Let’s be honest, new and shiny features get most of the attention around here. It makes sense: New stuff is exciting! But WordPress.com has plenty of baked-in features that are worth talking about too. 

Losing your work is one of the most frustrating things you can experience as a website owner. When you choose WordPress.com, you never have to worry about that again. Today, let’s chat about backups, which are powered by Jetpack (Automattic’s own suite of security, performance, and growth tools). 

Real-time backups and one-click restores

Our backups happen in real-time, making restoring your site to a previous state as easy as finding a cute dog on the internet. 

Let’s look closer at how this feature can benefit you and your site(s).  

No expertise required 

Manually backing up a website is a time-consuming and resource-intensive task, not to mention a bit daunting on a technical level. 

We’ve removed all that hassle by doing the work for you behind the scenes. 

Even better, we house redundant copies of your backups on multiple servers around the world, so your data is always secure and accessible. 

Version control, but for your website

With the Activity Log, you can quickly see every site change at a glance, letting you know exactly what action (and which user!) broke the site. 

Our one-click restores allow you to quickly recover a site from any point in time: Simply find when the problem occurred, click “Restore,” verify that you want to revert your site to a previous state, and in as little a few minutes’ time, you’ll be back up and running.  

Never miss a sales order 

If you’re running an online store, you know that orders can come in at any time. It goes without saying that you need a backup system to keep your order and customer data safe. There are times when daily or even hourly backups simply don’t cut it.

If you’re running WooCommerce on your site, you can reinstate your store to any previous iteration, while keeping all orders and products current. 

Losing your work is a thing of the past 

Our automated backups save everything for you: posts, files, databases, themes, plugins . . . all of it. Should your site crash for any reason — an incompatible plugin or theme, for instance — rest assured that it can be easily restored in just minutes. 

Whether you’re running a business or spending hours perfecting your site as a hobbyist, our state-of-the-art technology provides the peace of mind that you’ll never miss a sale or lose content again.  

Real-time backups and one-click restores are available on Business and Commerce sites.

Our free webinars are live, interactive, and designed to be accessible and informative for everyone, regardless of your experience level with WordPress. Each session also concludes with a live Q&A with our experts. This month we’ll be hosting three insightful webinar topics, providing you with the tools and knowledge to enhance your WordPress.com skills and improve your website.

This is the final month that we’ll be offering our popular Compelling Homepages webinar, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn about creating an attention-grabbing homepage.

Site Editor vs. Page Editor — Editing Your Entire Site in WordPress

Discover the power of the WordPress.com Site Editor, allowing you to edit every aspect of your site — from header to footer — with no coding whatsoever.

• Tues May 9 at 9:00pm CEST | 3:00pm EDT | 12:00pm PDT
• Wed May 10 at 7:00pm AEST | 2:30pm IST | 11:00am CEST
• Thurs May 11 at 9:30pm IST | 6:00pm CEST | 12:00pm EDT | 9:00am PDT

Compelling Homepages — Create a Custom Layout With the WordPress Block Editor

This is your last chance to join our live Compelling Homepages webinar! Your homepage is a critical component of your website, setting the tone for your visitors and directing them to key areas. Our experts will guide you through using the WordPress block editor to create a visually appealing and effective homepage layout without any coding.

• Tues May 16 at 9:00pm CEST | 3:00pm EDT | 12:00pm PDT
• Wed May 17 at 7:00pm AEST | 2:30pm IST | 11:00am CEST
• Thurs May 18 at 9:30pm IST | 6:00pm CEST | 12:00pm EDT | 9:00am PDT

Site Editing — Custom Headers

Your site header is the first thing visitors see and is crucial for establishing your brand while also providing seamless navigation. With our Site Editor tools, customizing your header is now easier than ever. Our experts will show you how to create a unique and professional-looking header that perfectly represents your brand.

• Tues May 23 at 9:00pm CEST | 3:00pm EDT | 12:00pm PDT
• Wed May 24 at 7:00pm AEST | 2:30pm IST | 11:00am CEST
• Thurs May 25 at 9:30pm IST | 6:00pm CEST | 12:00pm EDT | 9:00am PDT

Your go-to resource for all things WordPress.com

We’re passionate about providing all the resources you need to successfully create the website that suits your needs and leads you to your goals. Explore more of our free offerings, including courses, checklists, and recordings of past webinars, at WordPress.com/learn.

