Looking at Site Replica Pro vs Duplicator Pro for putting a rebuilt WordPress site live? Both can take a copy of a site and put it over an existing one, both let you leave tables out, and both give you a way back. They go about it differently, and they suit different people. Here is an even-handed comparison.
Who each tool suits
Duplicator Pro suits people who package a site and install it elsewhere: build a package, run its installer on the destination, and import over the existing site in overwrite mode. Its plans run from Basic to Elite, and it offers recovery points.
Site Replica Pro suits site owners, freelancers and agencies who rebuild a site on their own computer or a staging address and need to send it to a live site that kept taking orders, members and form entries in the meantime.
Side by side
| Duplicator Pro | Site Replica Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per year | Basic US$79 for 2 sites (first-year sale, 60% off; renews at full price); Plus US$199 for 5; Pro US$399 for 20; Elite US$599 for 100 | US$29.50 for 1 site, US$49.50 for 10, US$99.50 unlimited (launch prices until 30 April 2027; normally US$59, US$99 and US$199) |
| Push a local copy live | Import over the live site with its installer (overwrite mode) | Yes, sent directly from your copy |
| Keep live data | Untick tables in the installer | Choose tables, with people’s data suggested |
| See what changed on live before sending | Not found | Yes: What changed report |
| Review and roll back | Recovery points | Plan reviewed by an administrator, then Keep or Roll back |
| Vendor servers in between | No | No, direct |
| Multisite | From the Pro plan (US$399) | Back up only; network restore not supported yet |
Duplicator’s plans are on its pricing page, and importing over an existing site and unticking tables are described in its guide to the installer. Its Basic plan includes one cloud destination, and there is no unlimited-sites plan.
Where Duplicator is better
- Multisite. From its Pro plan, Duplicator handles multisite. Site Replica can back up a network but can’t restore one yet.
- Recovery points. Recovery points give you a point to return to, a familiar safety net for people who already work with Duplicator packages.
- Two sites on the entry plan. Basic covers two sites in its first year for US$79, where Site Replica Pro’s entry plan covers one.
- A wide range of plans. Four tiers, from 2 sites up to 100, let you pay for the number of sites you actually have.
Where Site Replica Pro is different
- It tells you what you are about to overwrite. Before you send, What changed lists the posts and pages added or edited on the live site since your copy was made, new users and comments, tables that have gained rows, and files added, changed or removed.
- It suggests the tables to keep. On a sent backup, users, comments, and the orders, memberships and form entries of the plugins it recognises, including WooCommerce, MemberPress, WPForms and Gravity Forms, are ticked for you. Check them against your own plugins.
- A send, not a package. Your copy sends straight to the live site, encrypted, uploading only the files the live site doesn’t already have, in batches that resume after an interruption. There is no archive to build, download and upload.
- Keep or Roll back, with no time limit. Nothing changes until an administrator on the live site reviews the plan and types the site’s address. The site is switched in one short step, and afterwards Roll back puts the previous site back exactly, tables and files.
- An unlimited plan. Unlimited sites are US$199 a year (US$99.50 at the launch price until 30 April 2027), where Duplicator’s largest plan covers 100 sites. And if you stop renewing, the Pro features keep working on the sites where they are active.
What Site Replica Pro doesn’t do
To be fair about our own side too, a few limits are worth knowing before launch day:
- Settings always come from your copy. The options table is deliberately not offered for keeping, because a redesign whose settings didn’t come with it is not a redesign.
- The suggestion knows the common plugins, not all of them. A bespoke table your developer added years ago needs ticking by hand; What changed shows it if it has gained rows.
- Sending needs Pro on both sites, plus HTTPS and enough free disk on the live site. A copy on your own computer or at a staging address doesn’t use a licence, so one live site still needs only one.
Which should you choose?
Choose Duplicator Pro if you like its package-and-installer way of working, already rely on recovery points, or need multisite and its Pro plan suits your budget.
Choose Site Replica Pro if you are putting a redesign onto a site that takes orders, members or enquiries, and want to see what the live site has gained, keep it, and roll back if the result isn’t right. How to push a staging site to live without losing orders walks through it.
Try it
Start with the free Site Replica plugin from the Site Replica page: back up, clone and restore whole sites, even large ones on hosting with tight limits. When you are ready to send a redesign live, see the Site Replica Pro page.
Every step of a send, from “What changed” to Keep or Roll back, is in putting a redesign live in the help centre.
Switching from Duplicator?
Use the code SWITCH_DUPLICATOR at checkout for 30% off Site Replica Pro, for as long as you keep renewing (new customers only). Codes don’t combine, and until 30 April 2027 the launch price, half off for as long as you renew, is the better deal, so the plan buttons on the Pro page apply that one for you.
