Explore the Top Local WordPress Development Environments

Interested in secure and dependable local WordPress development environments? Explore this in-depth guide to discover the leading options

As a business owner, your online store, blog or website may be your revenue earner or a marketing tool. You don’t want to make minor changes that break the key features of your website.

That’s where a local WordPress development environment comes in. Instead of making changes directly to the hosting server, you’re better off hiring the services of a custom WordPress development company that uses local environments to test those changes. Let’s explore some of the best local WordPress development environments in the market.

1. XAMPP

XAMPP is an open-source and free cross-platform web server stack. The acronym stands for Cross-platform, with Apache HTTP server, MariaDB database, PHP, and Pearl. It is regularly updated with the latest releases of every element in the stack and is compatible with all major operating systems including:

● Linux

● Windows

● MacOS

This powerful environment has everything you need to set up a local website and test it out extensively. The dashboard allows you complete control of all the elements and provides a clutter-free environment for developers without any visual junk. Despite its lack of intuitive design, it is preferred by many developers due to its simplicity. Moreover, it’s completely free. Despite its simplicity, you need deep knowledge and experience in web development to use this environment. To save costs, you can outsource such tasks to reputable WordPress development companies in India.

2. Local

Creating, testing, and launching websites becomes a breeze with Local. This local WordPress development environment has a vast array of features that simplify your workflow and make everything more manageable. This free environment sets up a local WordPress environment for you and comes with an SSL certificate.

If you need to create cloud backups of your website, you can do so by connecting your Google Drive or Dropbox accounts. The environment is designed to help you observe even the most minute changes with an automatic refresh every time you modify and save a CSS file. Some of it’s handy features include:

● Checking for broken links

● Optimizing images

● Viewing, catching, and debugging mail sending

● Site cloning

However, its most prized feature is Local Connect. You can use it to pull sites for offline editing or push them and go live with the click of a button.

3. Docker

Entrepreneurs who own multiple businesses and e-commerce stores would love Docker. A key drawing feature of Docker is “Containers”. It allows you to create containers and create distinct environments in each of them. With a single machine, you can have numerous local WordPress websites that are unique and completely independent.

While some other WordPress development environments use virtual machines to offer this feature, Docker has a unique approach. Instead of creating virtual servers with entire operating systems, each container has all the executable packages that you’ll need for your website. This offers you more flexibility and do more with limited resources. You don’t need to worry about buying expensive computers for your in-house developer. Another option is to cut down on costs and hassles with offshore WordPress development.

Unlike the other options, Docker is more powerful and flexible enough to confidently charge a premium subscription. The personal version is completely free. However, you need to pay $5 or more every month to:

● Set up private repositories

● Add more users

● SSO(Single Sign On)

● Unlimited Hub vulnerability scans and more such features

4. InstantWP

InstaWP stays true to its name by setting up a WordPress development environment within minutes. A fresh and disposable WordPress install takes a single click. Even if you aren’t tech-savvy, you can use this software to test out new plugins, themes, PHP versions, and more before implementing them on your website. If you are keen on saving valuable company resources and worried about reliability, hire a credible and highly regarded offshore web development company in India.

They can use InstantWP to build sandbox websites and share the file with you for approval. That way, you have complete control before the website goes live and recommend additional changes. The greatest feature of InstantWP is probably its portability. You can install it on a USB drive and use it on any computer to test or launch your website. The only downside of this software is that it’s limited to Windows.

Local WordPress development environments are very useful for experimenting and trying out new features, design elements, and other changes on your website without breaking it in any way. Your users remain unaffected while you run extensive tests before making your changes permanent.