Installing WordPress on XAMPP is an easy task with Bitnami. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48541d4f1b1f608680571d013b091b8d2723475f448db118bca53ed2bd0dc2d3.png. It is the one thing I miss about moving back to a Mac. The whole process is just about an hour. I shouldn't be too hard on you: Bitnami isn't completely awful, but when you're dealing with Wordpress, there are much better standards nowadays that encourage modern development practices. /usr/local/opt is not writable. The point to a localhost is to speed up development I thought. A few of these are new to me though, so thanks for the intro! Ive been using Laragon for the past year on Windows and have been very impressed with it. For example, with XAMP, you have to pick and choose which components you want to install, which means you have to know what they are. Any one else have the same issue with Flywheel? As a long-time MAMP Pro user, I do wish that DesktopServer had a better site management UI. MAMP (which comes with no pronunciation guide and so Im assuming its pronounced potato) is the second most tenured local server that I know of. Wanting to setup a local WordPress environment on a Mac for someone else, I revisited this article. If you know of any advantages to installing a local version of WP via XAMPP over Bitnami, please chime in and straighten me out. Recently, Local was renamed as Local Lightning, which as the name suggests works lightning fast. Then theres the Bitnami Cloud Hosting advertisement which asks you if you want to learn more. 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. Click to install the bitnami-wordpress-4.1.1--module-windows-installer.exe file which you've downloaded. The other tab is Server Events. I use Bitnami Stacks to do local installs: https://bitnami.com/stack/wordpress and it is simple enough that I can have non-technical folks install and use it as a safe way to learn WordPress, or one of the many many other stacks Bitnami provides. WAMP vs XAMPP Server - What's the Difference? 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. Neat stuff here. 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. WP is only what it is due to the open source and community. So we need something thats easy to use and will do most of the heavy lifting for us. 2- Then install It's simple. I use VmWare with full stack servers running inside of some kind of Vagrant Box, usually an Ubuntu 16 (LTS) Bento Box. For MacOS, youll need to install WordPress directly in XAMPPs site directory as recently OS X native modules have been deprecated. Its really not a limit in that you can actually create as many sites as you want, but you ARE limited to the number of sites you can manage at one time. Im very happy with it and I think you should include it in your next review. I might do a review for Windows only applications soon, and Ill be sure to include WAMP in the process. I decided to try Local, but ended up frustrated. Local is almost perfect. If you've been scared off in the past by the lengthy process for installing XAMPP and WordPress locally, there's very good news. and then edit the wp-config.php in xampp copied wordpress. 1-click backups. Bitnami vs WordPress | What are the differences? Theres more to this three site limitation, as explained by Marc Benzakein, Operations Manager at ServerPress. The answer to this is the classic Weve got some bad news. Uncheck this unless you want to learn about cloud hosting through Bitnami. Just saying. Local is packed with a bunch of useful features including an Apache or Nginx web server, SSL certificates, MailHog, and XDebug support. Its great for tinkerers as you can create little auto-installers and scripts and mess with a lot of the defaults and config files. Sometimes useful, so might as well leave the box checked. Otherwise, Id have been lost at sea. If all you wish to do is WordPress .. then Instant Word Press server seems to work well (http://www.instantwp.com/) One problem I have noticed with local you cannot specify where the installation takes place I have a smaller boot ssd BUT that is where local sets up everything .. Big problem for me, I wont go through all the comments, surprisingly you have 64 at the moment and I envy will. 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! Local does make this very easy, just right click the site name in the sidebar and select Open Site Shell. Youll need to go through their application to open the SSH container separately for each site. If your applications . Just pop the following into the command prompt (make sure you're in the same directory as installer) bitnami-wordpress*.exe --wordpress_instance_name blog1. First, make sure you dont already have XAMPP installed. You will have to spend 5 minutes doing it yourself. Nice review, but the only thing that sucks is: I cannot install local by flywheel on my laptop. WP-CLI is something I cant live without personally but as long as it can be installed, I dont see any problems there. 