Join WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy in the 55th episode of the WordPress Briefing as she looks back at the 20 years of WordPress and how the open source community made WordPress what it is today.

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Editor: Dustin Hartzler
Logo: Javier Arce
Production: Brett McSherry
Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

• The benefits of prioritizing and measuring performance in WordPress 6.2
• WordPress 6.3 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers
• Preparing for the Next Women & Nonbinary Release Squad
• WordCamp Europe:
  • Call for volunteers
  • Table Leads Needed for WCEU 2023 Contributor Day
• Defining the Polyglots contributor ladder
  

Transcript

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:00] 

Hello everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress Open Source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a smallest of big things coming up in the next two weeks.

I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:40] 

In case you hadn’t heard yet. WordPress is celebrating its 20th anniversary on May 27th. 

There are a lot of celebrations and parties happening all across the world, hopefully with cake, because we all know that a party without cake is just a meeting and no one wants a year-long meeting about how old you are.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:00:59] 

But if you’ve not yet joined the celebrations, there’s still time to share your favorite WordPress merch, your favorite WordCamp memory, host a whole dang party if you want to, or share a video to post on wp20.wordpress.net. I’ve got links to everything you need in the show notes. So if you haven’t done it yet, you can do that while you listen to today’s episode.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:14] 

I’ve got links to everything you need in the show notes. So if you haven’t done it yet, you can do that while you listen to today’s episode.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:22] 

Today, WordPress is the leading CMS in the market. And according to W3Tech’s it powers 43% of the web. And that’s like 35% of the top 10,000 sites that are built using this software. And sometimes, that’s as a website, sometimes as a framework, but always as a way for people and businesses to find a space on the web to call their own. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:01:45] 

In 2021. The first-ever study on the WordPress ecosystem gave us an idea of just how large our ecosystem is. We already kind of had a sense that millions of people make a living through WordPress because we know that we are supporting small business owners and freelancers all the way out to agencies and content creators. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:06] 

But according to that study, WordPress at the time was powering 82 million websites and enabled an estimated economy of $597 billion. The success of an economy like this and various other alternative economies hinges on the success of invisible open source software that powers the web, just like WordPress, that has a tonne of growth and a lot of wins since that first Cafe Log fork way back in 2003. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:02:37] 

And WordPress could just say pencils down, everybody. Good job, team, and just kind of watch what comes next. But I’ve never met a word processor, emboldened as we are by our belief in open source freedoms, who stepped away from a challenge worth facing the recognition that everyone should have those freedoms whether they know they exist or not. Because I know that no one cares as much about open source freedoms as open source maintainers. But the recognition that everyone has the right to them anyway is built into the foundations of what WordPress is and who WordPress is. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:13]

There are big plans for WordPress future, many of which are grounded in the promise of a new block editor within WordPress that aims to lower the barriers to entry for people at any point in their learning curve. So let’s take a look at what this means for WordPress, the software, and follow up about what it means for the WordPress community. 

 [Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:31]

Firstly, the software right at the end of 2018, the Gutenberg editor was merged into WordPress Core. And it’s subverted the way that people had always managed their content. It brought with it this new concept of site building that focused on blocks as the primary mode of creation. It was modular and required very little code knowledge. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:53]

Arguably also very little skill with design. Although if you’ve ever seen me tried to design something with blocks, you will know it takes some skill. But still, the ultimate goal was to make those fundamental user interactions of managing the block and apply them in any place you could manage your site using WordPress. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:03:53]

And if you think about the possibility to create media-rich content without having to work with shortcode, without having to know HTML workarounds, it opens the opportunity for many of us in the WordPress community to own our digital presence. In case it wasn’t already clear, this, my friends, is an audacious project, and it’s even more so if you remember that we have this existing and massive ecosystem that is enabled and empowered by our software. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:04:42]

