Top 5 Best WordPress Localhost Development & Testing Environments

If you are a WordPress developer, you probably do your most of the development work on WordPress localhost development environment and migrate it to production after testing. By doing this you can avoid crashing your production site. If you are testing themes, plugins or just tinkiring around, local environment is the safe place.

Testing environments offer a simple and reasonably priced solution to test themes, plugins, and even new WordPress versions without causing your real site to malfunction. There are lots of WordPress localhost development tools out there and choosing the right software that suits your need might be time consuming and troublesome for some. It is important to know features and options of the software to choose.

In this article, I have prepared the list of Top 5 Best WordPress Localhost Development & Testing Environments which I have tested personally.

XAMPP

An acronym for Apache, MariaDB, PHP, and Perl is XAMPP. In other words, it includes every program required to run WordPress. XAMPP is the most common and useable WordPress localhost development environment. It’s open-source, safe, easy to use and install. And it also comes to help you by adding MariaDB, PHP and Perl. Plus, its main goal to build a simple to install distribution for WordPress developers. Nowadays, it distributions for Windows, Linux, and OS X.

Key Features:

1. Allows you to build up an Apache, MariaDB, PHP, and Perl software stack.
2. Open-source, Safe, Easy to Use and Install.
3. Enables you to manage all of your new services using a straightforward dashboard interface.
4. VM-based local WordPress experience.
5. FileZilla FTP, Mercury mail, and JSP Tomcat server’s

Pricing:

• XAMPP is a 100% free open-source package.

MAMP

MAMP is an acronym for My Apache, MySQL, PHP. It is very similar to XAMPP. MAMP provides all the necessary stacks that is required to run WordPress localhost for development and testing. It also comes with a premium version called MAMP PRO. And you can install extras with it like Drupal or Joomla with some clicks. MAMP is available only for Windows and macOS. There are multiple versions to choose from for each operating system, depending on which version of PHP you want to set up. Plus, you also get access to a lot of additional software, including Python
, Perl, phpMyAdmin, and more.

Key Features:

1. Run on both Mac and Windows
2. Syncs host data through Dropbox
3. Enables you to set up an environment based on Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
4. Supports of additional languages, including Python and Perl.

Pricing:

• MAMP offers two versions. Free version offers limited features. However, there’s also a premium option available. It starts at $59 for both macOS and Windows.

Local By Flywheel

Local By Flywheel is a free WordPress localhost development software for Windows. It is one of the most straightforward tools you can use to set up a local testing environment. Setting up a new website is as simple as clicking on a button, and then choosing a few basic configurations. It is considered as most user friendly software for its genre. With that being said, it does not lacks any of the features that you need for development purpose. There are also further developments on the horizon, such as the ability to import remote sites and enable off-site backups.

Key Features:

1. Lets you view all of your existing project in list and their status.
2. You can create live links of your local projects to share across internet.
3. Can run multiple local websites at one.

Pricing:

• Local By Flywheel is completely to download and use.

DesktopServer

DesktopServer is easy to use software available for Windows and Mac for WordPress localhost development. It has simple step-by-step easy process to set up WordPress site. If you are looking for simple and easy to use solution this might be for you.

Key Features:

1. An Easy, Efficient, and Solid Software
2. Makes it possible to manage up to three local sites, using the software’s free version.
3. Cache control access and Custom Configuration with Blueprints.
4. Import an existing website or Place it on a live Webserver.

Pricing:

• Free Version – The free version offers limited features than other WordPress localhost.
• Paid Version – Starts at $99.95 per year.

Laragon

Laragon is the latest tech tool with a rich, fast, firm, and easy grasp. Also, it’s the best, most rapid, and powerful tool of the modern developer toolkit. It provides super fast, easy-to-use, productive and powerful development environment for all.

Key Features:

1. Instantly creates local site.
2. Modern, Powerful, and Flexible.
3. Pretty URLs, Portable, and Reliable.
4. Works with MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL and MongoDB.
5. Pretty URLs, Portable, and Reliable.

Pricing:

Laragon is 100% Free Open-Source Package.