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. Let us know in the comments! The changes werent showing up unless I cleared the cache. Lets have a more in-depth look at these local WordPress development environments. Such a pitty. This is where DesktopServer really shines when compared to MAMP/XAMPP. Ive tried Local by Flywheel and I loved it. Mexicans dont pronounce the X letter as sh though. Powerful yet simple, everyone from students to global corporations use it to build beautiful, functional websites. Local makes this difficult, unless you only have the theme in the repo. If you have, whats your experience like? It seems the only solutions to sync db are manual. Expert Answers: XAMPP is more powerful and resource taking than WAMP. Ive used XAMP, WAMP, Local, VVV, Vagrant, and even Bitnami standalone servers, and Docker, but Laragon stands out for minimalism, simplicity, and solid automatic features. Theres an option to uncheck phpMyAdmin if you dont want access to the database. In the future we plan to support different WordPress installations. Take a look here at the ridiculously long, drawn-out process for installing XAMPP plusWordpress on your machine. If you've ever manually installed WordPress, the rest of the process should feel pretty familiar. XAMPP (the "sh" pronunciation of the "X" was a surprise to me, but its hardly unknown, as both Chinese and Mexican Spanish use it) is less user-friendly, but I used it successfully for years. https://laravel.com/docs/5.5/valet. Just hopped onto the Bitnami community and found out how to create multiple sites. 1 Answer. Not really problematic, and less hassle than chasing down the components and installing them manually. No, thats not a trick question. I only use WordPress for my writing jobs and not for developing WP interfaces, so Im an end user. http://downloads2.mamp.info/MAMP-PRO-WINDOWS/releases/3.3.1/MAMP_MAMP_PRO_3.3.1.exe. Bitnami Application Catalog Find your favorite application in our catalog and launch it. Getting started So many choices! Im not super impressed with XAMPP for this reason alone. complete article covering Laravel Valet, VVV ( Vagrant), Chassis, etc, add the certificate to your macOS keychain, more advanced/developer-focused WordPress development environments, the best setup for your local WordPress development environment, https://medium.com/@petehegman/my-wordpress-dev-setup-using-laravel-tools-to-improve-your-wordpress-development-f1b08de02d3d, https://github.com/aaemnnosttv/wp-cli-valet-command, https://sridharkatakam.com/browsersync-in-laravel-valet/, https://getgrav.org/blog/macos-sierra-apache-multiple-php-versions, https://gist.github.com/JRGould/9cb494b21a6886d47d7d4929931ff730, https://github.com/jonathanbossenger/scotch-box, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48541d4f1b1f608680571d013b091b8d2723475f448db118bca53ed2bd0dc2d3.png, https://deliciousbrains.com/wp-migrate-db-pro/, http://documentation.mamp.info/en/MAMP-PRO-Mac/Settings/Hosts/Extras/WordPress/, http://downloads2.mamp.info/MAMP-PRO-WINDOWS/releases/3.3.1/MAMP_MAMP_PRO_3.3.1.exe, https://medium.com/@timneutkens/introducing-valet-blazing-fast-php-development-environment-46be91604bb2, https://fishing-en.com/why-are-my-carp-dying/. (more errors of this kind) (( change owner of /usr/local/opt )) Error: Directory not empty /usr/local/opt/php70 composer global require weprovide/valet-plus dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/libcrypto.1.0.0.dylib Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/php Reason: image not found Abort trap: 6 at which point I gave up and started deleting all the Homebrew stuff, again. 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. The free All-in-One WP Migration does a stellar job. https://media.giphy.com/media/26ufdipQqU2lhNA4g/giphy.gif. No longer a sore point for them, and their customer support have proven to be more than competent, offering remote maintenance (by their engineers) of my local site when I had an issue. 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. Ive used XAMPP for years and am very familiar with it as a result. Linux users, making the world a better place, on repo at a time. Certainly none of the options are perfect. As mentioned before, Local offers a variety of server environment options and automatically sets up WordPress (including both variations of multisite) for you. In the application password, you can select any new password and retype the same (note the login and application password). Go to the folder where you install XAMPP and start looking til you find a folder that has a file called wp-config.php, or just search that file in your computer. http://documentation.mamp.info/en/MAMP-PRO-Mac/Settings/Hosts/Extras/WordPress/ Also MAMP (Pro) does come for Windows. I use XAMPP on Windows 10 Pro for various webdev projects. You can probably chalk this up to MAMPs focus on the Mac platform because the installer looks and feels at home on MacOS. Local by Flyweel is also a great tool. I was lucky enough to have a friend do my XAMP installation for me (hes an actual web