Best Plugins to Clone or Duplicate a Site in WordPress (2024)
Need to clone your WordPress website?
By the end of this guide, you will know the best cloning or duplicating plugins for WordPress, both free and paid.
Here’s a sneak peek of what’s inside:
- Understanding cloning or duplicating
- The best WordPress cloning/duplicating plugins
- Insights into their key features and pricing
Ready? Let’s get started!
Understanding Cloning or Duplicating
When you use plugins to clone/duplicate a site, you're essentially creating an exact copy of your website (content, themes, settings, plugins, and database).
This process is incredibly useful for a variety of reasons.
Oftentimes, the purpose of cloning or duplicating is to seamlessly move the site to a new host or domain without downtime or other irregular effect.
For instance, you might want to work on your website's redesign or add new features without disrupting the live site.
Or perhaps you need a testing ground for updates, a way to migrate your site to another host, or simply a backup in case something goes wrong.
👉 Related: Best Staging Plugins for WordPress: Free and Paid
Top Plugins for Cloning or Duplicating a WordPress Site
There are a lot of cloning/duplicating plugins out there — some may have extra features like backup and staging.
Here are some of them:
1. Duplicator
Duplicator stands out as a comprehensive solution for WordPress site duplication, migration, and backup.
It allows you to move or clone your WordPress site between domains or hosts without any downtime, which is ideal for development or migration purposes.
The plugin can bundle your entire WordPress site into a single package, including plugins, themes, content, and databases.
đź’» Key features
- Secure WordPress cloning: Ensures data safety and easy recovery, with options for scheduled backups and filters for selective backups.
- Recovery points (1-click restore): Offers quick rollbacks to protect against errors or bad updates while maintaining your site's integrity.
- Fast WordPress cloning and transfer: Simplifies site transfers with features like drag-and-drop installs and a streamlined 2-step installer mode.
- Extensive cloud and FTP integrations: Offers cloud storage options plus FTP/SFTP support for secure offsite storage​​​​.
- WooCommerce backups: Tailored backups for WooCommerce sites to ensure that your ecommerce data is securely cloned.
- Support for large sites: The plugin is capable of handling large WordPress sites, confirmed to work with sites up to 100GB in size.
- Email notifications: Stay informed with email alerts about your cloning and migration tasks' status to ensure you're always in the loop.
đź’° Pricing
- Basic: $49.50 for up to 2 sites
- Plus: $99.50 for up to 5 sites
- Pro: $199.50 for up to 20 sites
- Elite: $299.50 for up to 100 sites
Duplicator offers a 14-day money-back guarantee for users.
After reading about Duplicator, it's important to consider the foundation of your website's performance and security – your hosting provider.
This is where Hostinger comes into play, offering a robust hosting solution tailored for WordPress websites.
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Choosing Hostinger means not just selecting a hosting provider:
You're partnering with a service that's committed to boosting your site's performance, security, and reliability
2. UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus stands out as a highly trusted WordPress cloning and duplicating plugin, renowned for its reliability and extensive feature set.
It works on any server that supports WordPress — making your data secure and easily recoverable in situations like hacking attempts, server crashes, etc.
With its straightforward interface, UpdraftPlus enables both manual and automated cloning and allows you to schedule them according to your needs.
đź’» Key features
- UpdraftClone: This plugin is designed for creating a temporary clone on UpdraftPlus servers, perfect for testing and development.
- Direct cloning with UpdraftClone tokens: Provides a straightforward way to clone your site using tokens, without a separate staging environment.
- Incremental backups: Allows you to save only the changes made since the last backup, reducing your server load and storage space.
- Multiple remote storage options: Ssupports more cloud storage services than any other plugin, including Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3.
- Restoration and migration: Easily restore backups directly from your WordPress dashboard and the Migrator feature also allows you to move your site easily.
- Encryption: For added security, database backups can be encrypted to ensure that your data remains safe and confidential.
đź’° Pricing
- Personal: $70 for up to 2 sites
- Business: $95 for up to 10 sites
- Agency: $145 for up to 35 sites
- Enterprise: $195 for unlimited sites
UpdraftPlus offers 12 months of premium support and access to updates for its paid plans, a huge plus from its already robust free version.
