Localhost, staging and development environments won’t get counted toward the license’s maximum allowed sites if its domain name is clearly a dev or staging site.
TLDs that are considered as dev or staging:
- *.dev
- *.dev.cc (DesktopServer)
- *.test
- *.local
- *.staging
- *.example
- *.invalid
- *.myftpupload.com (GoDaddy)
- *.cloudwaysapps.com (Cloudways)
- *.wpsandbox.pro (WPSandbox)
- *.ngrok.io (tunneling)
- *.mystagingwebsite.com (Pressable)
- *.tempurl.host (WPMU DEV)
- *.wpmudev.host (WPMU DEV)
- *.websitepro-staging.com (Vendasta)
- *.websitepro.hosting (Vendasta)
- *.instawp.xyz (InstaWP)
Subdomains that are considered as dev or staging:
- local.*
- dev.*
- test.*
- stage.*
- staging.*
- stagingN.* (SiteGround; N is an unsigned int)
- *.wpengine.com (WP Engine)
- dev-*.pantheonsite.io (Pantheon)
- test-*.pantheonsite.io (Pantheon)
- staging-*.kinsta.com (Kinsta)
- staging-*.kinsta.cloud (Kinsta)
Additionally, if your domain is localhost (with any port), it will also be treated as a localhost domain. If you want to utilize a license on a dev site that doesn’t fit the criteria listed above you can deactivate the license from within the Account page in your WP Admin dashboard, and then reuse the license.