Instant WordPress is a complete standalone, portable WordPress development environment. It turns any Windows machine into a WordPress development server and can even run from a USB key. Yes, it’s that portable!
Seamus Brady wrote to us and shared why he created this new tool for WordPress users. He developed it when he was a contract IT Trainer teaching WordPress. It became rather tedious for him to install and configure a local copy of Apache, MySQL, PHP and WordPress on 20-30 machines each time he needed it in a new classroom. He designed IWP so that the students would have to do very little to get up and running with WordPress.
If you’re a Windows user, you may be wondering how Instant WordPress measures up to XAMPP. It’s quite comparable and may even posses a few more features than what you’re used to with XAMPP.
Comparison of IWP vs XAMPP:
- Installs much quicker with three clicks and zero configuration – WordPress is included unlike XAMPP
- Starting and stopping is simple – just open and close the IWP control panel
- IWP provides links to the themes and plugins folders – simple for beginners who may not know where they are
- PHPMyAdmin bundled by default for advanced users
- It leaves nothing on the machine. The IWP install folder can be deleted, copied and renamed.
- It is entirely self contained. It means you can literally copy and paste a WordPress website onto somebody else’s computer so they can see it. Great when there is no internet access in the classroom
- It runs very happily on a USB key
The author’s original idea was to have a kind of ‘throw-away’ WordPress development scratch pad. His students used it to test new plugins and themes without fussing over configurations and web hosting. For example, if you see a plugin mentioned on the web, you can have it installed and working in IWP 1 minute later! It can also be used as a way to demo work and do presentations.
I have spent many a Friday night working with XAMPP. It is great for a permanent, advanced WordPress development environment. However, IWP can be used for that too, but it really shines when you are testing or learning WordPress, given how quick it is to get running. You can use it as your primary WordPress development environment or simply to test new WordPress upgrades against your themes or plugins.
The best thing about this new tool is that it is completely free! Download it from the Instant WordPress homepage and let us know what you think!
SWEEEET LIKE PLUMS! May I please please send you a virtual hug for sharing this tool at the perfect time? ;-)
Thanks for the great review Sarah!
I am delighted you like Instant WordPress :)
- Seamus
just took it for a test drive and all i have to say is… wow! this is probably my favorite free tool next to xcloner. thanks for the review =)
Nice, great tool where a lot of people where waiting for. Great for preparing a website, take it on your usb to your client and open it locally, but i also hope it has a feature to put the project online.
Wow! That is superb! Thx.
Wow, thanks for this. I like developing on my laptop and then go live. Will check it out as I’m using WampServer now. I always have issues and thats not cool.
Love it and I haven’t tried it yet!
This is amazing! I must play with it right now! I love new toys. Especially if they are free.
This’ll come handy! Thanks for the tip :)
Was about to use Seamus’ contact form but thought since I found out about it here and he commented here as well may be here’s good too.
“Hi,
As a regular user and fan of WP very excited to use this tool. Downloaded it to my XP SP3 PC when double clicking the exe it tries to load but there is an error. I can not read (or move to read via taskbar, mouse click, etc.) the error because it is almost completely obscured by the loading progress bar.
Is there any way for me to debug this? Thanks”
Hi RG
It may be that some ant-virus product you have installed has caused this problem – sometimes they do not like the use of temporary files. Turn this off (temporarily!) and see if that works.
- Seamus
Thanks for replying.
The only active security apps are AVG free and Windows’ own firewall. Turning them off made no difference. FWIW I have used XAMPP and other similar tools successfully (running MySQL as a service, etc.) I will try to run and use Instant WordPress on a Win7 machine.
I re-sized splash.png to be able to look at the error and it’s “%1 is not a valid Win32 application” and it comes up twice. I had it installed on desktop, it must not like empty spaces in its path (AutoIt issue?) so I moved it in c:\ and it works.
To be clear by “exe” I mean after I installed it. The program exe itself not the installer.
hellfking yeah : )
Simply…..Yes. Just what I was looking for, thanks for sharing.
There isn’t a Ubuntu version is there :( I couldn’t find it on the site. And the entire site looks like some turnkey site ad trying to sell something. Especially this page: http://www.instantwp.com/unleashed/ LOL c’mon, I can just google how to do that for free. Jeez.
Thanks for the feedback Mike but I must respectfully disagree :)
Many freeware authors use the Freemium model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium
It is a perfectly reasonable approach to software. Other freeware authors sell advertising on their websites or look for donations. It depends on the nature of the software. Many GPL plugins have paid support options or paid upgrades. Again, all perfectly valid. Even Ubuntu offer paid training and support from their website.
The hosting and development time for Instant WordPress costs money. By selling a guide for more advanced use, it allows me to keep Instant WordPress free.
If you are technical enough to Google for the information contained in my guide, then I applaud your skills. However, some people prefer a step by step guide to software skills and are happy to pay money for this.
Again, thank you for your feedback. The world (and the internet) is a big place and there is hopefully room enough for all of us, even to disagree gracefully.
Regards
Seamus
Well stated, Seamus.
Thanks for an excellent option to time-consuming WP installations, especially for volume users.
Kudos.
Looks promising, will definitely use it when educating users and presenting WordPress to future clients.
Thanks for the article and this program. Haven’t tried it yet but can it do a multisite setup?
I am not sure about multi-site. Never had a reason to use it. Try adjusting the port settings in iwpserver/pms_config.ini and see how you get on.
Any love on the multi-site issue? I’ve played with this a bit and it’s really a great way to work with wp locally. I’m loving it!
What’s going to be the step when you want to move the installed WP to a live server?
That is the advantage of manual setup like XAMPP, you know where things are and if you need to move things, you know where to take them.
Don’t get me wrong, it looks great. The reason I am asking this is because I am looking to replace xampp :)
It’s the same deal as XAMPP – Instant WordPress is just Apache underneath :)
Please, oh please make a Mac version. It wouldn’t even have to be free.
On a Mac, you can run Apache and MySQL locally, installing WP just as you would on a server. MAMP is a package that gives you Apache, MySQL, and PHP all in one:
http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html
What I’d love to be able to do is upload to a live online site, any ideas?
I can develop on a USB stick and once happy I’d like to do a one-time upload into a live existing domain with WP already installed….even better would be some way to sync online and local installs.
Help appreciated!
Thanks for the review about Instant WP. I’d seen it listed on the Codex, but was unsure about it, so this has helped clarify things for me. I’ll give it a go over the more permanent offerings. Thanks.
Hmm, I use Prevx on my system and it identified instantwp.exe as “cloaked malware”. I’ve googled to see if anyone else has had the same issue but couldn’t find anything. Am now in two minds as to whether to keep using it or not.