To create a staging website, we will be using a 3rd party plugin called WP Staging. To install the plugin head over to your Dashboard > Plugins and click Add New, in the top right search area enter WP Staging.
Once plugin is installed and Active, there will be a new option in WordPress Dashboard called WP Staging.
Follow the bellow steps to create the staging website:
Go to Dashboard > WP Staging click on Staging Sites > Create Staging Site
Give your staging website a name.
Click on Start Cloning button.
Once the Cloning process starts, it take on average (depending on how big the live website is, how fast the server is) between 2- 10 minutes to have a complete clone of the live website.
Once the cloning process is complete, there is an option to access the cloning website:
Make sure you are using the same credentials (username and password) used on the live website in order to be able to login to the staging website.
There are other 3rd party plugins you can use like:
Also some host might have a service included in your hosting plan that allows creating a working clone of the live website. So before dive in creating a staging website check with your hosting to see if they offer such service.
Here is our complete blog article that covers "creating a cloning website" in more details: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/how-to-create-a-wordpress-staging-site