Desktop Server could at least complete a migration from remote to local, but it still regularly messes up my URLs. From there, it offers links to download bitnami modules for WordPress and other applications. This setup has actually made me better at understanding the complexities of the server and therefore helped me in my development path. This is very timely for me as Im finally upgrading from MacOS Yosemite (10.10) to Sierra (10.12). The default is to install phpMyAdmin, which is the admin panel you would use if you were going to go in an monkey with your WordPress database. Next I tried just setting up a LAMP stack and ran into never ending MySql errors, regardless of how I installed MySql or MariaDB. Duplicator Pro still needs a pile of other actions and knowledge to get the job done. Its great when it works, but Ive encountered problems with in on more than one occassion. Yup, following in the footsteps of other open source enthusiasts like Rasmus Lerdorf, Mark Suttleworth and Richard Stallman. We have a much better option now . Definitely not renewing the DesktopServer subscription this year, though if 4.0 ever comes out, Ill certainly kick the tires on the free version. I was reading your article because I have a problem with MAMP Pro. . I like to use WAMP Server for Windows because its easy to configure the advanced settings for the applications. Im definitely going to give Local a try. Platform-specific notes are included where necessary in the following sections. I knew there are always some good comments after a review. . MAMP, like XAMPP, doesnt give you much help in creating virtual hosts. Valet is something Im looking forward to trying in near future too, been hearing nice things about it. Uncheck this unless you want to learn about cloud hosting through Bitnami. Day-to-day I still use MAMP Pro for most of my local development. Ive always found using a Vagrant box to be the best option for an as close as possible to an actual server set up. Youll need to install XAMPP-VM for Mac to be able to install XAMPP addons separately. If you do, youll getport conflicts as well as some MySQL errors. While I like Local by you-know-who, I always felt it is somewhat on the slow side a remote site on standard serverpilot/OVH VPS is about twice as fast in the WP backend and it really likes to use a lot of resources, CPU, RAM, and even disk space for the Docker disk image. Hey Daren! The point to a localhost is to speed up development I thought. As a long-time MAMP Pro user, I do wish that DesktopServer had a better site management UI. Add your name, email and login info you want for the blog. You will have to spend 5 minutes doing it yourself. Thx. In order to use hostnames other than //localhost, you have to dive into XAMPPs Apache config and define them yourself. I dont want to create a new website, I want to work on an existing one, that has a Git repository. currently using Vagrant and Docker depending on how i feel that day. Reading your MAMP Pro "slow as molasses" aside as well as the comments here, Im half way inclined to try Laravel Valet again, despite the ridiculously incontrollable amount of stuff that gets installed by Homebrew and Composer, and some rather mysterious errors and white screens I had when last testing it. Whats more, Local gives you quite a few options in terms of server type (Apache or Nginx), PHP version, and MySQL. Will now boot to Linux and see how far I get in the xampp, mamp, wamp kerfuffle. Just by adding a new folder to the web root, the app will detect it and automatically set up your local hosts file domain for it. It presents itself as a "small" app with a simple interface and system tray icon. Especially for non-technical people who rely on WordPress for their livelihood, Bitnami makes a ton of sense because its worlds easier than the alternatives. Ive recently started using Laragon for Windows. Been trying to migrate some of them to run in Docker containers, so theres less stuff needing to be run locally. In case you were wondering, the stack consists of the following components: Now, if you werent using the Bitnami Stack, youd be installing each of those components separately. Uncheck this unless you want to learn about cloud hosting through Bitnami. Sign up for my newsletter and get your free copy. Though their most recent version Local Lightning only supports one addon out of 5, offering you to enable XDebug support for PHPStorm. https://medium.com/@timneutkens/introducing-valet-blazing-fast-php-development-environment-46be91604bb2 https://sridhar.blog/tag/valet/. I write highly researched content in a conversational toneview my samples here: http://ivyleaguecontent.com/#work. Did you have any specific issues? https://github.com/jonathanbossenger/scotch-box I also prefer vagrant because it just works across any platform, including you poor souls who are forced to use Mac. This is a highly appreciated feature for development. One-click apps defaulting with WordPress, Drupal, and Laravel, but you can create more. DS keeps