Are you getting confused about how to install WordPress locally on your computer using XAMPP? Then you are at the right place, here you can find step by step guide on how to install WordPress locally using XAMPP.
Table of Contents
Advantages of installing WordPress locally
- Learning and Testing
- It is great for learning and testing purposes. You could test any themes and plugin to witness how do these elements perform on your live sites.
- It could make your development and customization easier to preview. So, that it saves you from making your embarrassing mistakes live.
- Site Backup
- It could work as a back up for your live server too. Generally, if you have the habit of adding posts and other contents to your local server first and later copy these contents to live server. Then, in future, it will work as a backup, in case if you lost your data from the live server.
After knowing some of the advantages of having WordPress locally on your computer. Let’s take the overview of steps to install WordPress locally.
HOW TO INSTALL WORDPRESS LOCALLY?
1. Set up Local Server (XAMPP, WAMP, MAMP, LAMP)
2. Download WordPress
3. Create a Database
4. Run Installation and fill the details as asked
Let’s follow these step-by-step guide to install WordPress successfully on your computer.
Step 1: Set up Local Server (XAMPP, WAMP, MAMP, LAMP)
Local Server must be set up at first, before starting the installation of WordPress. To run WordPress locally, we need three things Apache, MySql and PHP installed to your computer. But, installing these 3 components individually will give a lot of headaches to you.
So, we can install either of XAMPP or WAMP or MAMP or LAMP which comes with all these required components.
XAMPP stands for X – cross-platform, A – Apache Server, M – MySql, P – PHP, P – Perl.
WAMPÂ stands for W – Windows, A – Apache Server, M – MySql, P – PHP.
MAMPÂ stands for M – Mac OS, A – Apache Server, M – MySql, P – PHP.
LAMP stands for L – Linux, A – Apache Server, M – MySql, P – PHP.
As XAMPP is not OS-specific and can run on any platform we are going to show how to install WordPress in XAMPP.
Step 1.1: HOW TO INSTALL XAMP
- Â Go to the official site of XAMPP
- Download the latest version of XAMPP according to your OS.
- Run the installation, by just hitting next and filling the required information. This step should not be a difficult one. But still, if you face any problem, you can ask your question in the comment section.
After successful installation, run XAMPP and start MySQL & Apache.
Step 2: Download WordPress
The next step is to download WordPress. The downloaded file of WordPress will be in the zipped version. You need to extract this file first. For this, you need one of the zip extractors such as WinZip, WinRAR, and 7-zip. If you have not already installed one of these on your computer you need to download and install them now.
After extracting, just cut and paste that extracted folder inside “C:/XAMPP/htdocs” (this is the default path but can be different if you have set different paths during installation).
Now, you can rename this folder as your wish. Here, I will name it ‘noobietech‘.
Step 3: Create a Database
Before the installation of WordPress, we need to specify a database for WordPress. So here, we will create a database by accessing “localhost/phpmyadmin” in the web browser. Let’s say, “noobietech_db” as the name of the database but you are free to name it as you like. But, it’s better to give a name that makes sense and could give us an idea of the project related to it.
Step 4: Run Installation and fill the details as asked
This is the last step of setting WordPress on your machine locally. This is the main step where people usually get stuck as they fill the wrong information. So, to make your installation smooth, we are here to guide you.
- Firstly, access “localhost/project_name” on one of the web browsers. Here, our project name is “noobietech“. So, we will enter “localhost/noobietech” into the browser.
- Optionally, you can create a virtual host like ‘noobietech.test‘ or ‘noobietech.local’. If you create a virtual host, you can access this WordPress site using this newly created virtual hosts like ‘noobietech.test‘ or ‘noobietech.local’ as well. However, if you are not familiar with virtual host, you could follow our next article on how to create virtual host on XAMPP and create a virtual host for this local WordPress site.
- Select the language of your preference or you can go with the default English language as you can change this language later too.
- Just click, let’s go.
- Fill the database name with the name that you have created before. Here, we will enter “noobietech_db“. Next, change the database username to root and leave the password field empty. That’s the default root username and password for XAMPP.
- Run the installation
- Enter a site title, admin username, password ande email. This username and password will be required later to get into your WordPress Site. It’s better to use the username other than admin and a very strong password. So, it might be difficult to guess. Also make sure, you enter valid email address. For demo purpose we are entering “test@test.com”. Then, hit install to get the WordPress site ready.
After successful installation, you can hit the shown “Log In” button or can enter “localhost/project_name/wp-admin“. That means, we need to enter “localhost/noobietech/wp-admin” for our case.
Now, just enter the correct username and password to start your new adventure. After that, you are ready to play with WordPress all offline.
After the successful installation of WordPress locally, you can transfer WordPress site from Localhost to Live Server.
Among all these steps, which steps do you find most difficult? If you face any problem during installation, you are always welcome to mention it in the comment section.
Furthermore, if you find this article “How to Install WordPress Locally” useful, don’t forget to share with your friends.
