How to Set Up a WordPress Staging Site on DigitalOcean

Want to Set Up a Staging WordPress Site on DigitalOcean (Complete Guide)

A staging site is a clone of your live WordPress site that you can use to safely test changes, updates, new plugins, or themes — without affecting your live site.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of setting up a WordPress staging environment on DigitalOcean, ideal for site owners, developers, and DIYers who want more control over their hosting.

---

🚀 Why Use a Staging Site?

• Test plugin/theme updates before applying them live
• Try design and content changes safely
• Debug errors without affecting live users
• Build new features without downtime

---

📋 Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need:

• A live WordPress website
• A DigitalOcean account
• Basic knowledge of SSH and server management (or use a control panel like RunCloud/ServerPilot/CyberPanel)

---

Option 1: Manual Setup on a New Droplet (Advanced Users)

Step 1: Create a New Droplet

1. Log into DigitalOcean
2. Click Create → Droplet
3. Choose Ubuntu LTS (e.g., 22.04)
4. Choose your plan (Basic 1GB RAM is fine for staging)
5. Select a datacenter near you
6. Set authentication (SSH key recommended)
7. Click Create Droplet

---

Step 2: Set Up the Server Stack (LEMP/LAMP)

You can install WordPress manually or use tools like:

• EasyEngine (for Nginx + Redis)
• WordOps (optimized LEMP stack)
• ServerPilot (commercial)
• Or manually install Apache/Nginx + PHP + MySQL

For example, to install LAMP manually:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install apache2 mysql-server php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql unzip curl

---

Step 3: Create a Database for Staging

sudo mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE staging_db;
CREATE USER 'staging_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'yourpassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON staging_db.* TO 'staging_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

---

Step 4: Clone Your Live Site

1. Export your live site database using phpMyAdmin or WP Migrate DB
2. Copy your WordPress files from the live site using:

• scp command (for SSH)
• Or a backup plugin (like UpdraftPlus, Duplicator)

1. Upload your files to /var/www/staging-site
2. Update wp-config.php with new DB details
3. Import database to staging server

mysql -u staging_user -p staging_db < your_live_site.sql

---

Step 5: Update Domain for Staging

Use a subdomain, e.g. staging.yoursite.com

• Add a new A record in your DNS pointing staging to the new droplet IP
• Update Apache/Nginx virtual host for staging.yoursite.com
• Restart server:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

---

Step 6: Block Search Engines and Add Basic Auth

In robots.txt:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Add HTTP Basic Auth:

sudo apt install apache2-utils
htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/.htpasswd yourusername

Then add this to your Apache conf:

<Directory "/var/www/staging-site">
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Restricted"
    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
    Require valid-user
</Directory>

---

Option 2: Use a Droplet Snapshot (Quick & Clean)

1. Take a snapshot of your live WordPress Droplet
2. Create a new Droplet from that snapshot
3. Change the site URL in the database:

• Use WP-CLI:

wp search-replace 'https://yoursite.com' 'https://staging.yoursite.com' --skip-columns=guid

4. Update DNS to point staging.yoursite.com to new droplet IP
5. Lock it down with robots.txt and basic auth

---

Bonus: Use Tools Like RunCloud or SpinupWP

If you want to avoid managing the stack yourself:

• Use RunCloud, ServerPilot, or SpinupWP
• Connect your DigitalOcean server
• Create a staging WordPress site from the panel with one click

---

Maintenance Tips

• Always update your staging site when you update live
• Test every update on staging before pushing live
• Periodically clear cache and backups to save space

---

Summary

Setting up a staging site on DigitalOcean gives you full control, but also requires some tech know-how. You can either do it manually, from a snapshot, or using control panels like RunCloud. The extra effort is worth it for the peace of mind and professionalism it adds to your workflow.