Clone a site

Updated on December 6th, 2024

Flywheel already makes it fast and easy to create new WordPress® sites from scratch, but what if you’d like to create an exact duplicate of a site you already own?¹ In that case, you can use a Flywheel site cloning feature. Site cloning allows you to take a copy of a production site and recreate it as a new site or add it to an existing plan.

Note

Cloning is different from Staging. If you are interested in learning more about Staging, be sure to check out this help doc.

Back up the site

The original site won’t be affected by the cloning process, but since the clone will be created from the latest backup, this will ensure that any recent changes to the site are included in the clone.

Navigate to the Backups tab of the site’s dashboard.
Click the + button to create a fresh backup.
Optionally, add a description to the backup.
Your backup will take a few minutes to complete, based on the size of the site (usually about 10 minutes per gigabyte).

Clone the site

Once the backup is complete, you can kick off the site clone.

Back at the site’s Flywheel dashboard, click the gear icon.
Select Clone site.

Choose the site destination

When cloning, there are 3 options for the clone destination. Click the link that best applies to your situation for more instructions:

Cloning a site into an existing plan
Cloning a site to its own plan
Cloning a site out of my plan for a client to take over billing

Note

You must remove the domain name from the live site before it can be added to the cloned site. When the domain is removed the site will go down until it is reapplied to the clone.

Cloning a site to an existing plan

Choose the option Add site to existing plan.
Select the plan you want to clone the site to. This will be a plan you or your organization already own that has room for an additional site.
Enter custom site details, or go with the defaults.
Click Add to Plan & Clone Site.

Cloning a site to its own plan

Choose the option I’d like to get a new plan.
Enter custom site details, or go with the defaults.
Click Go to Checkout. You’ll select the plan on the next page, and you can check out with your personal account or your organization.

Cloning a site out of my plan for a client to take over billing

Choose the option Create demo site & pay later. (Note that you must have a verified account and an available demo slot to do this.)
Select the Site owner – this can be your personal account or an organization you’re a part of.
Enter custom site details, or go with the defaults.
Click Create Demo Site.

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If you have any questions our Happiness Engineers are here to help!

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Clone a site

Note

Table of Contents:

Back up the site

Clone the site