How to manage staging sites in Kiravo

A staging site is a separate, private copy of a website where you can build, redesign, or update without touching the live version visitors see. On Kiravo, every staging site is a full, working WordPress install with its own URL, its own database, and its own SSL certificate — you treat it exactly like a real site, but nobody but you (and anyone you share the URL with) sees it. When the work is done, you push the staging site live, replacing the production version with one click.

This guide covers the whole lifecycle: what staging sites are, where they live, how to create one, how to work on it, how to push to live, and how to clean up afterwards.

Where staging sites live

Every staging site is created as a subdomain of mystagingsite.dev — a domain Kiravo owns and serves. So if you pick the prefix myproject, the resulting staging URL is myproject.mystagingsite.dev. The wizard appends the .mystagingsite.dev suffix automatically; you only choose the prefix.

This means:

• No DNS work needed. The staging URL works the moment the site is created — mystagingsite.dev is already pointed at the platform.
• No domain costs. You don’t buy a separate domain just for staging.
• Search-engine safe by default. Every staging site ships with a robots.txt that disallows all crawlers, and the WordPress install has Settings → Reading → Discourage search engines from indexing this site checked. Between the two, staging URLs stay out of Google’s index without you having to remember.

A free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate is issued for every staging site automatically, so you get HTTPS without setting anything up.

Caution

When you push to live, the WordPress “Discourage search engines” setting comes with it. If you push a cloned staging site to a new live domain, double-check Settings → Reading on the live site and untick Discourage search engines from indexing this site. Otherwise the live site stays invisible to Google. (The robots.txt rule is tied to the staging subdomain, not the install, so it doesn’t follow the push.)

Create a staging site

Staging sites use the same Add website wizard as production sites. The difference is one radio button at the top of the form.

1. Click Add website (from the Home dashboard’s “Let’s get started” banner, or from the Websites area).
2. At the top of the form, switch from Production website to Staging website.
3. Pick how to start the staging site — see the three modes below.
4. Enter the staging prefix in the Domain field. The staging suffix is appended automatically.
5. Click Add.

Mode 1: Start from scratch

A blank staging site you’ll build up by uploading files or installing WordPress later. Choose this for a fully custom build with no starting template.

Mode 2: Install an app

WordPress is installed automatically as part of creating the staging site, so the moment the wizard finishes, you can log in and start designing.

Fill in the admin account fields (username, email, password) — same as for a production install. See Add a website → Install an app for the full field-by-field breakdown.

This mode is the right choice when you’re building a brand-new site that will eventually go live on a fresh domain (typically for a client).

Mode 3: Clone an existing website

Makes an exact copy of one of your existing live websites into the staging environment — files, databases, mailboxes, and configuration included. The clone gets a fresh staging URL.

Use this when you’re updating or redesigning a live site and want to test the changes against a real copy of the data before touching production.

Steps to clone:

1. In the wizard, pick Staging website as the type and Clone a website as the start mode.
2. Choose the live website you want to clone from.
3. Enter the staging prefix.
4. Keep the Perform a WordPress search and replace option ticked. This updates every URL inside the cloned WordPress database from the live domain to the staging domain, so the cloned site actually works on its new URL.
5. Click Add.

The clone process can take a few minutes for large sites. When it finishes, the staging site is fully functional and reachable at the new staging URL.

Work on the staging site

Once the staging site exists, it behaves exactly like any other website on your account:

• Open it from the Websites list.
• Manage files, databases, emails, and so on through the same tabs as a production site.
• Log into WordPress via the WordPress Toolkit one-click Admin button — no separate password to remember.
• Share the staging URL with collaborators or clients for feedback. The URL works from anywhere; the site is just not search-engine-indexed.

Make all the changes you’d normally make on production: updates, plugin trials, redesign work, content edits. Nothing you do here affects the live site.

Push the staging site live

When the work is done, push the staging site into the production world with the Push live button on the staging site’s dashboard.

Two destinations are available:

Push to a new website

Use this when the staging site is meant to become a brand-new live site on its own domain — typically a project you’ve been building for a client.

1. Open the staging site’s dashboard.
2. Click Push live.
3. Choose Push live to a new website.
4. In the dialog:
   • Pick the hosting package the new live site should consume from (a new website slot on your plan).
   • Enter the live domain (e.g. clientname.com).
   • Keep Perform a WordPress search and replace ticked so every URL inside the WordPress database is rewritten from the staging URL to the new live domain.
5. Click Push live.

A new production website is created on the live domain. The staging site stays as it was — you can keep it for further iteration, or delete it (see below).

After the new live site is created, you may need to update DNS so visitors reach it — see Point your domain to Kiravo.

Push to an existing website

Use this when the staging site is a redesign or update of a live site that already exists. The staging contents overwrite the live site.

1. Open the staging site’s dashboard.
2. Click Push live.
3. Choose Push live to an existing website.
4. In the dialog:
   • Pick the destination live website from your list.
   • Configure deployment options: exclude specific files, sync PHP versions, perform a search-and-replace on URLs. The defaults are usually right.
5. Click Push live.

Caution

The destination live site is overwritten. Anything that happened on the live site after the staging site was cloned (new content, new comments, new WooCommerce orders) is lost when you push. Before pushing, take a manual backup of the live site, and double-check that the staging copy includes everything you want.

Delete a staging site

Once you’ve pushed the work live and confirmed everything’s working, the staging site has done its job. Keeping it around costs disk space and a slot on your plan.

Delete it like any other website — see Delete a website. The staging URL stops working immediately; the live site is unaffected.

If you might iterate further, disable the staging site instead of deleting it. Disabled sites keep all their data and a slot on your plan, but stop serving traffic.