developer). We have another complete article covering Laravel Valet, VVV ( Vagrant), Chassis, etc. What is Bitnami? https://laragon.org/ Laragon for me is the the best localhost webserver without any doubt (for windows). it is easy to configure and use. Valet is something Im looking forward to trying in near future too, been hearing nice things about it. Good info. The latest version (as of April 2018) uses PHP v.7. It doesnt come with WP-CLI, but it is two steps to install and the it is available from any terminal window including phpStorms terminal. For awhile, All-In-One worked great for this, but as our site has become more complex, it has failed. The All In One Migration tool ended my search for a migration plugin that didnt require knowledge of DBs or FTP or anything. Its actually slower than working on my website online. On the Bitnami WordPress Stack page- click on Next. Actually, I started installing Valet (Plus) right away. Thanks for the reply. To everyone here. I started using Local (By Flywheel) a few months ago and like being able to easily match my local PHP version to my live one. Umm, https://deliciousbrains.com/wp-migrate-db-pro/ and https://mergebot.com/ are pretty good. The latest version of MAMP Pro even comes with installers for various applications including WordPress. Installing the Bitnami WordPress stack, on the other hand, is cake. BitNami Cloud Hosting lets you instantly run every BitNami package you already know and love and have it automatically configured, backed up and monitored. I dont want to create a new website, I want to work on an existing one, that has a Git repository. If you know of any advantages to installing a local version of WP via XAMPP over Bitnami, please chime in and straighten me out. Nice group of people. Is there anything else youd like to know more about when it comes to setting up your local development environment? So its really designed for making a few big changes like copying, moving, and removing sites. MAMP Pro also provides Python, Perl, and Ruby via the command line. 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. The bitnami installer worked well enough. Pilothouse has cool features like automated hosts file management, and SSL support for all local sites out-of-the-box. This is useful for developers but for writers not so much. Flywheel was also recently acquired by WP Engine, so Local is now a WP Engine product. 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). I cant say enough nice things about Local. 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. SymLink is not working. With BitNami for XAMPP you can do one once-click install of WordPress. I first tried installing XAMPP under a new user on my Mac laptop. One-click apps defaulting with WordPress, Drupal, and Laravel, but you can create more. Theres an option to uncheck phpMyAdmin if you dont want access to the database. Once the install was complete and I found the app that I needed to run (hint for users of Alfred/Spotlight as app launchers: its not called XAMPP, it is intuitively called Application Manager), I couldnt get the server to start up. If youre looking for a free alternative, XAMPP and Local are clear choices here. Not really. Okay so far. Bitnami vs Xampp I am a noob with very little tech knowledge. Also, its completely free. Youll need to install XAMPP-VM for Mac to be able to install XAMPP addons separately. Until recently, DesktopServer has been the only GUI-based local environment built specifically for WordPress developers. You might get an alert that tells you Windows Firewall has blocked some features of this app. Desktop Server runs under PHP5.5. Its unchecked, so leave it that way unless you want to be able to send email notifications from your blog once its up and going. No brainer. But it does so much for you for free that I imagine itd be a hard sell if the free version wasnt limited by the number of sites you can install. First off, the 3-site limit. I used to setup an entire VM environment for network sites and subdomains, and Local just handles it really well. All files in /opt/bitnami/wordpress are owned by the bitnami system user and the daemon group. Next I tried just setting up a LAMP stack and ran into never ending MySql errors, regardless of how I installed MySql or MariaDB. Company . But with so many approaches, wouldnt be nice to give Docker a try? It also greatly reduces the risk of making and breaking changes on a live web server. FYI There are also tabs for Manage Servers where you can see that MySQL and Apache are both running. If you are using Mac I would like to recommend Laravel Valet which works great with WordPress. Local Lightning doesnt even come with an installer package like the other apps Ive covered so far. Comparatively, it feels faster than any application Ive reviewed in this article. With PHPStorms built-in terminal, its really easy to run a CLI command on the fly without having to go through the apps UI and opening terminal separately as seen in Local. 