How to Install WordPress Locally on Mac (2 Easy Ways)

Installing WordPress on your Mac lets you explore its features without needing a web host.

You’ll get to know how WordPress works and see if it’s right for your project. It’s also perfect for testing themes and plugins before making your site live. Plus, experimenting locally gives you the freedom to make mistakes and learn.

We’ve played around with local sites a lot, both on Mac and Windows computers. And in this tutorial, we will share 2 simple methods for setting up WordPress on your Mac.

Why Install WordPress Locally on Mac?

Normally, you need a web hosting account and a domain name to make a WordPress website.

However, the core WordPress software is free to download and can be run locally on your computer. This local WordPress site will not generally be available on the internet, and it can only be viewed on your computer.

The advantage of this approach is that you can privately practice using WordPress, try it out, and see what type of websites you can make.

You can also use this local installation to test different WordPress themes and plugins before installing them on your live website.

What Do You Need to Install WordPress Locally on Mac?

WordPress is written mainly in PHP, a server-side programming language. To run PHP, you’ll need web server software and a MySQL database management system installed.

Now, installing all these software independently and making them work with each other sounds like a daunting task.

Luckily, there are free development tools that make it super easy to install them as one package, even for the less tech-savvy users. With that in mind, here are 2 methods for easily installing WordPress locally on a Mac without any special server administration skills:

Ready? Let’s get WordPress running on your computer.

1. Install WordPress Locally on Mac Using Local WP (Recommended)

Local WP is a WordPress development tool that allows you to easily set up a local server on your Mac computer. You can also use Local on Windows and Linux to set up WordPress.

First, you’ll need to visit the Local website and click on the ‘Download’ button at the top right corner of the screen.

This will open a Download Local popup window.

Here, let’s choose Mac as your platform.

Local will then ask you to complete a short form.

After typing in your name, email address, and phone number, you can go ahead and click on the ‘Get it Now’ button.

This will download the Local installation file to your computer. You can double-click to open the downloaded file as soon as it’s finished downloading.

You’ll then see a setup wizard, which will guide you through the process of installing Local on your computer.

Mac users simply need to drag the Local app into their ‘Applications’ folder.

Once the installation is finished, you’ll be able to launch the Local app from the Applications folder.

Upon the first launch, you may be asked a few questions and create a free Local account. These steps are optional, and you can skip them if you want.

Creating a WordPress Website in Local

Local makes it very easy to create a local website and install WordPress quickly.

To get started, simply click the ‘Create a new site’ button to continue.

On the next screen, you’ll need to enter your site name.

After that, go ahead and click the ‘Continue’ button.

Next, you’ll be asked to choose your platform.

Local allows you to choose which version of PHP, Apache, and MySQL you want to use.

If you are unsure, then choose the ‘Preferred’ settings and click on the ‘Continue’ button.

Finally, you will need to enter a WordPress username and password. Then, you can click the ‘Add Site’ button.

Local will now download and install WordPress to create your website. You may be prompted to enter your Mac username and password to make changes.

Once finished, you’ll see information about your newly created website with buttons to visit the WordPress admin area or view your local site.

You can now visit your website or log in to the WordPress admin area.

From here, you can use your locally hosted WordPress site just like you would manage a live website.

You can install plugins and themes and design your website as you see fit.

2. Install WordPress Locally on Mac Using MAMP

MAMP is a popular program that allows you to run WordPress on your Mac computer.

First, let’s visit the MAMP website. Here you should see the latest version of MAMP & MAMP Pro.

MAMP has separate downloads for different versions of the macOS operating system.

Not sure which version of macOS is installed on your computer? To find out, simply click on the Apple icon in your computer’s toolbar.

You can then click on the ‘About This Mac’ option.

This will open a popup that shows lots of information about your computer, including your version of macOS.

You can now download the correct version of MAMP for your operating system.

Once your download is finished, double-click on the MAMP .pkg file. This will launch the MAMP installer.

Now, simply follow the onscreen instructions to install MAMP.

After installing this program, go ahead and launch MAMP by opening your computer’s ‘Applications’ folder.

Here, you’ll find 2 versions of MAMP. MAMP Pro is the paid version, so make sure you select the free version.

Inside this MAMP folder, you’ll find various files, plus a MAMP application.

Simply double-click to launch the MAMP app.

Before you get started, we recommend configuring a few settings to make your MAMP experience better.

To make these changes, you’ll want to click ‘MAMP’ in your toolbar and then select ‘Preferences….’

In the popup, you’ll want to switch to the ‘Ports’ tab.

You can now check which Apache Port MAMP is using. We recommend switching to Apache Port 8888 if MAMP isn’t already using this port.

The next step is to set up your document root folder. This is where you will create and store all of your local WordPress websites.

By default, MAMP uses the /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/ folder, but you can change this to any other location.