promising a patch, even an update. After my failed attempt, I created a MacOS virtual machine so that I could provide XAMPP with the completely blank slate that it needed. ; P - Stands for PHP, which is the stack's . Heres a taste of how easy it was for me to install it on my laptop. Auto installer for the stack, WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and others. If your applications . Locals "Lightning" update has made things quite fast, I wonder how it would compare with Laragon. You'll need to install XAMPP-VM for Mac to be able to install XAMPP addons separately. Both of these hypervisors are available free of charge. Couldnt quite believe how easy it was. 0 0 0 comments Best Add a Comment [deleted] 2 yr. ago [removed] The issues were gong after deleted Macport and reinstalled Homebrew. First, you need to go to wordpress.org and download the latest version of WordPress. I use it on Windows and Mac. Domain management. It sets up servers, pushes your changes to production or staging servers with a simple command. In case you were wondering, the stack consists of the following components: Now, if you werent using the Bitnami Stack, youd be installing each of those components separately. I started with MAMP a long time ago, then DesktopServer, then Pressmatic / Local. Thats why the XAMPP tutorial is so darned long. Local is packed with a bunch of useful features including an Apache or Nginx web server, SSL certificates, MailHog, and XDebug support. Its been around for longer than most web developers and offers a workable solution. If you use HyperV on Win10, Windows virtualization suite (which is rock solid virtualization), you cant run Local and unfortunately Local just hangs on startup No error message, no progress, no log, it just hangs on the startup screen. /usr/local/opt is not writable. Thanks for the tip. Speaking of deployment, the Premium Software has a built-in deployment functionality which makes it super easy to deploy to a live site. Getting started - Toms Cot. Being able to switch those on the fly or at least select different configs for different dev sites is extremely helpful. The plugin I made to the fish site works fine, I worked with mysql I had been working with MAMP Pro for years, but wanted something that gave me more control and found a great post on setting up the whole gamut via Homebrew. Honestly, Im only withholding the last semicolon because I still have two more reviews to do and I dont want to have to refactor this highly intuitive rating system. XAMPP is a little challenging to get started with (and I admittedly have never used it on a Mac) but once youre comfortable with it I find its extremely flexible. With MAMP (free), this DIY requirement just involves unzipping the latest release of WordPress in MAMPs default webroot at /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/, creating a database. XAMPP, which you may be surprised to find out is pronounced Shamp, is probably the oldest local development environment around and possibly the most complex. Install the bitnami wordpress by double-cliking the downloaded EXE file. . Local is near perfection. On top of the free version, Local offers two paid plans for individuals and teams costing $20/month and $50/month respectively. Bitnami WordPress Stack. If you do, youll get port conflicts as well as some MySQL errors. Theres a better way, and its called Bitnami. And by Kansas, we mean theMad Men Is it content, or is it marketing? While it used to run in virtual containers, Local Lightning makes use of system-level software to run your sites, which makes it much faster. Get rid of your existing XAMPP installation and start fresh with the one Bitnami will install for you. Even the index page of your XAMPP local server recommends using Bitnami to install the applications you'd need. When ServerPress is asked when they intend to support modern PHP, they seem to skirt the issue and shut the conversation down, so it is clearly a bit of a sore point for them. We heard that Flywheel is working on a paid Pro version unless its 5k a copy, we shal definitely buy it By the way, have you ever tried Kalabox? Moved from DesktopServer to Local by Flywheel to Valet+. Believe Local by Flywheel uses Docker, so started reading about that and Vagrant and Valet. I normally use mamp but used local for first time recently and got some ajax errors pushing the theme to a remote server (database was OK), of course these errors may not be down to local could be plugins etc but just wondered if you knew of anything that might be a problem such as the way local stores the sites in a app folder? Learn more about the benefits of the Bitnami Application Catalog. Didnt know about this, will probably try soon. Not really. On the Bitnami WordPress Stack page- click on Next. Bitnami tutorials simply dont seem to exist in droves, probably because theyre not very necessary. Im surprised to see it mentioned at all, let alone 4 star rating. Thanks again for the great article! I was lucky enough to have a friend