3. All-in-One WP Migration
All-in-One WP Migration simplifies the cloning process by allowing users to export their WordPress website's database, media files, themes, and plugins into a single file.
This plugin is an ideal solution for those looking to change hosting providers or move a site from a local development environment to a live server with just a few clicks.
The plugin's ease of use, combined with its ability to handle different WordPress websites, has made it a go-to choice for individuals, businesses, government organizations, and universities alike.
đź’» Key features
- Compatibility: Extensively tested to ensure it works seamlessly with most WordPress themes and plugins and avoids common compatibility issues.
- Cloud storage integration: Supports syncing with major cloud storage services to make it convenient to store and transfer site backups.
- GDPR compliance: Designed with privacy in mind, the plugin complies with GDPR on data security.
- WordPress multisite support: With the appropriate add-on, it can manage multi-site cloning and migrations for users running WordPress networks.
- Customizable export options: Offers advanced options to exclude specific data from exports, such as spam comments or post revisions.
đź’° Pricing
All-in-One WP Migration is an open-source plugin (it’s a free WordPress plugin!).
Furthermore, its unlimited extension removes the upload limit on any number of websites for only $69/year.
4. WP Migrate
WP Migrate is a stress-free and powerful tool designed to streamline the process of cloning and migrating WordPress databases and sites from one server to another.
The plugin is well-regarded for its user-friendly approach that eliminates the complexity typically associated with database cloning.
Its robust feature set is particularly useful for updating development and production environments and other migration scenarios.
đź’» Key features
- Database cloning and migrations: Effortlessly perform operations within the user interface, export and import the SQL into new databases.
- Export and import: Easily export and import your database into a new WordPress installation with all your content, settings, and users intact.
- Compatibility: Seamlessly works with various WordPress active installations and configurations, including custom table prefixes.
- CLI integration: For advanced users, the plugin integrates with WP-CLI and thus allows for command-line migrations that speed up the process.
- Multisite support: With the Pro version, WP Migrate can handle complex multi-site cloning and offers flexibility for larger WordPress networks.
- Media files synchronization: The plugin also allows for the synchronization of media libraries, images, and files between two sites.
đź’° Pricing
- Basic: $49 for 1 site
- Standard: $89 for up to 2 sites
- Plus: $169 for up to 3 sites
- Premier: $199 for unlimited sites
WP Migrate offers a 60-day money-back guarantee for users.
5. Migrate Guru
Migrate Guru is renowned for its simplicity and efficiency in handling cloning and migration of any size, including large sites up to 200 GB, without the risk of crashing your site.
It offers a fully automatic cloning process with built-in search and replace capabilities for serialized data to ensure a smooth transition without the need for manual work.
The plugin is compatible with over 5,000 web hosts globally, proving that it is a versatile tool for any migration scenario.
đź’» Key features
- True one-click migration: Enables you to clone large sites (1GB and above) in less than 30 minutes by simply entering the host details.
- No site overload: Since cloning and migration are performed on plugin servers, your live site remains unaffected and the risk of crashes is negated.
- Large site migration: Capable of handling large sites, Migrate Guru can clone and migrate sites as big as 200 GB without any hiccups.
- Compatibility: Migrate Guru supports migrations to and from over 5,000 web hosts worldwide, a versatile solution for site cloning or migration​​​​​​.
- No storage space needed: Temporarily copies your site to their servers for cloning and migration, which is deleted once process is complete.
- Automatic search & replace: The built-in search and replace function takes care of updating URLs and paths in the database.
- Timely email alerts: Migrate Guru keeps you informed about the cloning status with real-time and email alerts, so you're always in the loop.
đź’° Pricing
Migrate Guru is a free plugin.
This makes it a cost-effective solution for site users of all backgrounds.
6. Solid Backups
Solid Backups is a top choice with its full suite of features designed to safeguard your online work and generate comprehensive backups.
This plugin ensures that your website is protected against potential hacks, malware, and user errors by enabling complete site cloning (all files, plugins, and themes).
