How to test another theme in a live WordPress website instead of live preview?

I want to implement a new theme called Hepta on my current website, but when I test it using the live preview, it shows me limited content and features as it imports most of the contents from the active theme. Hence, I added few core plugins for that theme and also added theme import plugin. But, my concern is that if I activate the theme import plugin, the theme which is currently live(the older theme) might be affected, which will end up affecting the live website. So, I want to test the new theme and make it my primary theme once it is ready. How should I do this?

I want to implement a new theme called Hepta on my current website, but when I test it using the live preview, it shows me limited content and features as it imports most of the contents from the active theme. Hence, I added few core plugins for that theme and also added theme import plugin. But, my concern is that if I activate the theme import plugin, the theme which is currently live(the older theme) might be affected, which will end up affecting the live website. So, I want to test the new theme and make it my primary theme once it is ready. How should I do this?

• theme-development
• themes
• child-theme

Share Improve this question edited Oct 30, 2018 at 1:02 fuxia♦ 107k3939 gold badges255255 silver badges461461 bronze badges asked Oct 29, 2018 at 22:27 Smit SanghviSmit Sanghvi 311 bronze badge 1

• So I believe that this is possible with Health Check plugin. I tried to test it now, however, and it malfunctioned. But maybe it was an isolated issue. Still, really the best way to do this is by creating a staging environment – Gonçalo Figueiredo Commented Oct 29, 2018 at 23:07

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To try new theme over live wordpress site you need to duplicate the site in staging. There are many ways to do that:

• Manually: create a sub-domain (ex: staging.domain) copy files and DB there and do your changes there after tested well migrate them to live.
• Using plugin: A plugin named WP-Staging may help you the manual process.
• You can use wp-engine service, which help you manage staging things.

Hope one of the above way be helpful for you. A help link to check.