Before you change or update the theme of your WordPress site, it’s a good practice to test that theme first. That way your site’s visitors aren’t greeted with a broken site.
Unfortunately, WordPress offers no built in testing solution, so you generally have two options:
- Try out your theme on a test version of WordPress running either on your own computer or a web server.
- Install a handy-dandy plugin that will let you test the new theme on your site while normal visitors are served the old theme.
If you’re like me, you’ll probably want to go with option number two. Currently my theme testing plugin of choice is Theme Test Drive by Vladimir Prelovac. Theme Test Drive is easy to install and let’s you pick which theme administrators see. Everyone else views the site with the current default template. I have it running on a couple of the WordPress sites I run and it hasn’t caused me any trouble yet.