WP Toolkit lets you clone a WordPress site, create a staging environment, and take backups — all without external plugins or manual database exports.

Clone a site

Cloning creates an identical copy of a WordPress installation at a new location. Use it to duplicate a site for a new project, or to move a site to a different domain or directory.

1. In WP Toolkit, find the site you want to clone.
2. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Clone.
3. Set the destination: select the target domain and folder.
4. Click Clone.

WP Toolkit copies all files and duplicates the database. The clone is a fully independent installation — changes to one do not affect the other.

Create a staging site

A staging site is a non-public copy of your live site where you can safely test changes — plugin updates, theme modifications, or new features — before applying them to production.

1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Create Staging.
2. WP Toolkit creates the staging site on a subdomain (e.g., staging.yourdomain.com) and links it to your live site.
3. Make your changes on the staging site.
4. When ready, click Push to Production from the staging site card.
5. Choose what to push: files, database, or both.
6. Confirm — changes are applied to the live site.

Take a backup

1. Click the three-dot menu (⋮) → Back Up.
2. Select what to back up: files only, database only, or both (recommended).
3. Click Back Up.
4. The backup is stored on your server. Download it from the Backups section in WP Toolkit if you want an offline copy.

Restore from a backup

1. In WP Toolkit, click Manage on the site you want to restore.
2. Go to the Backups tab.
3. Select the backup from the list.
4. Click Restore. This overwrites the current site — ensure you want to roll back before confirming.

Tip: back up before every major change

Create a backup immediately before updating plugins, switching themes, or making structural changes. WP Toolkit makes this a one-click operation, so there is no reason to skip it.

Maintenance mode

WP Toolkit lets you put a site into maintenance mode — displaying a holding page to visitors while you make changes behind the scenes.

1. In WP Toolkit, click Manage on a site card.
2. Look for the Maintenance Mode toggle.
3. Enable it — visitors see a customizable maintenance message instead of the live site.
4. Disable maintenance mode when you are done to restore public access.

Use maintenance mode when applying major plugin or theme changes, running a database migration, or pushing from staging to production.