- Order and provision web hosting for the top level domain (example.com, NOT dev.example.com)
- Login to cPanel for the new account.
- Go to the Subdomains page.
- Create the new dev subdomain in the public_html directory
- *If using Cloudflare or other external DNS servers, be sure to point the dev subdomain to the new web server IP with an A record.
- Install WordPress or whatever website content as needed on the subdomain.
- When you are ready to launch the site, you just need to update the root domain A Record to the new web server IP. (cPanel by default maps the top level domain to the top level of public_html)
*You may need to update the URL settings in WordPress or the CMS you are using to reflect the top level domain instead of the dev. URL to stop it from loading the dev.domain.