do my XAMP installation for me (hes an actual web developer). Cannot recommend it enough. In his free time, he's probably working at a side project. Ive had far fewer issues and have much deeper control over my local environment without MAMP adding its complexities for the sake of simplicity something that I no longer require. So if you ever wanted to switch to Windows for local development, MAMP is an option. I would have given it a perfect 5 if WP-CLI was somehow accessible directly. No more cowboy coding . Certainly none of the options are perfect. If anyone is interested in a great run down of how to set it up, I recommend it: https://getgrav.org/blog/macos-sierra-apache-multiple-php-versions, Thanks for the nice reviews! Let us know in the comments! I use XAMPP on Windows 10 Pro for various webdev projects. You might get an alert that tells you Windows Firewall has blocked some features of this app. Then theres the Bitnami Cloud Hosting advertisement which asks you if you want to learn more. turning off antivirus, firewall, put it in airplane mode, turned off my backup, changed adjusting the minimum processor state, excluding xampp in Windows defender, changed the max_execution time on php.ini, but its still slow and even with Internet disabled and one drive sync turned off. I paid for a DesktopServer Pro subscription in October 2015 when I thought 4.0 was right around the corner. XAMPP doesnt allow you to switch between different versions of PHP, instead it has different download packages with different PHP versions included. Thanks for the rundown, Id gone from WAMP, to XAMPP, to MAMP, to VirtualBox, to Vagrant/VB, to Docker, and now Homebrew services (nginx, mariadb, php) on my mac has been pretty turnkey for getting all these things running. The local by fly wheel site looks new and fresh, you know, flat design and all of that. It provides an easy interface to share your sites on the internet using Ngrok. WAMP enables switching between versions of PHP, apache, mysql just by a single click (windows services will restart automatically via console script). Local is almost perfect. Local by Flyweel is also a great tool. The rest of the applications offer paid versions with more features. The best part about Local is that all of this is currently included in the free version of the product. So its really designed for making a few big changes like copying, moving, and removing sites. Thanks I enjoyed reading this and found it helpful! Local does make this very easy, just right click the site name in the sidebar and select Open Site Shell. At least it comes with an uninstaller. Windows is and always will be poorly supported for PHP development, because hardly anyone deploys PHP projects to Windows servers. Im very happy with it and I think you should include it in your next review. For MacOS, youll need to install WordPress directly in XAMPPs site directory as recently OS X native modules have been deprecated. No, thats not a trick question. Simply allow Apache HTTP Server to communicate on these networks. and the default is that your private home network is checked. Then theres the Bitnami Cloud Hosting advertisement which asks you if you want to learn more. When Local came around I jumped and I have been very happy. Add your name, email and login info you want for the blog. The default is to install phpMyAdmin, which is the admin panel you would use if you were going to go in an monkey with your WordPress database. Ive used AMPPS for years. For example: most devs work on more than one project, so its extremely helpful to be able to quickly spin up a new web server with dedicated urls. I only paid for Pressmatic about 3 months before Flywheel bought it! Just upload the file to your WP site from the DASHBOARD. In practice, however, maybe not so much. I'd suggest you download and install xampp. Thanks for the comparison, though. I use VmWare with full stack servers running inside of some kind of Vagrant Box, usually an Ubuntu 16 (LTS) Bento Box. MAMP Pro also provides Python, Perl, and Ruby via the command line. We have another complete article covering Laravel Valet, VVV ( Vagrant), Chassis, etc. For all the freelance writers out there who use WordPress to make a living, there are very few who relish developing the kind of knowledge it takes to do all this. Quick note: after an update left Valet+ unable to start, and then having to spend a few hours getting the far too many spinning wheels needed for it to somehow magically realign, Ive switched back to Mamp Pro, and for the last week or so have been quite happy using it. Additionally, it installs MAMP Pro which you can use as a free trial for 2 weeks but will cost you $79 after that. and Wamp, Local by Flywheel was a BREATH OF FRESH air!! Im not super impressed with XAMPP for this reason alone. The main reason to upgrade seems to be that the free version will only let you create three sites, while the $100/yr premium version lifts this limitation. https://medium.com/@petehegman/my-wordpress-dev-setup-using-laravel-tools-to-improve-your-wordpress-development-f1b08de02d3d. It