Reading Time: 6 minutes
In my opinion, one of the reasons why WordPress has captured such a huge share of the market is the easy learning curve that welcomes everyone. so if you are a complete novice or a seasoned dev, chances are that you will have a WordPress powered website up and running within hours.
One of the best things about WordPress development is the fact that you can set up your dev environment anywhere you like and really focus on writing WordPress hooks rather than fiddling with the environment variables. In this regard, your options range from installing it on your local system to a fully managed cloud server.
In this post, I will describe how you can install WordPress locally and set up a fully functional dev environment that supports you whether you are building your first WordPress website or need to punch out a quick demo for a client.
Why Do You Need to Install WordPress Locally?
The entry barrier to using WordPress is very low because it is an open-source platform everyone can freely use it for their projects. Now as I mentioned earlier, WordPress is supported by almost every hosting solution you can think of – from a shared server to fully managed cloud hosting solutions (such as Cloudways where you can launch a full-fledged WordPress site in just a few clicks) you can pick a solution that fits your budget and expertise.
But today, I am only going to discuss WordPress installation locally on your computer. Here are three main reasons why you should have a local WordPress dev environment
Learning and Development
If you are just starting out with local WordPress development and want to polish your skills as a WordPress developer, the offline platform is an ideal option. The best part – there is no cost involved and you can learn WordPress dev at your own pace.
Test New Features
Testing new features on a live site is not a good idea as things can break and affect your business processes. By installing WordPress locally, you have a safe location to test out new features, themes, and plugins.
An Isolated Dev Environment
Local WordPress setup provides an isolated development environment with zero risk and maximum flexibility for experimenting with new tools and techniques. In many cases, you need an environment to test ideas and play around with code. Once you have a prototype ready, you can move it to a test site for QA and improvements.
How to Install WordPress On Localhost?
Installing WordPress on localhost is very straightforward.
The important thing to remember is that WordPress itself does not run directly on your local machine. It requires a web server, PHP, and a database (MySQL is a popular choice) for proper operations. The combination of these components creates the environment in which WordPress operates.
Typically, the process
[…]
This article was written by Ibad Ur Rehman and originally published on The Official Cloudways Blog.