Yes. You can activate your license on local, test, staging, or development websites.
Test and development site activations are not counted toward your license activation limit, so you can use your license on them without using one of your live site activations.
How test and development activations work
Each license plan includes a specific number of live site activations. For example, a 1-site license can be used on one live website, while multi-site plans can be used on more live websites.
Development, staging, and local websites are handled differently. You can activate your license on an unlimited number of these sites, as long as the site URL is recognized as a test or development environment.
Supported test and development URLs
Your test or development site must use a URL that matches one of the supported patterns.
Examples of supported local and development URLs include:
localhost127.0.0.1192.168.**.dev*.test*.local*.staging*.sandbox
Some hosting and staging service URLs are also supported, including:
*.cloudwaysapps.com*.instawp.xyz*.instawp.site*.wpengine.com*.wpenginepowered.com*.flywheelstaging.com*.kinsta.cloud*.ddev.site
Staging subdomains are also supported when they use common prefixes such as:
local.*dev.*test.*stage.*staging.*staging{N}.*
What if my staging site is counted as a live site?
If your staging or development site is counted as a live activation, it usually means that its URL does not match one of the supported test or development patterns.
In this case, you can either:
- Use a staging domain or subdomain that matches one of the supported patterns.
- Deactivate the license from that staging domain if you no longer need it there.
- Contact support if you believe your staging site should not be counted.
Does this apply to WordPress multisite?
No. WordPress multisite works differently.
If you use WordPress multisite, the license must be activated on each site inside the multisite network, and each site counts as a separate activation. Make sure your license plan includes enough activations for all sites where you want to use the plugin.