also greatly reduces the risk of making and breaking changes on a live web server. https://laragon.org/ Laragon for me is the the best localhost webserver without any doubt (for windows). The software is . Choose from 50 popular open source applications, including SugarCRM, Alfresco, Drupal, WordPress, Redmine, JasperServer, Joomla! Additionally, it includes WP-CLI installed on each site by default as a developer plugin (meaning that when you deploy, the plugin stays local and does not get shipped with the site), NGROK integration for sharing of your site across the internet through a secure tunnel (perfect for the developer who wants to show it to their client), the ability to import archives from most popular backup plugins (Duplicator, Backup Buddy, Updraft, etc), and the ability to export from a local site to a .zip archive for remote deployment or creation of blueprints (perfect for people who start out with the same theme or framework and plugins for every site), Bypass login (allows you to bypass the administrative login on local sites), Dreamweaver support, and a few other things. If you've ever manually installed WordPress, the rest of the process should feel pretty familiar. You cant use anything above PHP 8.0.0 (they have been promising an update for a long time), if on windows using Apache you must have it installed on drive C, and any sites you add must be on Drive C for it to work. WP is only what it is due to the open source and community. Very helpful article. The process isnt fun and its entirely possible to make mistakes. Ive used all of these for years, and like you favored MAMP Pro, but warming to Local, because woah have you seen ALL those tech specs on that download page , On Windows, Laragon is pretty amazing. Dont forget https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-cli-valet-command. MAMP is a pretty general-purpose offering and the free version doesnt package installers for WordPress or any other applications. Such a pitty. Googled the issues I was having and realized I was FAR from the only one. . Find your favorite application in our catalog and launch it. Not really, Ive been using Local myself recently and dont have any issues running the plugin. It creates an isolated environment with many things already installed and available via command line: Git, Node.js, NPM, SSH, xDebug, Composer, etc. The latest version (as of April 2018) uses PHP v.7. Ive recently discovered Laragon for Window, which has taken all my problems away. We use Local at our agency and we are very satsified! You alsohave to name things like databases, and answer questions relating to those names. Im beginning to think that this installation section is a bit superfluous as the install process for DesktopServer is pretty much the same as MAMP or XAMPP. I dont recall any problems setting up Local on Window. MAMP Pro, on the other hand, does all of this and more via an easy-to-use, albeit ugly, native application. On Windows I found Laragon to be exceptional. - DiMithras Nov 29, 2022 at 22:27 You can run WP-CLI, Composer, and Laravel Artisan commands right from your host without having to install and manage those packages on your host, and you dont need to SSH in to the Docker containers to run them, so its very easy to use. While this is technically what any local development setup requires, most of the other options that were reviewing here do this for you pretty seamlessly. Timely reviews since Im looking for a dev environment for a couple of future projects. I also recommend it to anyone who is just beginning with WordPress (users or developers). Theres more to this three site limitation, as explained by Marc Benzakein, Operations Manager at ServerPress. ;;;; ; (3/5 semicolons) I was so happy with DesktopServer and got so disappointed when their promised new version just never released. Beyond that, there are other advantages to the Premium Membership. WAMP vs XAMPP Server - What's the Difference? When it finished its thing, I had a new WordPress install at 127.0.0.1 which isnt exactly what I wanted. Though you can also find the Perl command line tool optionally available in MAMP Pro. Ignore this recommendation. ; ; ; ; ; (1/5 semicolons) What is XAMPP? I tried it a year ago but it was still too immature, now apparently they are releasing a 3.0 version (called Lando) so maybe its time to give it another try. Okay so far. The major differences between MAMP, XAMPP, DesktopServer, and Local is the ability to manage multiple sites and ease of use. Im a 65 year old web developer newbie. The process isnt fun and its entirely possible to make mistakes. Not quite sure what all DesktopServer does behind the scenes but Local usually needs to update /etc/hosts file for the custom domains to work. I also wanted to clear up what the "3 site" limit really is. It has a bit of a load time, but after loading, it is the fastest local wordpress server of the various methods Ive tested. Many times when migrating