It supports scheduled cloning or backups at your convenience to ensure your website data is always up-to-date and secure.
đź’» Key features
- Complete site cloning: Unlike other plugins that only clone the database, this clones your entire WordPress installation as a blueprint.
- Off-site storage: Storing your clone backups in Dropbox, Google Drive, and Solid Backups' own Stash service adds an extra layer of data security.
- Selective file restoration: Allows you to view the contents of text-based files in your archives and selectively restore these to their original location.
- Instant email notifications: Sends email notifications upon the completion of backups to keep you informed about the status of your processes​​.
- Restore and migrate websites: Its user-friendly migration wizard ImportBuddy simplifies the transfer process with minimal downtime​​.
- Advanced security measures: Includes deep malware and virus scans for every clone, which are transferred over SSL and AES-256 encryption.
- Custom plugin hooks and cPanel direct connection: For developers, Solid Backups offers more control and flexibility over backups and site migrations​​.
đź’° Pricing
Formerly known as BackupBuddy, Solid Backups offers a tiered pricing plan depending on the number of sites you are using it on.
Prices start from $99 per year for one site.
7. WP Clone
WP Clone stands out as a user-friendly plugin designed for WordPress site cloning, migration, and backup.
The plugin ensures data safety by encouraging the creation of backups before initiating the cloning process, thus particularly beneficial for users concerned about data loss.
Moreover, WP Clone streamlines the cloning operation with a one-click functionality, which is invaluable for users seeking efficiency without compromising on safety features.
đź’» Key features
- One-click cloning: Simplifies the cloning process and allows you to duplicate your site with just a single click.
- Backup creation: It emphasizes the importance of data safety by enabling you to create backups before proceeding with the cloning.
- Easy restoration: Whether on the same site, or another, or a different device, WP Clone facilitates straightforward restoration and recovery.
- Direct website transfer: The plugin supports direct site transfer from one domain to another by simply copying and pasting the backup URL.
- Backup management: Manage your backups directly from the plugin's interface, including easy download, migration, or deletion of backups.
đź’° Pricing
WP Clone is a free plugin.
This makes this plugin a trustworthy and handy tool for every site startup.
8. VaultPress Backup
VaultPress Backup by Jetpack Security is a robust solution for WordPress sites that offers real-time automated backups and comprehensive security features.
It’s designed to protect your site against a wide range of threats, including hackers, host failures, viruses, user errors, and malware.
With VaultPress, you have the assurance of quick and easy site restoration and migration capabilities to guarantee your website's safety and continuity.
đź’» Key features
- Cloning made easy: With VaultPress, you can clone your site to any server, create a test environment, or move your site to a new hosting provider​​.
- One-click restores: Simplifies the restoration process, incredibly useful in experimenting with design or recovering from an error​​.
- Exclusion of non-essential data: VaultPress optimizes for unique data, excluding WordPress core files and other non-essential data.
- Off-site storage: Clones your site on secure servers across multiple global locations, which means these are safe even when you encounter issues​​.
- WooCommerce integration: Ensures that all customer and order data are cloned or backed up to keep these data safe and GDPR compliant​​.
- Spam defense: VaultPress helps protect your site's SEO, readers, and brand reputation by automatically blocking spam.
- Activity log: VaultPress provides a detailed log of all site changes in cloning to make it easy to pinpoint when and how an issue occurred.
đź’° Pricing
Other than its free version, Jetpack Security offers the VaultPress Backup with other outstanding features.
Its standout Security bundle starts from $6.70 per month for the first year, then billed yearly.
9. BlogVault
BlogVault stands out as a multifaceted WordPress plugin that offers more than just cloning and backup solutions but also caters to site migration, staging, and security.
With its incremental backup approach, BlogVault ensures that your website's data is consistently updated without overloading your server space.
This plugin is particularly beneficial for WooCommerce sites, offering real-time backup every time a transaction is made and ensuring no data loss in the process.
đź’» Key features
- Easy site cloning and migration: Simplifies the cloning and migration process and enables you to move your site seamlessly.
- Incremental cloning: Updates only changed data after the initial complete process and saves significant server resources.
