Best Way To Develop and Migrate Site

[elise.d]

Hi guys,

I've searched through the forum and found some similar topics but I'm very new with the hosting / server side of things so really need some help with the basics.

I've developed new sites before (with Genesis) and it's been done in a sub directory on a web agencies server. When I was ready to go live and replace the old site with the new the agency did it all for me.

I about to start dev on a new site which will replace an existing site. I'm really confused about how I should do this now and for future projects.

Is it best to get a separate hosting account for the dev project and create the new site there? I'm going to be using one of your themes for the site and not really doing any cutsomisation beside some basic css.

Or, is it possible / just as easy to create the site in a sub directory under my domain? This would save me paying for hosting on another account.

I have purchased the Backup Buddy plugin and intend to use that for the migration but I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed.

For the current project they will be moving to a new web host so I'm thinking I'll create the dev site on the new host account and when it's ready I'll just change the DNS to point to that server. However, I was thinking I could create the dev site by using the IP address but it seems I need to have a domain to make it work. This is probably really basic and a stupid question but do you have to have a domain or is it just not working because when I installed wordpress (using 5min quick install) I entered their live domain?

I guess what I need to know is what are the basic steps to create a new site in a test environment and then migrate it to the live site?

I think I've just confused myself even more with all this, hopefully I don't have everyone elses heads spinning too.

I'd really like to get my head around how it all works as it really stresses me out when it's all just grey area. You guys have always been amazing with your support and explain things in a way that I can understand which is why I'm posting here.

Thanks in advance and feel free to add in sarcasm the answer is right in front of my face and I'm just being dumb

Elise