Break Things in the Staging Environment. Not on Live Site.
Most hosts charge extra for staging, but on Cloudways, you get it for FREE. Experiment with all changes on the staging site before taking anything live. Push to live with one click when everything checks out.
> Get Started FreeFull Control Over Every Change You Push Live
Your staging site is directly connected to your live site. Push changes when ready, pull live content into staging anytime. Choose overwrite or incremental; nothing gets synced unless you say so. Every action is logged.
Works on both Cloudways Flexible and Autonomous.
Everything You Need in a Staging Environment
Test plugins, themes, and code changes without a single thing touching your live site.
Secure by Default
Staging sites are password-protected out of the box. SSL pre-installed. Search engines can’t index it. Only the people you want can access it.
Deployment Logs
Every Push and Pull is recorded. Full history of what changed, when it happened, and what was included. No guesswork.
Push and Pull Operations
Push changes from staging to live when you’re ready. Pull live content into staging before you start. You control the direction, always.
24/7 Expert Support
Something not working on staging? Our support team is available around the clock, every day of the year, via live chat.
Incremental or Full Overwrite
Syncing only specific files? Or pushing everything? You choose. Nothing gets overwritten on your live site unless you say so.
One-Click Staging
Create a staging site in minutes, not hours. Available on all plans across bothCloudways Flexible and Autonomous at no extra cost.
Plans Built for Every Stage of Growth
Pick a plan, get started in minutes, and scale whenever your projects demand it.
Benefits
- 24/7 Expert Support
- Unlimited App Installation
- Free Migration
- Free SSL Certificates
Our Customers, Our Success
Digital Agency
The ability for a digital agency like us to have lots of servers, from different providers, depending on the need, in one place.
John Falzon
Managing Director at Keen
SMB
Cloudways made it easy for us to extend our web application infrastructure into the cloud.
Adam McWilliams
CTO at Pacific Community
Digital Agency
We are grateful to have found an ideal managed cloud hosting platform for our customers, and look to grow our hosting business through Cloudways.
Robert Theodorow
CEO at SFP
Digital Agency
The ability to scale and clone sites ourselves and install SSL certificates gives us more control.
Edward Bull
Director at Limesharp
SMB
Cloudways has fulfilled our expectations.It is a great service and keeps our website up and running nicely.
Amit Kothari
Founder at Tallyfy
Digital Agency
We gave Cloudways a try and we saw our client sites have page load time decreased from an average of 5.4 seconds to just over 1 second.
Jeff Weese
Founder at Joslex Studios
Blogger
The support is excellent. I have needed their help and they always come through. I have no technical brain and the back end of my website is all confusing so I need the engineer help when something breaks.
Letty Flatt
Owner at Letty’s Kitchen
SMB
We love being part of the Cloudways family! We encourage all startups to switch to Cloudways managed hosting platform for a hassle-free hosting experience.
Gabriel Marcolongo
Founder at Incluyeme
Staging Guides Worth Bookmarking
From WordPress staging to PHP deployments, everything you need to ship faster.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a staging environment?
Staging environment is a complete, duplicate copy of your live website that serves as a private sandbox for testing. It allows developers to safely test new code, plugins, themes, or updates without risking the stability of the live site. On Cloudways, this environment is password protected and supports Push/Pull operations to seamlessly sync data between staging and live.
What’s the best cheap cloud provider for a staging environment with per-branch deploys?
Cloudways is the most cost effective solution for staging. Unlike PaaS providers that charge per environment or container, Cloudways charges per server. This means you can deploy unlimited staging applications on a single low cost server at no extra cost, provided your server has enough RAM.
What’s the best cloud staging environment for startups?
Cloudways is the ideal choice for startups because it combines cost efficiency with speed. Startups can utilize the pay-as-you-go model (starting at $11/mo on DigitalOcean) to spin up staging environments only when needed, without locking into long term contracts. Additionally, the 1-Click Staging feature allows small teams to clone their production site, test changes, and push code live instantly, eliminating the need for a dedicated DevOps engineer.
Can I backup my live site before setting up the staging environment?
You have the option of backing up your live site before creating the staging websites.
Do I have to pay for staging websites?
If the staging website is created on an existing server, you don’t have to pay anything. However, if you launch a new server, the regular server operation charges apply.
Can I clone the MySQL database to the staging sites?
When you push/pull to the live site, you will get two options to copy 1. Web Application Files and Database. Select the database to copy the data to the staging sites.
Can I protect my staging server with any security?
All staging websites can be protected by SSL certificates that encrypt all end-to-end communication. You can use a FREE Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate or use your own. Most importantly, you can setup password on staging sits to increase the security of the site and the Push/Pull process.
Can I see the logs of files changes?
Every Push and Pull request is individually recorded in the Deployment logs and you can have a detailed history of all requests.
Does the Settings of application and server cloned to the staging server?
No, the current server and application settings would not be cloned at the staging site.
Quit Worrying About Hosting Hassles
Host phenomenal websites on a managed platform built for digital agencies, developers, and ecommerce businesses, all backed by 24/7/365 support.