- Real-time WooCommerce backups: For WooCommerce sites, BlogVault offers real-time backups and ensures every transaction is securely saved.
- One-click staging: You can create a staging site with just a click, allowing you to test changes without affecting the live site.
- Multi-site management: Allows for the management and cloning of multiple WordPress sites from a single dashboard to streamline monitoring.
- Automated restoration: In the event of a site crash, BlogVault can automatically restore your site to its last backed-up state.
- Enhanced security measures: Includes the ability to block PHP executions in untrusted folders and limit failed login attempts.
đź’° Pricing
- Plus: $149 for daily automatic backups
- Prime: $199 for up to 2 daily automatic backups
- Pro: $299 for up to 4 daily automatic backups
- Max: $499 for hourly automatic backups
BlogVault offers not only a free version but also a 14-day money-back guarantee for users.
10. WP SuperBackup
WP SuperBackup is designed to remove the hassle from and simplify the process of cloning or backing up WordPress sites.
This plugin provides an intuitive dashboard for easy management of backup instances, and its cloud sync feature is useful for working with both staging and production servers.
Its instance migration feature is handy for importing backups from external sources, and the one-click restore option makes it easy to recover your site.
đź’» Key features
- Intuitive dashboard: Offers a quick overview of current cloning processes and makes it easy to manage backups.
- Cloud sync: Facilitates easy synchronization of files across servers, useful for managing staging and production environments.
- Snapshots management: Allows the creation and management of multiple cloning instances with detailed logs for monitoring.
- Instance migration: Simplifies the import and migration of backups from external drives to your WordPress installation.
- One-click restore: Enables easy restoration of your site from any snapshot with just a click.
- Cloud snapshots: Supports uploading clones and other backups to various cloud services for enhanced data safety.
- Backup destinations: Flexible and compatible with numerous cloud storage options, including Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon, and more.
đź’° Pricing
WP SuperBackup’s premium services are available for users starting from a $35 regular license.
You can buy this from Code Canyon.
11. XCloner
XCloner is a versatile WordPress plugin that is designed for function, integrating popular cloud storage services for offsite cloning and backups.
This plugin is known for its simplicity and effectiveness, paving the way for users to easily manage their site's clones and backups without complications.
The plugin works well across various hosting configurations and is thus suitable for both small-scale blogs and larger, more complex sites.
đź’» Key features
- Automatic cloning and backup: Utilizes WP-Cron for cloning and scheduling of regular backups, and performs full and differential backups.
- Military-grade encryption: Offers AES-128-CBC encryption for backup archives in complete adherence with GDPR compliance​​.
- Site sync, migration, and rollback: Provides versatile tools and uses open-source standards for maximum compatibility and flexibility​​.
- Personalized data compression: Fine-tunes the backup process to suit various hosting environments and balances clone file size and resource use​​.
- Free cloud backup storage: Supports popular cloud services like Google Drive and Amazon S3, and facilitates easy remote clone management​​.
- Flexible retention policies: Implements smart quotas to manage backup retention and to keep your storage organized and cost-effective​​.
- Lightning-fast CLI: Includes a command-line interface for advanced users to guarantee more flexibility and speed in managing cloning processes​​.
đź’° Pricing
XCloner prides itself as a totally free WordPress backup plugin.
Just go to its site and download the plugin.
12. WP Time Capsule
WP Time Capsule stands out as a forward-thinking cloning solution for WordPress that specializes in incremental backups, thus highly efficient in minimizing server load.
This plugin is distinct because it only backs up changes made since the last backup, ensuring that your backups are both fast and resource-friendly.
It offers one-click restoration and the ability to test updates in a staging environment before pushing them live, particularly useful for maintaining stability and performance.
đź’» Key features
- Easy migration and cloning: The cloning and migration feature streamlines the process of cloning or moving your site to a new domain or server.
- Real-time backup: Changes to your website trigger immediate backups, so your backup files are always up-to-date.
- One-click restore: Restore your site to any previous state with a single click, whether it's a specific file, the entire site, or just the database.
- Staging environment: Test updates and changes in a staging environment, which is essentially a clone of your live site where you can test changes.