between local and remote copies, my URLs would get messed up. MAMP installation was a breeze compared to SHAMPP. By way of an update, and a less expensive solution than either of those, Ive found that Bitnami and Updraft are a great combo to get our site cloned and running locally. Thanks for the Valet Plus pointer. While it does give you a couple of options for server environments (you can use Apache or Nginx, as well as select between a couple PHP and MySQL versions), it doesnt let you run multiple types of environments at the same time or do any of the legwork of setting up new sites for you. It seems the only solutions to sync db are manual. That said, my Windows machine with WSL makes setting up a LAMP stack super easy. Bitnami's Best Practices for Securing and Hardening Helm Charts; Backup and Restore Apache Kafka Deployments on Kubernetes; Backup and Restore Cluster Data with Bitnami and Velero; Read all tutorials. Its easier than you think to install a local version of WordPress on your laptop. Had loads of mysql errors myself today when I setup a few sites in Mamp. As a free Vagrant option Id mention Trellis (https://roots.io/trellis/) which helps you to build WordPress sites in a modern environment. This tutorial uses a Mac OS X native installer, but similar steps apply on Windows and Linux platforms. Then it launches the stack and you get five options, the first of which will be the one you want. Local also supports community developed addons which helps you modify and extend the apps functionality. Developing in a local environment lets you make changes to dev sites quickly and easily without having to transfer files anywhere. Sep 23, 2014 at 23:36. I like it for other reasons! Good info. I first tried installing XAMPP under a new user on my Mac laptop. When it comes to Local vs Mamp Pro I think you have to choose between your computer being slowed down a little with Locals VM usage or your sites being slow with MAMP Pro (also I cant keep mysql running for longer than a few hours before I need to killall -9 mysqld). So, its a ton of support (if needed) along with a bunch of features. Ive always felt better running in a virtual environment outside of the mac ecosystem. It seems more lightweight and was easy to add phpMyAdmin instead of the rather odd DB tool it shipped with. WordPress packaged by Bitnami provides a one-click install solution for WordPress. Sandbox. https://media.giphy.com/media/26ufdipQqU2lhNA4g/giphy.gif. FYI There are also tabs for Manage Servers where you can see that MySQL and Apache are both running. WAMP provides support for MySQL and PHP. These websites can all have unique domain names and can be customized by their owners, while sharing assets such as themes and plugins that are made available by the server admin. Not only because Ive been using it for years and Im already entrenched, but also because I often need to access my dev sites via the CLI. Sure git can sync /wp-content easily enough, but what about the db? Laravel Valet is such a neat command line software to use in the Mac environment. For a WordPress developer who doesnt want to fuss with too many settings, DesktopServer is a great option. I decided to try Local, but ended up frustrated. Finally, I set up MAMP. MAMP Pro picks up where MAMP left off and is well worth its $79 price tag. Noties: WordPress will install phpmyadmin and Apache, therefor it will not need Xampp. You can also configure different MySQL/PHP versions per site while creating it, with the option to download different versions. Not sure what to do when MacOS 10.13 hits I hate waiting to upgrade OS but relying on a dev environment that youre not sure will work on the next version of the OS forces that on you! This is useful for developers but for writers not so much. Agreed. The whole process is just about an hour. Im not much for managed WordPress hosting, I like a normal LAMP environment for ease of use with GIT personally, but I think youre article accurately sums up these tools. Most of all though, you shouldnt have to be a sysadmin in order to be able to spin up, maintain, and tear down development environments on your local server. You can probably chalk this up to MAMPs focus on the Mac platform because the installer looks and feels at home on MacOS. X - This is used because XAMPP is a cross-platform tool that can be used in conjunction with all major operating systems. Nice review but I cannot install local by flywheel on my laptop. From there, it offers links to download bitnami modules for WordPress and other applications. Ive tried Local by Flywheel and I loved it. Once youve chosen your local development environment tool, see our advice on the best setup for your local WordPress development environment. He builds free and premium WordPress themes and plugins for WooCommerce.com and WordPress.com. Both the Bitnami WordPress installer and XAMPP come bundled with these three software to make it easy to get a WordPress site running on your local computer. NOTE: Bitnami native installers are