And as we look forward to the third phase of the Gutenberg Project, collaborative editing inside a WordPress installation will soon be a reality, which if you are like me and you never work on a website alone, you’re probably just dying to have. I say all this not to toot the horn have WordPress or belabor our success but rather to emphasize the importance of what I’m going to say next, which is how this CMS got to where it is, namely through the work of the community. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:12]

WordPress has survived, and I would dare to say thrived through decades of constant economic, cultural, and technological shifts. And I believe that the thing that keeps us innovating fast enough to stay relevant but slow enough to be ethical, is how the community actively engages with the open source project. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:05:32]

We know that our strength is directly tied to the resilience of our contributors. And we know that the software we ship is shaped by the people who are willing to tell us what they love, what they hate, and what they hope to see. When the WordPress project started, we mainly had code contributions as a way to give back, but over time, the project has grown to include contributions to learning, community building, and translations, among other things, but all of that exists alongside the CMS-focused contributions. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:03]

Because WordPress as an organization understands that it is an integral part of an ecosystem of 1000s of global companies and millions of individual people who are building careers, starting businesses, learning new skills, and becoming part of something meaningful. I know that I talk just all the time about the greatness of WordPress as a software and community, which makes sense. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:29]

I really do love the work I do with you all. But I am equally in awe of this open-hearted journey of disruption that WordPress represents as an open source project. WordPress and its community is part of a long line of disruptors; blogs made publishing available to everyone, which maybe doesn’t sound like a big deal right now because you’ve been around blogging forever. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:06:51]

You’ve been able to just put your thoughts on the internet with almost no effort for as long as you have known the internet existed, but WordPress, at the time, was and honestly remains the low code open source CMS of choice. It has been for years. And so, let me backtrack you through the 10,000-foot milestones of our journey here. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:14]

Gutenberg has been around since 2013. It’s 10 years. I know, don’t get scared, we’re celebrating 20 years. So it’s been around for half of our time as a concept. Open source as a concept was formalized in the 1980s. Though it definitely has been around longer than that as a concept and a way of working. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:34]

And this low-code, no-code movement that we hear about from time to time that has been around since the 1970s, and just because we first became aware of it in the 1970s doesn’t mean that that’s when it actually first was discussed or thought about or used. Which means that you are in this moment, decades deep into projects that changed our entire understanding of the web. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:07:59]

So grab a slice of cake, and raise a glass to 20 great years of WordPress, and I am going to raise a glass to 20 more years of continuing our journey together.

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:17]

Which brings us effervescently to the small list of big things. Yeah, I said effervescently. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:24]

So there are a lot of things happening in the WordPress project over the next couple of weeks. There is a lot of testing going on. There are a lot of releases that are getting underway. There are events and things. So here’s my rundown of stuff you should take a look at. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:38]

So firstly, there is a post out about performance improvements from 6.2. That is just inviting an open discussion so that we can get more of those improvements in better shape to get into the 6.3 release. And speaking of the 6.3 release that is coming, just last week, we announced the release squad that we have. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:08:58]

It is an extra heavy release squad because we also are working toward the 6.4 release just at the same time. So there’s the folks who are running the 6.3 release, and they have committed to working openly and in public channels as much as possible so that the 6.4 folks have a chance to really take a look at what goes into a release, the questions that we ask, the philosophies we believe in, and then that 6.4 release oil pick up probably, my guess is August-ish, mid-August or so. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:32]

That 6.4 release is specifically going to be made up entirely of diverse genders. People that we historically see are underrepresented in technology, but as always, we accept contributions from everyone for all releases. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:48]

The third thing is that we have WordCamp Europe coming up, that is June 8 and 10th. So a little bit past the two-week mark. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:09:54]

However, there is a final call for volunteers for anyone who wants to be able to help at the event. I personally have always enjoyed doing that kind of volunteer work. It helps you get to know your community even a bit better. And I don’t know; I’m just kind of an extroverted people person. So, of course, I always want to volunteer, but that call is still open. And they’re in the last phases of that. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:17]

