I really have no idea how this will turn out. I suspect a ton of you have run or are currently running WordPress locally, but I have no clear guess on what the most popular way is to do that right now.
[poll id=”56″]
Let’s limit the poll to how you are actually doing it, not how you wish you were doing it. And if you don’t work with WordPress, but do work with a project that has similar dependencies (i.e. a server-side language, a database, and a web server), feel free to vote based on that project.
I love Vagrant
Laravel Valet is pretty much the best thing ever.
+1
Valet is amazing…outside of directory multi-site ¯_(ツ)_/¯
For that I use local by flywheel.
+1
Valet is the best
+1 Valet is amazing
I second valet. Simple to use.
I agree. Valet + MariaDB is so much netter than MAMP. Lovely lightweight solution
+1 Valet
The WP-CLI Valet Command makes setting up a WordPress environment a piece of cake.
+1 for Valet.
Hands down the simplest server setup for mac.
I use Kalabox (Docker-based) for local WP dev.
Gotta give XAMPP a shout-out. Has served me well for close to a decade and I have yet to find a tool I prefer for managing a ton of project sites.
I’m using Valet now (from the Laravel Team). I was using MAMP for years and made the switch a few months ago. It’s the easiest/quickest way to start working on a new project in my opinion.
Since a few months I use Laravel Valet. I also use it for WordPress sites. Super easy to set up, not resource intensive and really fast. Love it!
https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/valet
wp core download
mysql.server start
php – S localhost:8000
Lol Nice! #hipster
I’ve used OSX built in AMP stack, I’ve used server press and Vagrant with vvv and right now all my WordPress sites locally are in ‘local by fly wheel – formally pressmatic – so simple.
Went the MAMP & Vagrant route & now I really enjoy Laravel Valet for most local projects:
https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/valet
I use DesktopServer Premium, easy to setup and use.
Recently fell in love with the simplicity of Laravel’s Valet, a slimmed-down version of their local dev environment, Homestead.
I switched last year from MAMP to Laravel’s Valet.
The answers here have been surprising to me since I haven’t heard of Valet until now. Thank you everybody for chiming in. I work at a large corporation that does quite a bit of WordPress work and I personally use Vagrant via VVV. I used to solely use MAMP, but I’m finding VVV to be a timesaver when dealing with lots of different sites. I may have to give Valet a try!
LEMP stack on the Linux subsystem on Windows.
I am using XAMPP but I am looking to starting to use Docker just to see how well the portability is between Windows and Linux is.
I’m currently using virtual machines (VirtualBox with Ubuntu 16.04 VM’s) for development servers, which mirror their production servers on Linode. WordPress runs on nginx with PHP 7.
I alter my hosts file to swap between development and production servers, pointing the domain to either one of the servers.
Whenever I need to spin-up a new VM, I use a seed VM and clone it. The initial seed VM took a little bit of setting up, but it was worth it as I can clone a new VM from it in seconds.
All WordPress themes and plugins are managed with git. I commit and push to either GitHub or my own GitLab instance from the development VM’s, before pulling on the production servers. It’s all a bit convoluted, but works for me :)
Docker, plus some Rails shortcuts to deploy, backup, migrate from dev with 2 commands.
Valet is good for a quick WordPress project, but if you need anything even remotely resembling a production environment, or multiple services (Redis, Varnish, etc.) Vagrant boxes configured with PuPHPet is a really easy and straightforward solution.
Another vote for Laravel Valet here.
XAMPP, but it’s limited in some of the things it can do.
I’m using VirtualHostX v6 standing upon the usual OSX configured AMP stack. I like its simplicity, as well as it’s integration with the VirtualHost app, both by Tyler Hall
I’ve used Instant WordPress for a few years, now, and find it to be great for quick layout testing and the like.
The developer claims that it’s easy to transfer from a local site to your live site, but I can’t comment on that aspect, as I’ve never done it.
I run a dev VPS on digitalocean.com. Nothing beats a development environment that is accessible from anywhere, on any device, and does not require any addititional setup when you work from a computer that is not your regular machine.
InstantWP, I don’t think I would have it any other way. Run the exe and it just works.
I’ve been using scotch.io’s Scotch Box for some time and have been trying to move myself over to Docker, but the suggestions here in the comments make me want to try out Laravel Valet or Flywheel Local instead. Very cool suggestions.
I’ll be very curious about how this changes over time.
I’ve also used Instant WordPress for the majority of my projects over the last few years. It’s not particularly sophisticated, but for easy, portable local WordPress installs, it’s pretty great.
