Automating Elementor deployments and backups with GitLab CI

CI/CD Automation for Elementor with GitLab CI and WP-CLI

In a B2B company that manages multiple sites with Elementor, every minute of manual implementation can translate into high costs and critical errors. With Elementor GitLab CI WP-CLI you can:

Implement changes in seconds after a merge.
Generate consistent code and database backups.
Reduce marketing campaign deployment time from hours to minutes.

1. Why does your company need this automation?

Efficiency: Atomized deployments that avoid downtime.
Security: Automatic backups with configurable retention.
Traceability: Complete history of changes with Git.
Scalability: Apply the pipeline to 1 or 100 Elementor sites.

2. Solution architecture

Stage	Tool	Description
Build	npm / Composer	Dependency installation and linters.
Backup	WP-CLI	Database dump and zip of `uploads/`.
Test	PHPUnit	Code and schema validation.
Deploy	GitLab Runner + SSH	Atomic deployment in production.

3. Step-by-step guide

3.1 Repository configuration

Create develop and main branches in GitLab.
In Settings → CI/CD → Variables, define:
- SSH_PRIVATE_KEY
- WP_URL, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD
Ignore logs, .gitignore and secrets in uploads/.

3.2 Example of .gitlab-ci.yml

stages:
  - build
  - backup
  - test
  - deploy

variables:
  GIT_DEPTH: "1"
  BACKUP_DIR: "backups/$(date +%F_%H-%M)"

before_script:
  - apt-get update -y && apt-get install openssh-client -y
  - eval $(ssh-agent -s)
  - echo "$SSH_PRIVATE_KEY" | tr -d '\r' | ssh-add -
  - mkdir -p ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh
  - ssh-keyscan $WP_URL >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

…(continues with the backup, test and deploy stages as in the previous example)…

4. Security best practices

Encryption of sensitive variables with masking.
Backup retention: 7–14 days maximum.
Periodic restore tests in staging.
SSH key rotation every 3 months.

5. Use cases and real ROI

For a hotel chain of 12 properties, this flow allowed:

Reduce deployments from 60 → 5 minutes.
Restore in case of error in < 3 minutes.
Marketing autonomy to validate staging without developers.

Impact: Estimated savings of €15,000 per year in developer time and fewer losses due to unavailability.

6. Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

What is GitLab CI for WordPress?

It is a continuous integration system that automates build, test, and deployment tasks on your WordPress sites.

How does WP-CLI protect my data?

WP-CLI allows you to export DB and files programmatically, ensuring consistency before each deploy.

7. Next step: your personalized demo

Are you interested in optimizing your workflow and minimizing risks? Request a free B2B demo and discover how we reduce deployment time by 80% in real projects.