How to Create Staging Sites for WordPress Using cPanel

How to Create Staging Sites for WordPress Using cPanel

🚀 What is a Staging Site?

A staging site is a clone of your live website where you can safely test updates, new features, or designs without affecting your production site.

🔧 Method 1: Use cPanel’s Built-in WordPress Manager (If Available)

Step 1: Log in to cPanel

Visit yourdomain.com/cpanel and enter your login credentials.

Step 2: Open WordPress Toolkit or Softaculous

Look for either:

• WordPress Toolkit (modern hosts)
• Softaculous Apps Installer → WordPress

Step 3: Select Your Installation

Find your active WordPress installation and click on the Staging or Create Staging option.

Step 4: Configure Staging Settings

• Choose a staging folder (e.g., staging)
• Click Create and wait for the cloning process

🛠 Method 2: Manually Create a WordPress Staging Site via File Manager + phpMyAdmin

Step 1: Create a Subdomain

1. In cPanel, go to Subdomains
2. Create a subdomain like staging.yourdomain.com

Step 2: Copy Files to Subdomain

1. Open File Manager
2. Copy all files from public_html to the new subdomain folder (e.g., public_html/staging)

Step 3: Export and Import the Database

1. Open phpMyAdmin
2. Export your current database (SQL format)
3. Create a new database and user in cPanel
4. Import the SQL file into the new staging database

Step 4: Update wp-config.php

Edit the wp-config.php file in the staging folder:

define('DB_NAME', 'your_staging_db');
define('DB_USER', 'your_staging_user');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'your_password');
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Step 5: Update Site URLs

1. Go to the staging database in phpMyAdmin
2. Open the wp_options table
3. Update siteurl and home fields to your new subdomain URL

🔒 Secure Your Staging Site

• Add password protection via cPanel → Directory Privacy
• Block search engines with a robots.txt:

  User-agent: *
  Disallow: /

✅ Final Thoughts

Creating a WordPress staging site using cPanel allows you to test and develop safely. Whether using cPanel tools or doing it manually, always back up your site before making changes.

Need expert help setting up a staging environment? Our team at Hiverift is here to assist you.