Creating a buzz throughout the WordPress community, Local by Flywheel, is oozing with development potential that will save developers, designers, and business owners time, money, and effort into creating those stunning WordPress websites.

Local, developed by Clay Griffiths, roots back its humble beginning as Pressmatic in July 2016, but was later acquired by Flywheel in an effort to push their mission of serving a gold standard in local WordPress development. Local went live under Flywheel on December 1, 2016.

Packed like a super weapon in terms of functionality and efficiency in local WordPress development, Local makes its way into the global market absolutely FREE! So WordPress developers, designers, business owners, and even neophytes looking into the WordPress community, you are in for a colossal treat.

Local, for a simple explanation, works the same as XAMPP, WAMP, VVV, MAMP and other local development platforms but carries more goodies than the rest of its competition in the market. Talk about comparing common knives with Swiss knives if I may say.

Although Local availability is currently for Mac users with minimum requirements of OS X 10.9 and 1 GB of disc space, Windows users will still have its own slice of the pie very soon as Flywheel stated that Windows integration is on top of their list and will be available shortly. Don’t worry, as the saying goes, good things come to those  who wait.

So, to keep things rolling, here are some key features of Local that will make you want to grab it right of the bat.

Fast and Easy
Yes, you read it right, Local comes with the power of speed and simplicity. Its interface is straight-forward offering a cut back in time setting up your local development environment. It is very easy to setup and use. The simple joy of one click gives development work a whole new meaning.

HTTP/HTTPS Tunnels
Powered by ngrok, Local, which uses a tunnel feature, allows you and your clients to have a look of your developing WordPress website from any device across the globe, all you need is an internet connection. Testing for mobile responsiveness and browser compatibility is now easier.

Server Environments
You can now test your WordPress website among server environments; nginx and Apache, without the hassle of server setups – one click. Also gone are the worries of losing all pertinent progress you have made when changing domains as everything remains live as the database updates.

PHP Versions 
Local has also included multiple PHP versions to test out with your WordPress website, 5 of them to be exact, including PHP 7.0.3 with which WordPress has announced to be using next year. With one click, you can switch between versions to see how your WordPress website behaves with the existing PHP versions.

WordPress Installation
Although WordPress installation has been a bit straining to do when dealing with local environments; talk about all those extractions and setups, Local has added a seamless feature of installing WordPress instantly. Just clicking Add Site, and configuring the required details of the site, you will have your website ready in no time.

Website Templates
Local also allows you to save created websites as templates as well; talk about superfast development. Templates come in complete, with its files, configurations, database, and other settings. If you are into theme development, this is definitely the tool for you.

Sharable URL
Website presentation is now a whole lot easier with Local. When presenting your work in progress to either friends, colleagues, or clients, Local provides you with a sharable URL that you can send to anyone around the world. Yes, no more remote server deployment or configuring local environments again. You can proceed with your work even when others are viewing your website, what a breather!

Database Friendly
Database interaction is also well supported. You can either use Sequel Pro, if already installed in your computer, which automatically connects to the existing database, or use the alternative Adminer for browsers.

And More!
Local comes in with a lot more to offer, not to mention an upcoming PRO version which houses more goodies for everyone. Included further are SSH and WP-CLI support, easy Multisite setup, an extensive log file for Apache, MySQL, NGINX and PHP, all sites created are HTTPS ready, Mailcatcher is applied to lessen email bulk and improve test email sending without the potential attack to your email accounts, and a whole lot more.

Conclusion
It is a no-brainer, Local takes the win by default. If baseball have homeruns, mixed martial arts have knockouts, chess have checkmates, then local WordPress development have Local. It is in a huge margin safe to say that when it comes to local development, then Local is definitely for you.

If you still need help with your WordPress websites, you can also hire our professional web developers by the hour here. And yes! They use Local as well.

Source:
https://richtabor.com/local/
https://local.getflywheel.com/
https://wpbeaches.com/using-local-by-flywheel-as-a-local-development-workflow-for-wordpress/
https://www.wpkube.com/local-flywheel-easy-way-develop-wordpress-sites-locally/
https://deliciousbrains.com/creating-custom-addon-local-flywheel/