup, and how to create a manual backup before big changes.