Local by FlyWheel - Fuss-free way to develop WordPress locally
Testing or applying changes to your WordPress website can be a nerve-wracking experience. There is a possibility of compatibility issues between plugins or your database might start bugging out in the process. However, you can avoid those problems by testing your changes in a local development site.
Inside a local development, you are able to set up a staging environment, develop your site before it goes live, provide a safe place to experiment with designs or perform troubleshooting. There are various tools that provide local development for instance: Local by FlyWheel, DesktopServer, XAMPP, MAMP, and Vagrant.
In this article, we will review Local, a free and easy-to-use local development tool.
Getting Started
Local is a free local development tool that simplifies the workflow of site development. Launched in 2016, this tool is brought by FlyWheel which is a renowned WordPress managed hosting provider. This company creates Local as a commitment to build the gold standard for local WordPress development.
This tool is aimed at WordPress designers, developers, and everyone who deals with local development. Besides, it is free and compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux. Making it more flexible to use.
One of the biggest strengths of Local by FlyWheel is that it is easy to use. In particular, it covers things such as speed, utter simplicity, SSL support, flexibility and so much more.
What is a Local Website?
A “local site” or “development site” is a website stored on your own computer that is only accessible to those who are logged in to that specific device. In other words, it is a “public-inaccessible” website. You can use this kind of website to experiment or develop your website before taking them online.
To build a local site, you can either create a permanently private local site or make a copy of your live site. Once you’re done experimenting with your local sites, you can upload them to your live site.
Why use a Local Website?
- Experimenting and learning a new platform.
- Building a new site offline without any people can see it in progress.
- Redesigning a live site or making total changes to it.
- Perform troubleshooting, fix a hack, error, or other issues.
- Create a site for a client in private but enable collaboration and feedback.
What are the features of Local?
Cloud Backups
Connect your local site to Google or Dropbox to easily push and pull sites. Make sure your site files are safe and neat.
Local Connect
Push and pull sites with Local to Flywheel or WP Engine for a super streamlined offline-editing and go-live process. Also, you can easily move a site between a local environment and the live environment on your preferred hosting provider.
Live Links
Quickly review site responsiveness across devices with secure and persistent URLs. With this feature, you can test browser compatibility and responsiveness easily. In addition, it permits you or your readers to view your WordPress site from any mobile device, tablet, or computer across the globe.
Hot Swap
Hot-swap multiple PHP environments or try out the latest version of MySQL right from Local. So easy for changing environments.
One-click Admin
Local provides one-click admin so no need to manage various usernames and passwords. Just seamlessly log in to your WordPress site.
Flexible Server Environments
Only with a single click, you can choose between Apache and NGINX to test your site in different environments. Moreover, since PHP comes in multiple flavors, you can switch between versions with a mere click. You have five PHP versions at your disposal, including PHP 7.0.3, and more are on the way.
Demo URLs
This feature gives you the ability to create shareable URLs from your local machine. With just a click of a button, Local by FlyWheel creates a short, shareable live link. Therefore, you can show your clients the progress of the live version of the site while you work on developing the local site.
Site Blueprint & Clone Sites
Develop your local site and save it with Local by Flywheel as a template known as a Blueprint. These blueprints allow you to save all files, database, config files, and local settings. Making it easy to create multiple versions of the same page.
In addition, you can clone all files, databases, configs, and local settings too. The Site URL is automatically and safely changed.
Export & Import
In Local by FlyWheel, you can export site files, databases, config files, log files, and local settings. Meanwhile, with the import feature, you can restore all files, databases, and configs automatically. Moreover, it allows you to exclude files from your exports such as archives, PSDs, .git directories, etc.
SSH + WP-Cli Access
You can have root SSH access to each of your sites.
Local SSL Support
Local by Flywheel allows you to test your sites locally with SSL without a hassle.
Mailcatcher
View, test, and debug your emails. Mailcatcher intercepts outgoing emails from PHP sendmail and saves them in a central box for viewing and debugging. With this, there will be no more flooding mailboxes. This also means you can send emails when you’re offline.
Log Files
Access to PHP, NGINX, Apache, and MySQL logs.
Read more detailed features of Local by FlyWheel.
Why should I use Local?
- Enable you to set up local WordPress sites with a few clicks.
- Let you monitor the status of all your existing sites from a list.
- Provide the option to access your sites’ dashboards, databases, and local directories with a mere click.
- Make it possible to create live links, to share access to your local projects.
- Offer the option to set up blueprints and clones to easily deploy WordPress websites using the settings you prefer.
- Add-ons Library in Local allows you to customize your local development environment with the features you need.
What is the pricing for Local?
Local by FlyWheel is an entirely free tool. So, you can create local sites using it without any charges.
Where can I get Local?
Visit Local by FlyWheel website and click the download button on the homepage. Next, create your account and choose your platform.
How to use Local?
Pros
- Free
- Easy-to-use
- Able to create local sites within a few clicks
Cons
- Many errors & crashing a lot
- Work slow
Conclusion
Local by FlyWheel is a local development sites tool that allows you to build a local site only a few clicks away. Built for speed and simplicity, it makes building, testing, and deploying WordPress sites has never been easier.
Offering abundance features and an easy-to-use experience, it is a recommended tool that you should use. Moreover Local is available for free and compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux. Even though it has flaws like errors and is slow, Local is still considered a fuss-free tool to develop websites locally.
References
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