Local: Always Getting Better

I've been using Local for ages. Four years ago, I wrote about how I got all my WordPress sites running locally on it. I just wanted to give it another high

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Chris CoyierCSS-Tricks

·May 31, 2021·Articles

A Local Tool That Keeps Pace With Itself

Local has been around for a while, but it hasn't been sitting still. I first covered it four years ago as a convenient way to run WordPress sites locally. Since then, it's gone through a significant rewrite and picked up a handful of features that make it a notably more capable piece of kit.

What Hasn't Changed

The core value proposition is still intact. The app runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux and handles the messy business of bundling PHP, MySQL, and a web server for you. Sites come up with a few clicks, and because everything runs in a containerized environment, it doesn't pollute your host machine. That consistency also means you can match your local setup closely to your production environment without having to do manual configuration yourself.

It's not the only option out there, of course. MAMP PRO has improved considerably, and command-line purists often swear by Laravel Valet. DevKinsta is another player from a host that's getting into the local development game. But Local's approach remains straightforward for those who want a dedicated GUI.

What's New (And Better)

Compared to where the product was four years ago, several upgrades stand out:

Near-instant startups. The "Lightning" beta rewrite that happened a year or so back is now baked in. The speed difference is dramatic.
Two-way sync with live environments. The previous version allowed pulls from production, but not pushes. Now you can push local changes to staging or prod as well. While I still lean on Git for deployment, the pull feature means you can start a work session by grabbing the exact current state of the live site.
Instant reload. This is a nice quality-of-life win for simple WordPress sites that don't need a front-end build process. Since many build setups were only used for live reload, that reason now disappears. If you do want a full build pipeline, tools like Gulp or CodeKit can still proxy through Local's server without issue.
One-click admin access. The Admin button bypasses the login screen entirely and drops you straight into a WordPress session as a specific admin user. It's a small win, but it removes friction from a very repetitive task.
A plugin system. There's an extension for one-click database opening in TablePlus, which is handy for back-end developers. An image optimizer add-on similarly exists; it scans your site for compressible images. I ran that the other day just because it was there, and it did its job.