You know what to expect from your WordPress dashboard, but what about hosting dashboards?
Some WordPress hosts offer free trials, but you never know if you’re getting the full experience, and there’s always that risk of being charged before you’ve made your decision. Wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t have to provide any payment information for as long of a preview as you needed?
We’ve been there, and that’s why we’ve created a unique way for you to truly “try before you buy” with no risks.
What is MyPressable Playground?
MyPressable Playground is a demo environment for testing Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting platform. Several hosts have generic cPanel hosting interfaces.
Pressable uses a custom interface that simplifies managing one to several WordPress sites. The MyPressable Playground looks and behaves exactly like a paid MyPressable control panel. You can even go through the entire process of setting up a new WordPress site!
How to Get Started with MyPressable Playground
The only thing easier than using Pressable to manage your site is setting up your free MyPressable Playground environment.
Step 1: Sign Up For Free
Go to try.pressable.com to get your free Playground environment. No credit card is needed. Simply enter your email address to gain access.
Step 2: Create a Site
Now you’re ready to start playing. From the welcome screen, select “Create a Site.”
From there, you’ll name your new site and select the options you want. It’s the same process you’ll use for creating any WordPress site with Pressable.
Selecting WooCommerce will automatically install the WooCommerce ecommerce plugin on your new WordPress site. You can also select which PHP version to use and your preferred datacenter.
Step 3: Explore Your Options
After your site is ready, you can begin exploring some other ways Pressable makes managing a website easier. Click on your site name to see the site’s settings.
This area is where you can generate a staging version of your site. You can view and change your WordPress and PHP versions here as well.
The Actions pull-down menu on the right makes it easy to clone, migrate, or delete a site.
In addition to showing high-level analytics for your site, the Performance tab displays options for managing your cache and CDN. Caching and CDN are two of the reasons Pressable delivers blazing-fast sites.
The caching utilizes WordPress’ Object Cache to store temporary groups of pages and database queries. You’ll use the option to flush cache when you make a site change, and it’s not displaying on your live site. Pressable also allows more granular control of what to cache and how it works if you install our cache management plugin.
The Pressable CDN is a static cache for images, CSS, and JavaScript. Purge this cache when design or image changes aren’t appearing on your live site.
For more details on how caching works with Pressable, check out our post on how to clear cache in WordPress.
You’ll also notice this tab has an option to set up your Jetpack license. This feature isn’t active during the free trial, but once you activate your Pressable account, you’ll get free access to the Jetpack Security Daily. Although this premium plugin costs $249 per year per site, it’s free with a Pressable account.
Features of the Jetpack Security Daily plugin include:
- Enhanced security
- Better performance
- Automatic backups and restores
- Starter themes
- CRM for managing customer data
- SEO tools
Features You’ll Want to Test During Your WordPress Hosting Free Trial
You know how WordPress works, so what should you look for and test during a hosting free trial? Even though you don’t need to rush with Pressable, there are some features you still want to review. We’ve already looked at how Pressable helps with managing cache and other site settings. Additional features to test out include multi-site management, user roles, and setting up staging environments.
Multi-Site Management
Pressable allows you to manage multiple sites with ease. You can manage all your sites from the same dashboard, making Pressable the perfect choice for agencies, freelancers, or businesses with more than one website.
User Roles
If you have more than one site, you probably have more than one person working on them. Head to the collaborators’ section of the MyPressable Playground to explore how easy it is to add and manage different users for your hosting account.
Staging Sites
No matter how many sites you have, creating a staging site with Pressable is simple. From any site’s dashboard, click the “Actions” button. You can clone, migrate, or delete the site. If you want to create a staging site, just click “Clone Site” and choose “Staging Site.”
Pressable offers free staging environments with every managed WordPress hosting plan. You can use the staging site to test out the next version of WordPress, ensure compatibility with a newer PHP version, or test out a new WordPress theme.
Advanced Features
WordPress developers will feel right at home with Pressable.
When reviewing the individual site settings, you’ll see how easy it is to integrate with GitHub under the Git tab. You can set your repository URL and enable automatic deployment with only a few clicks.
You may also be interested in reviewing the API applications and documentation in the left-hand menu. Our customers use our REST-based API to build custom user interfaces and automate day-to-day operations.
Making the Most of Your Playground Experience
With MyPressable Playground’s free demo environment, spend your time trying out the hosting dashboard. How easy is it to use? How quickly can you set up a new site? What options do you have for site migration? Pressable will migrate your site for you, or you can use our easy DIY migration plugin.
Even better than a free trial, this gives you a chance to see how you like the service and experience from the hosting interface with no risk. Of course, choosing a managed WordPress host involves more than just the dashboard.
To see how WordPress hosts stack up against their competitors, consider a neutral, third-party evaluation site like Review Signal’s WordPress Hosting Benchmarks. Spoiler alert: Pressable performed great and fast across all pricing tiers.
What’s Next?
All good things, or at least free things, must end, and you’ll want to move forward with creating your site. Pressable refreshes your MyPressable Playground settings daily, clearing any sites you spun up and giving you a fresh start. When you’re ready to build a site that stays, pick a WordPress hosting plan to unlock all the features of Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting.
Amanda Nadhir
Amanda serves as the Head of Sales and Enablement for Pressable. She's worked in the tech space for well over a decade and has spent the majority of that time building/training/leading teams. She loves travel and adventure and when she's not working, you can find her spending time with her family, lounging pool/beach-side, playing tennis, working out, and meeting people/making friends all along the way!