In the ‘Preferences…’ dialog box, let’s click the ‘Server’ tab. Your document root should now be visible.

To store your sites in any other folder, go ahead and click on the ‘Choose…’ button.

This will open a popup where you can choose a new location. You may also want to create a new folder to store all your WordPress websites.

You can name this folder anything you want.

For this article, we will store our websites in a folder called ‘allwebsites.’

Installing WordPress on MAMP

Now that you’ve set up MAMP, it’s time to install WordPress on your Mac computer.

First, you’ll need to visit the WordPress.org website and download the latest version of WordPress Core.

After downloading the file from WordPress.org, you just need to unzip it. This will create an unzipped ‘wordpress’ folder.

Now, simply copy this folder into your MAMP document root folder.

Since we changed the document root folder, we need to copy ‘wordpress’ into applications/MAMP/htdocs/allwebsites.

WordPress needs a database to store all of its content and data. You’ll need to create this database before you can create a local website.

Don’t worry – it’s not as hard as it sounds.

In the MAMP ‘Preferences…’ window, simply click the ‘OK’ button. This should launch the MAMP application in a new browser tab.

Your next task is to launch phpMyAdmin. This is a web-based application for managing your website’s MySQL database.

In the toolbar, let’s navigate to Tools » phpMyAdmin.

This will open phpMyAdmin in a new tab.

In the phpMyAdmin dashboard, you’ll want to go to the ‘Databases’ tab.

You can now type a name for your database into the ‘Database name’ field with anything you want. Just be sure to remember the name, as we’ll be using it in the next step.

For this tutorial, we will call our database ‘test_db.’

After typing your database name, you can click the ‘Create’ button.

PhpMyAdmin will then create your database.

Now, it’s time to install WordPress.

In a new browser tab, simply go to http://localhost:8888/. If you’re using any port other than 8888, simply change this URL to mention your port.

You should now see a link to the ‘wordpress’ folder you copied into your root document folder. Go ahead and click this link. This will open the WordPress installation wizard.

The WordPress installation wizard starts by asking you to choose a language. After making your choice, you can click on the ‘Continue’ button.

On the next screen, WordPress will show you the list of all of the information it needs to complete the installation.

After reading this screen, go ahead and click on the ‘Let’s go’ button to move forward.

The setup wizard will now ask for your WordPress database information. For the database name, simply type the name you created in the previous step.

For ‘Username’ and ‘Password,’ simply type ‘root.’

You can then type ‘localhost’ into the ‘Database Host’ field. Localhost means the database and website are hosted on the same server, which, in this case, is your Mac computer.

After typing all this information, simply click the ‘Submit’ button.

WordPress will now connect to your database and create a configuration file for you. Once it’s finished, you’ll see a success message.

To move on to the next step, you can click the ‘Run the installation’ button.

On the next screen, WordPress will ask you to add a site title. For example, you might use your business name. Most WordPress themes show this title at the very top of your website.

If you’re unsure about your site title, no need to panic. You can change the title in your WordPress dashboard at any point.

You’ll then need to create a username and password. This is the login information you’ll use to access your WordPress dashboard.

You can also type your email address into the ‘Your Email’ field. This is the address where WordPress will send all of its admin emails.

After completing this form, click on the ‘Install WordPress’ button.

WordPress will now run the installation.

After a few moments, you should see a ‘Success!’ message.

To jump straight to your WordPress login screen, click the ‘Log in’ button.

You can also log into your local WordPress website using the following URL: http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-login.php

You can now go ahead and log into your WordPress site by entering the username and password you created in the previous step.

This will take you to the WordPress dashboard.

Trying WordPress Locally on Mac

A local install is perfect for testing out WordPress or developing websites on your computer. Now that WordPress is running locally on your Mac, here are a few things you may want to try:

• Experiment with the best WordPress themes.
• Try to find your perfect WordPress theme.
• Test out essential WordPress plugins locally.
• Learn WordPress programming by creating your own plugins and custom themes.

Moving Your Local WordPress Install to Live Website

Once you’ve played with WordPress locally, you may want to move your WordPress install to a live website. This is the only way others will be able to see your website.

To do that, you’ll need to buy a domain name and web hosting.

A domain name is your website’s address on the internet, and web hosting is where your website files are stored. You can think of web hosting as your website’s home on the internet.

For web hosting, we recommend Bluehost. They are one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and are also officially recommended by WordPress.org.

Luckily, Bluehost is offering WPBeginner users a discount on hosting, a free SSL certificate, and a free domain name. Basically, you can turn your local WordPress installation into a live website for $1.99 per month.

Once you have purchased hosting, you might want to see our article on how to move WordPress from a local server to a live website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to install WordPress locally on Mac. Next, you may also want to check out our guide on how to make a website with WordPress or see our comparison of the best managed WordPress hosting companies.

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