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 . Bitnami provides a free all-in-one tool to install WordPress on top of XAMPP. I fired up Local By Flywheel and within an hour had a new site up and running on my Windows 10 laptop. I only use Windows at Home and use Mac at the Office. You can browse Bitnami modules for XAMPP here . Whereby I just dont get it. Ive tried them all and Im currently enjoying LbFW (having paid $99 for pressmatic, still waiting for LbFW pro for free!) Thanks again for the great article! WordPress packaged by Bitnami is pre-configured and ready-to-use immediately on any of the platforms below. The WordPress installer seems to work well and intuitively enough. The elder *mp?" Then it launches the stack and you get five options, the first of which will be the one you want. Its just tough when something breaks, but they do have a really good community of people who can help. Its disrespectful to the OS movement and WP community, and detrimental to the long-term. Developing in a local environment lets you make changes to dev sites quickly and easily without having to transfer files anywhere. You cant directly just enter in the working directory and execute CLI commands. First, make sure you dont already have XAMPP installed. However, with MAMP Pro, you get a package installer for WordPress (and other apps) which really makes it easy to create a site in seconds. 17 related questions found. It has a GUI for installing WordPress as well as lots of other software. Definitely worth exploring if you are using Windows no Mac or Linux version available. I would have given it a perfect 5 if WP-CLI was somehow accessible directly. Thanks for the Mamp mysql warning. I also recommend it to anyone who is just beginning with WordPress (users or developers). I was so happy with DesktopServer and got so disappointed when their promised new version just never released. Local does a great job isolating its software, and you can even use Local alongside something like MAMP or XAMPP. Originally called Pressmatic, Local was later acquired by Flywheel who has since been giving it away for free to all new users. It can do SSL with a local certificate. Full disclosure: MAMP Pro is my daily driver. Might lighter and faster than VVV. Navigate to the "Plugins Installed plugins" page. Very helpful article. Yep I keep hitting skip haha eventually Ill do a full MySQL Dump, make sure all my locals are pushed to Bitbucket, and Ill run the update. Not really, Ive been using Local myself recently and dont have any issues running the plugin. I should mention I am on Windows 10, core i5, 12GB, 1T SATA. FYI There are also tabs for Manage Servers where you can see that MySQL and Apache are both running. On top of the free version, Local offers two paid plans for individuals and teams costing $20/month and $50/month respectively. Runs on Windows, MacOS and Linux. It automatically creates virtual hosts, allows you to send & catch test emails, and switch versions of PHP / Apache / MySQL easily. You can change and add PHP versions pretty easy, edit the php.ini file, check error logs, Apache configuration, and even edit the sites-enabled files for each domain/project. I can launch a WP site on local in about 4mins. I also wanted to clear up what the "3 site" limit really is. 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. The best dev environment available for Windows today is Ubuntu on Windows, free for Win 10 by Microsoft. I have used Xampp but find the method to add Virtual servers (more than one web site) "interesting" it sometimes works. I like the idea it just works (always on) and is very fast, but not yet convinced that working in a non-sandboxed environment is the way to go? Ive been using Local for the last year or so and been really happy with it, especially how it handles WP multisite/network using subdomains, something that is a lot more complicated to setup in typical LAMP/MAMP/XAMP setups, or with DesktopServer. Do you want to configure email support? It sits there and does the work of installing, which takes a few minutes. Thank you Jeff! Heres How They Fit Together. I know it is already mentioned here but i need to make sure that VVV gets the attention it deserves:). 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. It can be customized via a wide selection of themes, extensions and plug-ins. If we dont support OS, how can we justifiably use WP? Im the author of Pilothouse (http://www.pilothouse-app.org/), which is a free/open source CLI app for managing a Docker-based local development environment, with a focus on WordPress and Laravel development. I should have done that initially, rather waste an entire Friday afternoon trying other alternatives. That said, my Windows machine with WSL makes setting up a LAMP stack super easy. Currently BitNami has other options like the full WordPress stack which will install as many WordPress as you want each one with its own Apache and MySQL server. MAMPs webstart even gives you PHP snippets for connecting to MySQL that you can use as a cheat sheet. Perhaps