- Automatic backups before updates: The plugin automatically creates a backup before any updates, placing a safety net for your site.
- Off-site storage options: Choose between popular cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Amazon S3 for storing your backup files.
- White-label option: For agencies and developers, WP Time Capsule allows rebranding of the plugin to present it as your own backup solution to clients.
đź’° Pricing
- Business: $49/year for use on up to 2 sites
- Freelancer: $99/year for use on up to 10 sites
- Agency: $199/year for use on unlimited sites
WP Time Capsule’s elite range of features are available for a 30-day free trial before making a purchase.
13. BackWPup
BackWPup is a popular cross-cutting cloning and backup plugin for WordPress known for its comprehensive functional capabilities.
It allows you to easily safeguard your entire WordPress installation and ensure that all your website's data, including the /wp-content/ directory, is securely backed up.
This plugin stands out due to its flexibility in storing backups in various external services like Dropbox, S3, FTP, and many others​​.
đź’» Key features
- Versatile cloning and backup destinations: BackWPup supports a wide array of storage options, including Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP, and more.
- Scheduling and automation: The plugin allows you to schedule regular automatic backups at intervals that suit your needs.
- Customizable cloning content: You can tailor your clones and backups to include or exclude specific files or directories.
- Backup to multiple locations: For each backup job, you can choose to save your backups to multiple locations to enhance the security and accessibility of your backup files.
- Emergency restore app: In case of a site failure, BackWPup provides an emergency restore application to help you get your site running quickly.
- Customize file path: The ability to customize the path for backup files offers additional flexibility in managing your backup storage.
- Encryption and security: The premium version includes options to encrypt your clones to heighten data security during and after the backup process​​.
đź’° Pricing
- Standard: $69 for use on 1 site
- Business: $119 for use on up to 5 sites
- Developer: $199 for use on up to 10 sites
- Supreme: $199 for use on up to 25 sites
- Agency: $199 for use on up to 100 sites
With more than 12 million downloads over 30 years, BackWPup is a trustworthy plugin with a highly efficient set of multifunctional features.
14. WP Synchro
WP Synchro is designed with a focus on facilitating seamless cloning and migrations for WordPress sites and distinguishes itself by offering advanced functionalities.
Its focus on speed, customization, and security makes it an essential plugin for professional site development and maintenance tasks​​​​​​.
WP Synchro supports basic authentication for secure cloning, offers detailed email notifications for migration outcomes, and even allows for the scheduling of migrations.
đź’» Key features
- File migration capabilities: It supports the cloning of various file types including media, themes, plugins, and custom directories.
- Selective file migration: Offers the ability to only clone file differences, significantly speeding up the process.
- User confirmation for file changes: Before executing any changes, the plugin provides a user confirmation step for added, changed, or deleted files.
- Customized cloning options: Offers the flexibility to tailor your migrations down to a single file for precise control over what gets cloned.
- Basic authentication support: Supports basic .htaccess authentication to cater to migrations from or to password-protected environments.
- Email notifications: WP Synchro can send notifications upon successful or failed migrations to keep users informed about the status of cloning tasks.
- WP CLI integration: WP Synchro includes WP CLI commands to further automate and speed up the cloning process.
đź’° Pricing
- Personal: $76 for up to 2 active sites
- Starter: $96 for up to 5 active sites
- Small: $125 for up to 10 active sites
- Medium: $192 for up to 20 active sites
- Large: $461 for up to 100 active sites
Augmenting its already handy free version, the WP Synchro Pro version offers a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Testing after Cloning and Duplicating
After you've successfully cloned or duplicated your site, it's important that you thoroughly test the clone to ensure that everything functions as expected.
Check all pages and links to make sure they work correctly and pay special attention to forms, ecommerce functionalities, and any custom features your site might have.
Finally, always remember to keep your cloned site private or restrict access to prevent it from being indexed by search engines.
Wrapping up, it's important to consider the broader picture of maintaining and enhancing your website.
Beyond the technical aspects of cloning, the visual appeal and functionality of your site play a significant role in attracting and retaining visitors.
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