There is also a team or two that needs some help with getting leads for the contributor day that happens leading up to WordCamp. Europe, I know that the testing team needs a lead for the table, and so if you enjoy the process of triaging or testing or helping people get their environment set up, that is a great opportunity. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:37]

And the final thing on my small, my big small list of big things is that we have a kind of a review of the currently defined contributor ladder for the Polyglots team. There are a number of posts over the years where we talk about the ways that people move through being a contributor. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:10:57]

One of the things that we know about almost all contributor ladders is that there’s no time requirement between the steps, but in general, it functions like a ladder. So you do have to have, like, rung one. And then, rung two, if you try to skip from rung one to rung three, you will have a lot of difficulty. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:17]

Not impossible, but it’s harder than going 1, 2, 3 In the normal sequential order. And so that’s a whole discussion that’s happening over there. There’s a link to all of these things in the show notes. 

[Josepha Haden Chomphosy 00:11:28]

And that, my friends, is your small list of big things. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy,  and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks.

Each year, members of the WordPress community (users, site builders, extenders, and contributors) provide valuable feedback through an annual survey. For 2022, the survey received a comprehensive update, the first in six years. The total number of questions was reduced to 29 from nearly 100, socio-economic questions were mostly removed, and the Likert scale was introduced. These updates were intended to increase the completion rate of the survey, enable a more efficient and structured analysis of these data, and position the survey to best gauge the topics that matter most to the WordPress community.

My goal is that the input received via the survey helps inform initiatives and focus areas for WordPress in the near term, along with other signals, such as conversations in the community, the Making WordPress blogs, and events. Such data play a key role in shaping the direction and strategy of the project and measuring progress in focus areas.

2022 Highlights

The 2022 edition of the survey experienced a 26% increase in completion rate, however, submissions decreased by 56% to roughly 3400, including about 800 contributors. For the 2023 survey, promotion will be increased, hopefully counteracting the declining submissions.

Here are some key takeaways:

• The survey shows an increased usage of blocks and the new site editor (versus the classic editor), which shouldn’t come as a surprise since the default theme is now a block theme. 
• 22% of respondents have only used WordPress for a year or less. Those responding to the survey are also getting a bit older, with fewer responses from those under 40 than in prior years.
• 1 in 5 respondents learned about WordPress from a coworker, and about the same percentage from using a search engine. 
• In 2022, WordPressers continued to learn about WordPress (68%), taught others about WP (48%), and built sites for others (55%).
• WordPressers choose the CMS platform because it’s open source (62%), flexible (47%), low risk (45%), cost-effective (45%), and has a positive reputation (41%).
• 57% of survey participants obtained news and training directly from WordPress.org. While that is the primary source, other sites remain very important: search engines (46%), YouTube (40%), other WordPress communities (35%), and social media (30%)
• The overwhelming majority of respondents don’t regularly use other CMS platforms, and 21% of respondents use none of the top 20 WordPress plugins. 
• Respondents continue to state that “WordPress is as good as or better than other CMS platforms,” with 68% agreeing. Elements that respondents feel are the best aspects of WordPress include “ease of use,” “flexibility,” and/or “plugin options,” all about 30% each. When asked about the most frustrating elements of WordPress, 1 in 5 said, “nothing,” while approximately 30% referenced difficulties with site editing / Gutenberg.
• The overall contributor experience remains positive and something I continue to care about deeply. 64% shared they had a positive experience, and 24% viewed their experience as “neutral.” Contributors also feel welcome at the same percentages (64% agree and 24% are neutral).

What’s Planned for 2023

In the next iteration of the survey, the plan is to improve the language options for completing the survey and continue investing in refining the questions and how they are asked. It is important to be mindful that completing a survey takes time, so we want to make sure community members are being asked questions that help WordPress the most. 

The tentative plan is to launch the 2023 edition in August. This will set up an opportunity for the 2023 results and, most importantly, your input to inform planning for 2024’s key initiatives and focus areas. The community’s feedback is vitally important to the success and direction of the project. Moving the survey to earlier in the year can positively affect planning and dialogue.

View the 2022 Slide Deck

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Big thank you to @dansoschin for the analysis and editorial support. Thanks also to @angelasjin, and @cbringmann for their reviews and final edits.

