Andrés Villarreal

VERY IMPORTANT: This plugin is deprecated and will not be mantained anymore. Please consider using <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/stage-wp-plugin-manager/" rel="ugc">Stage WP Plugin Manager</a> instead.
If you develop locally, at some point you’ll have some plugins active in your local environment that you don’t need anymore when you deploy your code and database to staging or production. Sure, you can deactivate them before or after deploying, but you’re gonna need them again to be active if you want to perform changes to your code, or update your local database from your remote one. The whole process of activate and deactivate plugins for testing purposes could be really frustrating, and sometimes a complete waste of time.
Is in that kind of situations when the Environmental Plugin Manager can be a really helpful friend. Sadly, due to the sentitive work that this plugin performs, it doesn’t work right out of the box, so besides from installing this plugin, you need to do some additional work.
Please read the following instructions very carefully.
<h4>What do I need to make it work?</h4>
The Environmental Plugin Manager works on some assumptions about your workflow:
<ol>
<li>You have a constant named <code>WP_ENV_PLUGINS</code> defined in your WordPress configuration file (often <code>wp-config.php</code>).</li>
<li>The <code>WP_ENV_PLUGINS</code> value is one of the following: <code>development</code>, <code>staging</code>, <code>production</code>.</li>
<li>
The value of <code>WP_ENV_PLUGINS</code> is different in each of your stages. Some developers prefer to keep different configuration files for each one of their environments, or change the values of their constants based on some evaluation. For example, you could have something like this in your <code>wp-config.php</code> file:
if ( file_exists( dirname( FILE ) . ‘/development-config.php’ ) ) { define(‘WP_ENV_PLUGINS’, ‘development’); } elseif ( file_exists( dirname( FILE ) . ‘/staging-config.php’ ) ) { define(‘WP_ENV_PLUGINS’, ‘staging’); } else { define(‘WP_ENV_PLUGINS’, ‘production’); }
</li>
</ol>
If you follow this example, note that <code>development-config.php</code> should not be included in your deployments to staging and production, and both <code>development-config.php</code> and <code>staging-config.php</code> should not exist in your production environment.
These assumptions are not going to change, so you need to follow this practice in order to use this plugin correctly.
<h4>How do I set up my environment?</h4>
Once you have installed this plugin (my recommendation is to do it first in development), you will notice that a new link appears under each active plugin of the list, which reads “Use for development only” (note that “development” could also be “staging” or “production”, depending on your <code>WP_ENV_PLUGINS</code> constant). Keep that in mind and follow these steps:
<ol>
<li>Activate all the plugins that you need to use for your environment.</li>
<li>Click the “Use for development only” link for all the plugins you want to mark as development-only.</li>
</ol>
Once you click a link, that plugin will be added to the list of plugins that need to be active only in the current environment. You can click the “No more development only” link if you want to remove the plugin from the list.
<h4>How do I reset my environment after a deploy?</h4>
Once you performed a complete deploy (files and database) to a different environment, let’s say from development to staging, you will see that those plugins you selected in development to be active only in that environment are still active. Fear not! This is an intended behavior, as it would be insecure to change the status of the plugins without your knowledge, so you need to do it manually by just clicking the “Reset Plugins Environment (staging)” button that you see in your admin bar. After that, you should see your development-only plugins as not active.
That’s pretty much it. You can test it yourself before deploying by just changing the values of <code>WP_ENV_PLUGINS</code>.
<h4>Auto-reset mode</h4>
If you prefer your environments to be reset automatically, without clicking any button, you can add a second constant to your configuration file, called <code>WP_ENV_PLUGINS_AUTO_RESET</code>, which should be set to <code>true</code>. If you use this method, you won’t see the reset button in the admin bar anymore (instead, it will be replaced by an environment indicator), but keep in mind that the reset process will run every time a page of your site is loaded. It shouldn’t take a lot of resources, though.
If you use the auto-reset process, using this plugin as a <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Must_Use_Plugins" rel="nofollow ugc">must-use</a> will be a lot more effective.
<h4>Will this plugin work on MultiSite installations?</h4>
If you’re using MultiSite, please note that you can activate and deactivate this plugin globally, but you cannot manage plugin environments for the whole network, just for individual sites. Also, this plugin cannot manage network activated plugins. This is in the to-do list, though.
<h4>Contribute</h4>
You can make suggestions and submit your own modifications to this plugin on <a href="https://github.com/andrezrv/environmental-plugin-manager" rel="nofollow ugc">Github</a>.

Environmental Plugin Manager

Gives you the option to define which plugins must be active for a particular environment only.

Mark McNeece of 365i

Environment Indicator adds a prominent visual indicator to the WordPress admin bar showing the current site environment. This high-visibility indicator helps prevent accidental changes on production sites by making the environment instantly recognizable to logged-in users.
Perfect for developers, agencies, and teams managing multiple environments (development, staging, production) across different sites.
<h4>Key Features</h4>
Smart Environment Detection 
* Automatically detects environment using WordPress core constants (<code>WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE</code>) 
* Supports popular hosting providers: WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, Flywheel 
* Legacy Bedrock constant support (<code>WP_ENV</code>) 
* Subdomain-based heuristics (dev.example.com, staging.example.com) 
* Manual override option for custom setups
Customization Options 
* Custom Colors – Match your branding or personal preferences for each environment 
* Custom Labels – Rename DEV/STAGING/LIVE to LOCAL, UAT, PRODUCTION, or anything you prefer 
* Role-Based Visibility – Control which user roles can see the indicator (great for client sites)
Visual Enhancements 
* Admin bar label (always visible) 
* Full admin bar background coloring (high-visibility option) 
* Browser tab prefix – instantly identify environments across multiple tabs 
* Top border in wp-admin screens 
* Admin footer watermark 
* Dashboard widget showing environment status and system information
Export/Import 
* Export settings as JSON to deploy across multiple sites 
* Import settings from JSON file 
* Perfect for agencies managing client sites with consistent configurations
Multisite Compatible 
* Full support for WordPress multisite installations 
* Network-wide settings when network-activated 
* Per-site settings when activated on individual sites
<h4>How It Works</h4>
Detection runs in this order:
<ol>
<li>WordPress core constant: <code>WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE</code></li>
<li>Legacy constant: <code>WP_ENV</code></li>
<li>Hosting provider constants (WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, Flywheel)</li>
<li>Subdomain patterns (dev, staging, test, qa)</li>
<li>Default to LIVE if no detection</li>
</ol>
You can always override automatic detection and manually select the environment.
<h4>Perfect For</h4>
<ul>
<li>Developers – Never accidentally deploy to the wrong environment</li>
<li>Agencies – Manage multiple client sites with consistent environment indicators</li>
<li>Teams – Everyone instantly knows which environment they’re working in</li>
<li>Managed Hosting – Works out-of-the-box with WP Engine, Pantheon, Kinsta, and Flywheel</li>
</ul>
<h4>Zero Impact on Visitors</h4>
The indicator only displays for logged-in users. Public visitors see no performance impact or visual changes.
<h3>Development</h3>
Development of this plugin happens on GitHub: https://github.com/BSolveIT/environment-indicator
Bug reports and feature requests are welcome!

365i Environment Indicator

Displays a color-coded DEV, STAGING, or LIVE indicator in the admin bar to prevent accidental changes on production sites.

Environmental Plugin Manager vs 365i Environment Indicator