Compatibility¶
Gorilla Staging Guard runs alongside other plugins and changes no setting in them. It changes only what they read on a staging site, never what they store.
Email plugins¶
| Plugin | On a staging site |
|---|---|
| FluentSMTP 2.1.0 and later | Stopped like any other email: FluentSMTP replaces WordPress's wp_mail() but asks WordPress first, and its resends from the email log, its fallback connection and its test emails go the same way. Versions before 2.1.0 are named on the Status tab as a mailer that can still send. |
| WP Mail SMTP | Stopped; WP Mail SMTP does not queue mail on a staging site. |
| Other SMTP plugins | Stopped when they send through WordPress's wp_mail() and its mailer. A plugin that replaces wp_mail() is named on the Status tab, unless it is known to ask WordPress first, as FluentSMTP does. |
| MailPoet | Its sending is held, so newsletters stay unsent and still scheduled; its SMTP server is pointed nowhere. Its confirmation and notification emails can still go out when MailPoet sends with PHP mail: the Status tab names it. |
| BuddyPress, Events Manager | Told to send through wp_mail(), where the email is stopped. |
| Mailchimp for WooCommerce | Talks to Mailchimp on its own connection: named on the Status tab as a mailer that can still send. Deactivate it on the staging site. |
| Email log plugins | Run as usual. |
A plugin that sends through an email service's web API is refused too: see Email services.
When a plugin is named as one that can still send, the Email row of the self-test says so.
Other staging and email-blocking plugins¶
It runs alongside Staging Superpowers, Staging Shield and Disable Emails, and the Status tab lists them when they are active. Staging Shield and Disable Emails block every email, including addresses you allowed under Settings: deactivate them on the staging site if you want to receive test mail.
Disable Emails works by replacing wp_mail(), so it cannot run beside FluentSMTP, which does the same; Gorilla
Staging Guard does not replace wp_mail() and works with both.
Hosting staging tools¶
A staging site made by your host's one-click staging tool is recognised like any other: by WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE
when the host sets it, by the host's own signal (Pantheon, WordPress VIP, WP Engine's legacy staging), or by its
address. See How it knows.
Hosting staging tools often tick Settings → Reading → Discourage search engines on the staging site. The Status tab warns about it, because pushed over the live site that setting would hide the live site too: see Other messages.
Gorilla Essentials¶
Both plugins can be active. The admin bar shows the environment once: Essentials' label is hidden when both name the same environment, or on a staging site.
WooCommerce¶
Payment gateways it knows run in test mode, WooCommerce Subscriptions does not charge renewals, webhooks are not delivered and Action Scheduler pauses. See What it stops.
Multisite¶
Each site in a network has its own verdict, recorded live address and activity, unless
GORILLA_STAGING_GUARD_LIVE_URL is set in wp-config.php, which applies to every site. Sites in a network are not
treated as staging sites of each other. On a network, each site decides for itself whether
its data is deleted with the plugin.
Next step¶
Privacy: what the plugin stores and sends.