ExpandOps

Access Code Lite lets you require a simple URL parameter code (e.g. ‘?access_code=enter123’) before visitors can view your site. 
Simply share the private access link (e.g. https://example.com?access_code=enter123) that the plugin generates to any user who you wish to grant access. 
Ideal for development, staging, previews, or private sharing without complex authentication.
Features: 
– Set a custom access code from the plugin settings page. 
– Code can be 3–12 characters, letters and numbers only. 
– Session persistence (default): visitors only need to enter the code once per visit. 
– Logged-in users, WordPress login, password reset, admin, AJAX, and cron are always allowed.
Important: Access Code Lite is not a security plugin. 
It does not encrypt, hide, or protect sensitive data. It only adds a simple URL parameter check and should be used for low-risk scenarios like development, staging, or preview access. 
Do not rely on this plugin to secure private or confidential information.
More persistence options (cookies, tokens, etc.) will be added in future versions.

Access Code Lite

Restrict site access with a simple URL code parameter and grant access using private link sharing. Ideal for sites in development or maintenance.

Bill Erickson

CultivateWP

When spinning up a staging or local development environment, you might not need the full uploads directory, but you also don’t want to see broken images throughout the site.
This plugin lets you use the production server for missing media. Define the production URL using a wp-config.php constant BE_MEDIA_FROM_PRODUCTION_URL or filter be_media_from_production_url.
In all cases, if a local file exists, it will be used in preference to the remote file.

BE Media from Production

We are using the plugin from GitHub for quite some time. Now it will be even easier, great work!

Awesome!

Sites that heavily rely on media were painfully to maintain. Not only did I have to get the local database in sync on my development machine, but also the media to get a good picture of how the site will look after a new feature I added. With this plugin this becomes a breeze as I do not have to download all media to my local machine anymore. This saves time and diskspace. Thank you Bill for this awesome plugin.

Makes maintaining sites a breeze

Just a really great complement to localhost development, especially since pretty much every backup/export utility allows excluding certain directories, like wp-content/uploads

Many thanks!

So glad I found this

Incredibly useful plugin when doing local development work on sites with huge media libraries, when you don't want to fill up your local hard drive with or spend time syncing with your remote site.

Very useful, works perfectly

For developers - Uses local media when available, and uses the production server for the rest.

Access Code Lite vs BE Media from Production