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How to create a staging copy of your site

Maxim Tsitsejev
Updated

A staging copy is a private, working duplicate of your website where you can test changes, plugin updates or a redesign without risking your live site. This guide covers two ways to do it on your Maxinodes hosting: a WordPress staging plugin (easiest for WordPress) or a manual copy onto a cPanel subdomain (works for any site).

Applies to: All plans. Both methods stay inside your existing hosting account, so they count against your plan's subdomain and database limits. On a small plan (for example Self-Managed Lite, with 5 subdomains and 2 databases) you may have little headroom — check client area -> Services -> My Services to see your plan, and Understanding your hosting account's limits if you are unsure.

Before you start: You need your cPanel login (see How to log in to cPanel) and, before any change, a fresh backup. Always take a backup first — see How backups work at Maxinodes.

Method 1: A WordPress staging plugin (recommended for WordPress)

The simplest route for a WordPress site is a staging plugin (for example, a backup-and-clone plugin or your theme/host toolkit's staging feature). The plugin creates the copy, gives you a private URL to work on, and offers a "push to live" button when you are ready.

  1. Take a full backup first (see the Before you start note above).
  2. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins -> Add New and install a reputable staging or clone plugin.
  3. Use the plugin's create-staging option to build the copy. It will usually place the staging site on a subdomain such as staging.yourdomain.
  4. Make and test your changes on the staging URL.
  5. When everything works, use the plugin's option labelled Push to Live (the exact wording varies by plugin) to copy your changes back to the live site.

Result: Your changes go live in one step, and your live site stayed untouched while you tested.

A few Maxinodes-specific notes:

  • Our web server is LiteSpeed. Keep the LiteSpeed Cache plugin active and clear its cache after a push so visitors see the new version — see How to speed up WordPress with LiteSpeed Cache.
  • Email is not hosted on our server. If your staging site sends mail, use an SMTP plugin pointed at your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace mailbox.
  • Staging uses real resources. On busy clone/restore jobs you may briefly hit your CloudLinux limits — that is normal and clears on its own. See Understanding CloudLinux resource limits (LVE).

Method 2: A manual copy onto a cPanel subdomain

Use this when you are not on WordPress, or you prefer to do it by hand. You create a subdomain, copy the files, copy the database, and point the copy at the new database.

  1. Take a full backup first.
  2. In cPanel -> Domains -> Subdomains, create a subdomain such as staging (this becomes staging.yourdomain). See How to create a subdomain.
  3. In cPanel -> Files -> File Manager, copy your site's files into the new subdomain's document root.
  4. In cPanel -> Databases -> MySQL Databases, create a new database and database user, and add the user to the database with all privileges. See How to create and manage a MySQL database.
  5. In cPanel -> Databases -> phpMyAdmin, export your live database and import it into the new staging database.
  6. Edit the staging site's config file (for WordPress this is wp-config.php) to point at the new database name, user and password.

Result: staging.yourdomain loads a working copy of your site running on its own database, fully separate from your live site.

When the staging copy works, reverse the steps to push live: copy the tested files back into your live document root, and import the staging database over your live one. Take another backup right before you overwrite anything.

A note on URLs and DNS

Your staging subdomain works automatically on our platform — you do not need to add any DNS records for it. Our hosting node is reachable over both IPv4 and IPv6 (dual-stack), so if you ever add records by hand you use an A record to 185.185.49.198 and, if you want IPv6, an AAAA record to 2a00:7c80:0:286:c::10. Manage any live DNS records you do need in the client area, not the cPanel zone editor (the cPanel Zone Editor does not control live DNS on our platform). See How to manage DNS records in your client area.

If you would rather keep staging off search engines, discourage indexing in the staging site's settings while you work, then re-enable it on the live site only.

Troubleshooting this task

  • Staging site shows a database error: The config file is pointing at the wrong database name, user or password. Re-check the credentials you set in step 6.
  • "Plan limit reached" when creating the subdomain or database: You have used all the subdomains or databases your plan allows. Free one up, or upgrade — see How to upgrade or downgrade your plan.
  • Changes do not appear after a push: Clear the LiteSpeed cache and your browser cache.
  • A push went wrong: Restore from the backup you took before you started — see How to restore a full account or website.

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