installing WP the long way, using XAMPP gives you features and control you dont have when you go the Bitnami Route, but I didnt discover what those might be in my research. They have been brilliant in my book. Local also allows developers to build their own addons to modify or extend Locals functionalities. ah forgetten about their promise to give ex-presmattic uses Local Pro for free. If I read this right, you are incorrect MAMP Pro offers an automated install of WordPress. Hey Daren! Following the same suite as XAMPP, DesktopServer doesnt allow you to switch between different PHP versions which makes it less interesting for me. WordPress is one of the world's most popular web publishing platforms for building blogs and websites. Thanks for the tip. The best dev environment for wordpress plugins and themes by far IMO. . Your content isnt performing as well Well, Toto, its official: were not in Kansas anymore. After the harrowing install process, I dont have the will to boot up a Windows or Linux VM just to test this out. So, its a ton of support (if needed) along with a bunch of features. Also, were big fans of Migrate DB Pro and recommend it to our customers all the time. It has a bit of a load time, but after loading, it is the fastest local wordpress server of the various methods Ive tested. Im in total agreement with Guy about Desktop Server. A couple of the releases had some problems, but most of the time I have been very happy with Local and will continue using it until something better comes along , Ive been using Mamp Pro for the last year. 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. If youre making use of WP-CLI in your daily workflow, you might dislike Local. Getting back to the core discussion by the author, does anyone know which one of these Dev Environements is the fastest??? Longtime Laravel user and didnt know about that, thanks for sharing! This setup has actually made me better at understanding the complexities of the server and therefore helped me in my development path. Just a heads up DesktopServer has been discontinued, and Local has gone downhill fast, I have spent a few days trying to get it up and running. 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. Their features and supported versions of software are at least worth to look at. Same as Mamp Pro, Local also allows you to switch between different versions of PHP but you cannot install a custom PHP version. "Local" by Flywheel, is a great alternative. 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. This entry was posted in WP Migrate DB Pro, Workflow and tagged WordPress, Development, Hosting, local, MAMP, xampp, desktop server. Notice how wonderfully short it is. Used to use VVV on Ubuntu Desktop, but MAMP works great on Windows 10. It runs quickly, and actually installs an app called MAMP. Thats why the XAMPP tutorial is so darned long. 20132023 Delicious Brains Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. 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. Ive used AMPPS for years. 3- copy the wordpress files from the installation. WAMP is significantly better solution than XAMP. A - Stands for Apache, which is the web server software that allows you to request and view a website's pages. This works great and its super quick. Ill add my vote for Laragon. I did have to restart it a couple of times before figuring out that I also needed to go back to the Application Manager and turn on MySQL. Id love to see Pilothouse included in your next round of CLI-based local environments. It provides an easy interface to share your sites on the internet using Ngrok. Whats more, Local gives you quite a few options in terms of server type (Apache or Nginx), PHP version, and MySQL. Its much less intuitive when you just want to check on the state of things. . While many computers are capable of hosting a WordPress site without needing to install any extra packages, there are a few advantages that a dedicated local development environment can offer. Then select which folder you want to install it in, or leave it at the default (Programs). I only paid for Pressmatic about 3 months before Flywheel bought it! Finally, I set up MAMP. 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. First, you need to go to wordpress.org and download the latest version of WordPress. It consists mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages. Bitnami Cloud Images extend stack appliances to run in a cloud computing environment. All good. Heres a taste of how easy it was for me to install it on my laptop. The process isnt fun and its entirely possible to make mistakes. Is checking this box all you need to do to get FollowSymLink working or is there more? Then, youll be setting up your database, etcyou know the drill (and if you dont, refer to that tutorial link I gave you at the beginning of this section). Setting up a new site in Local is quite quick and can be made even quicker by setting up a blueprint which essentially copies all files, databases, config files, and Local settings.