- WordPress Playground lets you build fully local, non-published websites
- Sites are limited to 100MB and are stored locally, per-device
- You can still use WordPress plugins
WordPress has announced the launch of my.WordPress.net – a new service that lets the website builder run entirely within a web browser, meaning you can create a totally private website-style interface without it ever appearing on the public internet.
It's build on WordPress Playground, a project that lets WordPress run locally, so users won't need to choose a hosting provider or register a domain.
Because these new types of site run locally within the browser storage, they'll be device-specific and cannot be accessible from your other devices.
WordPress lets you create a local website within your browser
However, is users end up so impressed by their own work that they want to make it public, they can shift it to a WordPress host if they want to publish it on the internet, because the site itself will have already been built using the familiar WordPress tools.
The local sites are primarily designed for personal workspaces, though, covering tasks like journalling, researching or prototyping.
They're also ideal for learning how to WordPress without committing to hosting expenses. "It offers a fast, commitment-free way to explore, learn, and build, whether the result is a long-term personal project or something that eventually moves elsewhere," WordPress wrote in an announcement.
WordPress even detailed how users can connect with extra plugins to use all of the same tools you'd usually get with WordPress, but on a local scale.
There are some limitations though, including local storage, which starts at around 100MB. First launch also takes longer while WordPress downloads into the browser, and because it's not stored with a hosting provider, it's recommended that users backup their sites regularly.