With preparations for the next major releases already underway, the community is gearing up to celebrate WordPress’ 20th anniversary, which is just around the corner. This month has also seen some major highlights, such as WordPress 6.2’s performance wins and the launch of WP Translation Playground. Read on to find out what’s new.

Forthcoming WordPress releases

Following the successful release of WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy,” which has garnered over 31 million downloads (and counting), contributors across all teams are already planning future major releases, including versions 6.3 and 6.4.

While WordPress 6.3 will focus on refinements to the site editing experience, 6.4 will reprise the underrepresented gender release initiative introduced in WordPress 5.6 “Simone.” If you’re interested in contributing, now is the perfect time to get involved.

Check out the WordPress 6.3 proposed schedule and call for volunteers.

WP20 is just around the corner

Mark your calendars for May 27 and join the community for a day filled with exciting parties and activities!

With a refreshed look, the WP20 website offers a list of events to join, swag to show your WordPress pride, and downloadable “selfie props” to add fun to your celebrations.

The Marketing Team has also launched #WP20 From Blogs to Blocks, a community-focused initiative that encourages you to take a small daily WordPress-focused action for 20 days leading up to the anniversary date.

On the other hand, details are being finalized for the 20th anniversary commemorative book, Building Blocks: The Evolution of WordPress 2013-2023. This volume will span the history and most meaningful moments of the last decade of WordPress.

What’s your favorite WordPress swag? Do you have a special memory from a WordCamp or meetup? Share them with the community and join the #WP20 fun on social media.

WordPress 6.2 performance

WordPress 6.2 reiterates the platform’s commitment to optimizing website performance with significant improvements. Load times are 14 to 18% faster for block themes and 2 to 5% for classic themes. Server-side performance is also seeing a big boost, with an increase of 17 to 23% for block themes and 3 to 5% for classic themes.

Learn more about the performance wins in 6.2, including a retrospective from the Performance Core Team on the efforts that made it happen.

New in the Gutenberg plugin

Two new versions of the Gutenberg plugin have shipped in the last month:

• Gutenberg 15.5 shipped on April 5, 2023, with many user-facing features to improve the creation experience. Enhancements include caption style customization, theme-defined template patterns when adding a new template, and experimental support for grid layouts in the Group block.
• Gutenberg 15.6 is available for download as of April 19, 2023. This version introduces an experimental Details block to expand and toggle the visibility of hidden content, and more presets for core block spacing and border controls, among other highlights.

Follow the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts to stay on top of the latest enhancements.

Team updates: WP Translation Playground, WordPress.org redesign next steps, and more

• The Polyglots Team launched WP Translation Playground, an innovative tool that combines Local GlotPress with WordPress Playground to translate plugins and themes in context—without having to set up anything.
• Wondering what’s next in the WordPress.org redesign project? Learn about the latest updates and how to get involved.
• This Community Team post discusses ways to make WordCamp Contributor Days more effective.
• Explore what’s new on Learn WordPress in April 2023, including the latest content on the platform and the projects the Training Team has been working on.
• WordPress Playground was used in a hackathon to prototype different ways to build plugins with minimal setup, right in the browser. See it in action in these tech demos.
• Members of the Marketing Team suggested improvements to submission guidelines to revitalize the WordPress.org Showcase.
• Most of the work to refocus the WordPress mobile app on core features is complete. Find out how to help shape its future with contributions opportunities for developers, writers, translators, and more.
• Keep up with the latest enhancements and development updates you need to build on top of WordPress in last month’s edition of What’s new for developers?
• The latest issue of the Meetup Organizer Newsletter shares tips and inspiring ideas to help you plan successful community events.
• Find out how WordPress and its global community of contributors positively impacted Monika Rao’s web career in April’s edition of People of WordPress.

Join Josepha Haden Chomphosy in Episode 54 of WP Briefing as she explores the concept of the four freedoms of open source and their likeness to today’s Bill of Rights for the open web.