available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms. Its a great tool to keep your projects separate on different virtual machines, it handles dev/staging/production environments and after small configuration it is fully automatized. I fired up Local By Flywheel and within an hour had a new site up and running on my Windows 10 laptop. Instant WordPress. These software listings are packaged by Bitnami. Following the same suite as XAMPP, DesktopServer doesnt allow you to switch between different PHP versions which makes it less interesting for me. Not really problematic, and less hassle than chasing down the components and installing them manually. One may work well with AWS plugins and services and the other just needs a searchable database. The respective trademarks mentioned in the offerings are owned by the respective companies, and use of them does not imply any affiliation or endorsement. Originally called Pressmatic, Local was later acquired by Flywheel who has since been giving it away for free to all new users. If we dont support OS, how can we justifiably use WP? First, make sure you dont already have XAMPP installed. 6- go to xampp phpmyadmin Login as root or whatever then add new Database and call it as same as in the wp-config.php define ( 'DB_NAME', ' bitnami_wordpress ' ); With this database selected go to import "Next to . If you know of any advantages to installing a local version of WP via XAMPP over Bitnami, please chime in and straighten me out. The software has its glitchy moments, however. This is where DesktopServer really shines when compared to MAMP/XAMPP. Whereby I just dont get it. I also enjoy being able to switch PHP versions on the fly when necessary and not having to pay for MAMP PRO. I also tested "Local", but I like Bitnami better. Thanks for this article. For all the freelance writers out there who use WordPress to make a living, there are very few who relish developing the kind of knowledge it takes to do all this. My problem is finding a reliable and easy way to periodically clone our site and install it locally. Until it collided with Windoze 10 and refused to update the "hosts" file. and many more. WordPress packaged by Bitnami is pre-configured and ready-to-use immediately on any of the platforms below. All files in /opt/bitnami/wordpress are owned by the bitnami system user and the daemon group. Meanwhile you can sit back and be glad youre not going through this part yourself, the way you would have to if you were installing via XAMPP. Im not a WP dev, but our organization, The Milk Mob, has WP site which is central to our operations. Just hopped onto the Bitnami community and found out how to create multiple sites. It just gives of the impression it been kicked into that pile of projects you need to maintain that youre not really interested in any more, then eventually it just dies. You can browse Bitnami modules for XAMPP here . Perhaps you hit the Import limit of All-in-One free version once your site went beyond 512 MB? I use DS, and I like it enough to speak well of it, but it irks me that you boast that the Premium version facilitates easy migration when a free plugin like All In One Migration does this brilliantly already so well, I cant imagine that any other method could better it lest they get it down to like 1 or 2 clicks or something. You can do this via phpMyAdmin (easily accessible from MAMPs webstart page http://localhost), and then follow the normal WordPress install instructions. Full disclosure: MAMP Pro is my daily driver. I am looking to create two database sites. Some seeminly simple things like finding where PHP is installed on Local can melt you mindit took me 2 hours to set up VSCode to use Local on Windows. If youve been using HyperV then youre probably well aware of incompatibilities with other virtualization techniques, but because Local abstracts all of the virtualization away, you might not know how the environment is working and so its not clear thats why its failing. I also miss the ability to configure PHP and MySQL versions which seems to be entirely missing from DesktopServer. Also a big proponent of Valet; I was tethered to MAMP for several years, and finally decided to cut the chord (so to speak) a couple of years ago. Desktop Server runs under PHP5.5. Hey! As you can see, the process of installing WordPress locally on your computer using XAMPP and Bitnami is a breeze. It sits there and does the work of installing, which takes a few minutes. Especially for non-technical people who rely on WordPress for their livelihood, Bitnami makes a ton of sense because its worlds easier than the alternatives. A few of these are new to me though, so thanks for the intro! Step 1: Install WordPress using the Bitnami WordPress Stack Its involved and it requires many decisions on your part. Replace the * with your version and blog1 with the name of your site. It pains me to say it. I have used Xampp but find the method to add Virtual servers (more than one web site) "interesting" it sometimes works.