After running into some issues with Infinite WP I decided to give MainWP a go.
I got the Lifetime deal and wanted to set up a staging site for one domain.
I only had the free version of WP Staging so I also purchased a single user license of WP Staging on the suggestions that it would offer more advanced staging capabilities from within Main WP - which I later found that it does not.
From within the WP Staging Pro plugin, you can set a destination for the staging site and subdomain.
With IWP I could set a destination to stage to a subfolder and subdomain from the main control panel, however, MainWP seems to push to a randomly generated subfolder with no option for a subdomain.
Is there are a reason for that approach and not a specific folder/subdomain which looks cleaner?
I can see one advantage is that having the ability to create multiple staging sites without the need for a subdomain does allow for fast separation in debugging and design/development etc. if needed. However, it would be nice to have a subdomain to show to others if needed.
Also, can somebody please clarify the process of pushing from staging to live from MainWP?
I need some convincing, I’ve made the right choice.
At the moment, MainWP Staging Extension works with the free and premium version of the WP Staging plugin, however, only featured from the free version are supported.
Features that are available only in the premium version of the WP Staging plugin can be used only from the WP Staging plugin directly.
Regarding the process of pushing changes from the Staging to Live site, since this feature is available only in the premium version of the WP Staging plugin, the process can’t be triggered directly through the MainWP Dashboard; If changes are minor, you can simply repeat steps taken on the staging site once you are sure everything is set correctly, if changes are more complex you can simply jump from your MainWP Dashboard to the site with one-click-access feature and trigger the staging > live process from the WP Staging plugin.
Okay it is a little disappointing that the WP Staging Pro features are not accessible from MainWP - since MainWP is already integrated with WP Staging Basic and adding these features should be possible. Would you consider this as a feature in the near future?
I’m not looking to repeat any steps. I need a functioning staging tool/process that is reliable.
Whilst MainWP can create a staging environment or clone, it cannot manage a staging process that requires changes to be committed to the live/production site, and so I think it is misleading to use the term staging extension in a management tool when it only clones in one direction.
It would be nice to have more control over the staging process as this is really critical for managing development effectively and ensuring site stability during upgrades etc.
I purchased a management tool to avoid jumping in and out of site admin.
Yes, we will definitely look into extending the extension functionality to support the Premium features as well, but at this point, I don’t have any time frame.