# Staging vs Production

## Staging Environment

The staging environment is used for testing the application before releasing it to production.

Characteristics:
- Used by developers and testers.
- Simulates the production environment.
- Safe place to test new features.
- Failures do not affect real users.

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## Production Environment

The production environment is the live environment used by customers.

Characteristics:
- Serves real users.
- Requires high availability.
- Changes should be approved before deployment.
- Monitoring and alerting must always be enabled.

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## Key Differences

| Staging | Production |
|----------|------------|
| Testing | Live Environment |
| Internal Users | Real Customers |
| Safe to Experiment | Stable and Reliable |
| Bugs are Acceptable | Bugs Must Be Minimized |
