Installing WordPress locally on your Windows or Mac computer is a great way to play around with the platform and try out different themes and plugins without needing a live website.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to install WordPress on your computer, from downloading and setting up a local server environment to configuring WordPress and getting it up and running.

By doing these steps, you’ll be able to set up a local testing environment where you can try out WordPress without worrying about messing up your real website.

By the end of this guide, you should have a fully functional WordPress installation running on your computer. This will allow you to create and test posts, pages, and other WordPress features without the need for a live website. Let’s get started!

Let’s discuss this step wise step

Step 1:

Get a local server environment and set it up.

Downloading and setting up a local server environment is the first step in installing WordPress locally. This software package has everything you need to run WordPress on your computer. For Windows, XAMPP and WAMP are the most popular local server environments. For Mac users, MAMP is the best choice.

Both XAMPP and WAMP are free, open-source software packages that give Windows users a full local server environment. They include the Apache web server, the MySQL database server, and the PHP programming language, all of which are needed for WordPress to run.

On the other hand, MAMP is a local server environment made just for Mac computers. It comes with the Apache web server, the MySQL database server, the PHP scripting language, and other tools for managing databases, such as phpMyAdmin. 

Step 2:

Get the local server environment up and running.

Once you’ve set up the local server environment, you’ll need to start it up so that WordPress can run. For XAMPP and WAMP, open the control panel and click the Start buttons next to Apache and MySQL. For MAMP, open the MAMP application and click on the Start Servers button.

Step 3:

Make a MySQL database

You will need to set up a MySQL database before you can install WordPress. WordPress uses MySQL, a popular database management system, to store and get data. You can use a tool like phpMyAdmin, which comes with XAMPP, WAMP, and MAMP, to make a database.

For XAMPP and WAMP, open your web browser and go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ or http://localhost:8888/phpMyAdmin/ to create a database (for MAMP). Click on the Databases tab, and in the Create database field, give your database a name. To make the database, click the Create button. 

Step 4:

Get WordPress and set it up.

After making the database, you can go to the official website and download WordPress. Once you’ve downloaded WordPress, extract its files to the htdocs folder (for XAMPP, WAMP, and MAMP) or the htdocs/MAMP folder (for MAMP). You can change the name of the extracted folder to anything you want, but it’s best to give it a name that’s easy to remember because that will be the name of the folder that holds your WordPress files.

Step 5:

Set up WordPress

Open your web browser and go to http://localhost/mywebsite/ to set up WordPress (replace “mywebsite” with the name of the folder you created in Step 4). This will take you to the WordPress installation page, where you can choose your language and click the Continue button.

On the next page, WordPress will ask you to fill out some information about your database. This includes the username and password, as well as the name of the database you made in Step 3. The default username for XAMPP and WAMP is “root,” and the default password is nothing. The username for MAMP is “root,” and the password is also “root.”

After putting in the details about the database, click the “Submit” button to move on. After that, WordPress will connect to your database and confirm the link. To keep going, click the Run the Install button.

On the next page, you’ll be asked for information about your website, such as its name, username, password, and email address. Once you’ve put in all the necessary information, click the Install WordPress button to finish setting up WordPress.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully put WordPress on your computer locally. Now, you can access the WordPress admin area by going to http://localhost.

Conclusion

In conclusion, installing WordPress locally on your Windows or Mac computer is a great way to play around with the platform and try out different themes and plugins without needing a live website. If you follow the steps in this guide, you’ll be able to set up a local testing environment where you can try out WordPress without worrying about messing up your real website.

Having a local testing environment is also helpful if you’re making a WordPress theme or plugin. It lets you test your code in a safe place and make any changes you need before putting it on a live website.

WordPress is a popular and versatile content management system (CMS) that runs more than 40% of all websites on the internet. It’s a popular choice for users of all skill levels and types of websites because it’s easy to use, can grow, and has a lively community. WordPress also puts out updates often to improve performance and security. This keeps websites safe and up-to-date.