It’s 2023, and our developers are still struggling to keep the live site up and running without any performance drop. The root of the entire trauma here is increased security concerns and cut-throat competition. Developers need to ensure the live site is bug-free and fully optimized.
Gladly, sandboxing is there. By allowing developers to create a staging site and test all the live website components without any disturbance, WordPress sandboxing brings great relief to developers and the WordPress community.
The only problem is, sandboxing itself is a great challenge because of its complex nature and tedious process. In today’s post, we’re going to discuss an inventive sandbox plugin that WordPress developers can try in the years 2023 and beyond to simplify sandboxing in every dimension.
Learn everything about WordPress Sandbox and how to configure it in seconds.
What Makes Sandboxing So Tedious?
WordPress sandboxing is nowhere close to easy if done via the traditional method. This is a process wherein a live site is replicated in a staging environment and kept in a fully isolated ecosystem so that extensive testing of website components can be done without the fear of losing the functionality of the main website.
While the process brings a wide range of benefits, like improved main site performance, fewer security concerns, and regular maintenance, sandboxing is not child’s play. It’s an effort-demanding task with multiple challenges.
For one, the process is too complex. Developers have to understand the operating system, isolation techniques, inter-process communication, and various other things to perform sandboxing manually successfully.
Even if developers manage to learn every single skill required for sandboxing, it’s a highly time-consuming process. Developers have to hop from the live site to the staging site multiple times to check if everything is going on correctly.
If your live site has some legacy components, there is no end to your misery because these components may not be sandboxing compatible and can give you migraines. They will not be part of the staging site causing unavailability of the whole process.
If you haven’t deployed methods to protect the sandboxing environment, you will have strong security concerns. Your entire sandboxing effort will go in vain when a corrupted plugin is installed. So, developers have to leave no stone unturned to protect the staging site.
The struggle continues with the management of the staging process and staging sites. As we all know, staging is not a one-time job. Developers have to keep on doing it continuously. When multiple staging sites are created, their management becomes too tedious.
All these challenges make sandboxing a tough nut to crack. Despite that, you can’t ignore it because this is required to make sure that no plugin or theme is causing trouble to your live site and pulling it down. We have good news; the sandboxing struggle seems to end, as we have built an amazing sandboxing plugin.
InstaWP Connect – The Simplified Sandboxing
Offered by InstaWP, InstaWP Connect is a highly advanced sandboxing plugin that developers should try in 2023.
The plugin has everything that is required to trim down the process of sandboxing. Before we talk more about it, let’s give you a quick overview of InstaWP.
It is a platform that allows developers to create websites that you can use for multiple purposes like staging, testing, and development. You can create as many websites as you want to and use them the way you want to.
The best part is that you don’t have to make an effort to fetch your websites from live to staging. There also are saved templates and default options for creating fresh sites in InstaWP. Enter the website details in the selected template, and you’re good to go.
Now, let’s talk about the InstaWP Connect plugin.
As you install this plugin, you’re allowed to create staging sites of your InstaWP sites over a single click. This is a 1-click staging and migration solution with endless capacities such as:
Multiple staging options
To cater to all sorts of staging requirements, InstaWP Connect offers multiple staging options.
The first option is Quick Staging which allows you to sandbox without including the media folders of the main website.
Second, you can try Full Staging, which replicates the main site completely.
Lastly, you have the facility of Custom Staging, wherein you’re allowed to select the components of staging sites.
Freedom to select the Database Method
This plugin keeps customization as a priority and offers multiple customization options. You’re allowed to select the DB method (WPDB or PDO) you want to use for your staging site.
Simplified sandboxing
Your sandboxing struggle will never end as long as you’re doing it manually. Using InstaWP Connect is the best way to have a staging site for sandboxing ready in no time. The plugin will help you connect with InstaWP, where you have ample development assistance to avail.
For one, you have a wide range of saved and store templates to choose from. So, if you want to build a site with configuration details as a previous website you’ve built, you can simply save it as a template and repurpose it.
As if this was not enough, InstaWP has tools like DB Editor, Log Viewer, Code Editor, and PHP Configurations to assist you. Creating a staging site is no longer a time-consuming process if you’ve got the help of InstaWP Connect and InstaWP.
Two-way pushing
You don’t have to hop between your staging and production ecosystems multiple times because InstaWP Connect comes with two-way pushing capabilities. With this, it’s easy for developers to manage the changes done on the staging site both in the staging and production environment,
The changes and modifications done in one ecosystem will be auto-applied to the ecosystem.
Done some code changes in the staging site, don’t worry. The site under production will adopt those code changes automatically, resulting in huge savings on labor, time, and efforts fronts.
Read how to push your staging site to live site.
Auto login
Have multiple InstaWP sites and don’t want to log in to all of them separately? Well, you don’t have to, as InstaWP Connect comes with auto login capabilities.
All your InstaWP sites will be in a centralized place, and a single login is enough to connect with all of them. That’s the whole purpose of InstaWP Connect; to bring every sandboxing environment easily and quickly accessible so that developers are not at all wasting time on menial jobs.
Stay updated about the connected site.
InstaWP Connect keeps you linked with the staging sites, and lets you monitor their health and activities happening on them. No more tabs switching to find what’s happening on sites X, Y, or Z. You can manage and control all your staging sites from a single place.
Better staging site security
As mentioned above, it’s very tedious for developers to ensure the staging environment is protected from malicious elements. They have to invest extra efforts to protect it. But, if you have InstaWP Connect, nothing is there to keep you tense.
Use the plugin to migrate your staging site to InstaWP, where some of the most advanced security solutions are offered. For instance, you get a free SSL facility. With this, you can back your staging site with the power of encryption.
Wait! There is more to add. There is no need to be worried about an expired SSL and getting attacked by malware, as InstaWP will automatically renew the certificate. The encryption will be there for the site, no matter which browser you’re choosing. If you have any custom domains, then InstaWP will automatically assign SSL certificates for them as well.
In addition, you have the freedom to enable SFTP for your staging site as well. Both these security solutions can be managed using a password or without a password. The security is also 100% customizable. It’s you who will be deciding when and where encryption should be used.
Test as many themes and plugins as you want
InstaWP Connect lets you decide the number of themes and plugins you want to test. You can test all sorts of themes and plugins as long as they are from WordPress.
Easy set-up
InstaWP Connect is designed with so much ease that anyone can use it without any hassles. There are no heavy configurations and set-ups to perform using the tool. Just a simple download process is there, and the plugin will be ready to help you.
The tool is so compact that it hardly acquires 1GB of space. It’s compatible with PHP version 5.4 or higher. It has been tested up to 6.2.2 versions. All in all, it’s built to handle all sorts of sandboxing needs for developers having different aims.
Final Say
Even if sandboxing is tedious, if you take the manual route, you must perform it for the sake of the safety and security of the live site. How can you let a minor theme or plugin destroy what you’ve created with so much passion and effort?
When setting up a WordPress Sandbox is imperative, why not find a simple way? InstaWP Connect is one of the most awesome WordPress plugins for developers in 2023. The plugin is easy-to-use and super compact. It will consume only a fraction of your time and device space.
It’s a well-designed solution with pre-built solutions. So, there is no blood and sweat to invest in sandboxing with InstaWP. Don’t hold yourself back, and check out this amazing plugin today.