Feedback & testing requests

• The latest Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program testing opportunity invites feedback on the features included in WordPress 6.2 and those remaining in Gutenberg Phase 2. Share your thoughts by May 8, 2023.
• This update on the WP Feature Notifications project explains the progress towards a modern WordPress user notification system and how you can get involved.
• Help test the latest version of the Preferred Languages feature plugin.
• Version 22.2 of the WordPress mobile app for iOS and Android is ready for testing.

This discussion post welcomes ideas and questions about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be integrated into the WordPress experience.

WordPress events updates

• WordCamp Europe 2023 is fast approaching! The organizing team introduced the first confirmed speakers.
• WordCamp US 2023 announced updates on the programming for the upcoming event, for which tickets are now on sale. Organizers are also calling for sponsors.
• The 2023 Community Summit will provide a valuable opportunity for in-person discussions across contributor teams. Submit your topics if you haven’t yet.
• Don’t miss these upcoming WordCamps:
  • WordCamp Barcelona, Spain on May 5-6, 2023
  • WordCamp Buffalo, NY, USA on May 6, 2023
  • WordCamp Gliwice, Poland on May 12-14, 2023
  • WordCamp Sylhet, Bangladesh on May 19-20, 2023
  • WordCamp Lisboa, Portugal on May 19-20, 2023
  • WordCamp Apatin, Serbia on May 27-28, 2023

Join #WPDiversity with a free online workshop on Organizing Diverse & Inclusive WordPress Events APAC on May 13, 2023.

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Have a story we should include in the next issue of The Month in WordPress? Fill out this quick form to let us know.

The following folks contributed to this Month in WordPress: @sereedmedia, @ninianepress, @rmartinezduque.

In jazz, each instrument and rhythm needs to be in sync — but that doesn’t happen without a lot of practice and experimentation behind the scenes. Even the most talented improvisers wouldn’t roll out a brand new number without having rehearsed it beforehand. 

Sound familiar? 

Your website isn’t all that different from a jazz band — various elements (content, images, plugins, and forms) that all have to work together to create a cohesive experience. But when you’re always making edits to a live, working site, you risk the site-design version of flubbing a solo or even dropping your drumsticks: a mistake that might create a poor user experience, or even break the site altogether.

That’s where staging sites, our newest hosting feature, comes in handy. 

Staging sites are here! 

We’re excited to announce that staging sites are now available for all customers on our Business and Commerce plans. This powerful feature allows you to test changes and updates of all your site elements in a safe and stable environment.

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Staging Site: A test version of your website you can use to preview and troubleshoot changes before applying them to your production site.

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Though generally geared towards developers, staging sites aren’t just for the tech-savvy. Bloggers, shop owners, podcasters — anyone with a website can benefit from iterating on design, experimenting with new plugins, and even trying out custom code before publicly unveiling the updates. 

The benefits of using staging sites

Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress.com staging sites:

• Risk-free testing: Experiment without worry. By simulating changes on a staging site first, you can identify and fix any issues that could affect your website’s performance or speed.
• Faster development: Staging sites make it easier to develop and launch new features, plugins, and designs in even less time.
• Increased collaboration: A staging site allows multiple stakeholders to review and agree on changes in a safe place before going live.

How to get started with staging sites on WordPress.com

Want to give it a shot? You can have your own staging site up and running in three simple steps: 

1. Starting in your dashboard, go to Settings → Hosting Configuration.
2. Scroll down to the “Staging site” module.
3. Click “Add staging site.”
   

Congrats! You now have a working staging environment to play around with site design, plugins, code, etc.

If you’ve already created a staging site, you’ll see this instead:

After your staging site is created, you can access and manage it from the module seen above on the Hosting Configuration page, or you can find it on the Sites page. 

Learn more about staging sites and try one out today!

Build Your Next Site on WordPress.com

Staging sites are just one more reason WordPress.com is the best managed WordPress hosting on the planet. Whether it’s SSH access, centralized site management, or enhanced site preview, we’re constantly adding new tools to make WordPress.com an indispensable part of your workflow. Follow our Developer Blog to keep up with all the latest announcements!

What other features would you like to see? How can we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Feel free to leave a comment or contact our friendly support.