I USE XAMP
https://box.scotch.io/ with WPDistillery. Works like a charm.
Currently I’m using XAMPP/WAMP with manually defined vhosts.
I tried the VVV box for Vagrant but the setup for custom websites is just plain painful, Laravel Homestead on the other hand is very easy to setup (played with it for a bit) so I might try that with WordPress
In the actual state, it’s impossible to make a proper workflow using shared hosting, which are the most of WP websites.
However *AMPP count will go down, due the same reason, in favor of Vagrant and Docker (Bedrock anyone?).
I’m curious what you find it is impossible to have a proper workflow with shared hosting. Would you mind elaborating?
In my personal case, for example, I could enable auto-upload in my IDE of choice for development purposes, and use a deployment tool such as Jenkins to rsync the production build to the shared hosting (you can run rsync on most shared hosting, including GoDaddy).
It is certainly really (really) slow as WordPress tends to run very poorly without cache on shared hosting, but in my case it “works”.
I’ve voted ‘Other’ and I elaborate here the choice.
I use an array of VMs, but not (still) vagrant for various use cases, connected in a virtual environment so I can (in addition to containerize various WP versions/plugins) simulate low bandwidth connections, loss of link resilience and so on. Because a site is not only what you see, but also what user don’t directly perceive.
Using UniServer Z at the moment. I did try WAMP and XAMPP in the past, but found their UI a bit of a pain to get used to in the end.
Local by flywheel for :
– Easy and fast setup,
– Local domains,
– External URL to share some tests.
Bitnami
Been using MAMP for a while but looking at switching to Local by Flywheel
PuPHPet most of the time, but I find myself using
$ wp serverquite a lot recently, so I would add wp-cli to the list.I’ve tried wamp, actually several times; but, not being immersed in this 24/7 as a vocation, the thing is so convoluted and difficult that I give up. Until, alas, at some later date when I’ve forgotten the troubles I had, the need becomes great enough that I try again. Within a few iterations I’ve given up again.
However, now with the recent several so-called “upgrades” of WordPress where they’ve screwed up the “tiny” editor so bad for me I’ve just got to find a “better way.” With both wamp and WordPress being so “open source” I can’t believe that someone, somewhere can’t package an “all-in-one” solution for us “avocational” users.
So, I’m among the “other” voters; except that there really is no “other” that I’m using.
Desktop Server Premium is my WP server of choise.
https://local.getflywheel.com/
For MySQL, I use the official MySQL package for Mac. The rest (PHP and Nginx) are compiled from source!
I like Vagrant with Scotch Box. May be overkill for some of my projects though.
Only using cloud9 (c9.io) for more than a year.
One click virtual machines for every project, accessible from everywhere, not using my laptop ram and cpu !
I’ve just moved to trellis by roots, loving it
I’m a long time user of MAMP, but switched to Local by Flywheel late last year and I absolutely love it. Spinning up a new local site is so much faster and easier than MAMP. The Blueprints feature is great too, among other things.
It’s tough to beat Roots Trellis.
https://roots.io/trellis/
It’s Vagrant plus a lot more! And it’s fairly simply and easy setup for a whole environment.
MAMP. Easy to emulate any dev environment (PHP version, etc..). Using it for WordPress and other.
I have used MAMP Pro since version 1, but I have some serious problems with version 4 (result: frequently corrupted database) so for the moment I replaced it with Local by Flywheel.
Local uses Docker and VirtualBox and is quite user friendly.
I’ve used xampp a lot in the past, but I’m currently working on a multisite installation that has been a huge headache so I’m developing on a remote server to match the environment it’ll have on live. I like live testing servers because I can log in from anywhere and pull a copy of my files. I don’t find it tedious to upload and test changes.
I used to run AMP directly on my mac, but lately I’ve been using Local by Flywheel and it’s amazing
XAMPP in 95% of all cases. Without the GUI, so I voted “other”. It’s for beginners at best, anyway (the GUI, not XAMPP!).
In the rest 5%, its mostly a complete VM setup with classic LAMP (GNU/Debian) straight from the package repositories or entirely self-compiled. Docker does not seem advantagous, as I need to partially or entirely replicate specific and exact setups.
cu, w0lf.
I used XAMPP for years and MAMPP before that. Now I use Vagrant but I guess I’ll give Valet a shot since everyone here is praising it so much :)
I do C# ASP.NET on Windows and decided to learn PHP and WordPress. I finally settled on Vagrant/VVV to end the built-for-mac-ported-to-windows port wars.
That said learning to use PhpStorm after being spoiled by VisualStudio has been I think an even more compelling issue to discuss.