WordPress - can I use it without a domain and hosting space?

[ABB125]

The title's a bit confusing, but I'll try to explain. My dad has asked me to have a go at making a website for him for work (I won't go into details on why, suffice to say that over the last few years several web development companies have failed to do what he needs, so the idea is that, as someone who's never seriously done anything to do with websites, I'll probably approach the problem in a completely different way!).
So, the current website(s) he has are based on WordPress, so it would be sensible to use that for me. But, in order to use the software (the download from the .org website, not .com), it appears I need to have a website (or at least the domain name and space on a hosting service) already set up. Is there any way to get around this? Can I for example, just host my website on my computer (and how would I do this?)? Would this work? Is there another way?
Many thanks for any help.

 

[Camden]

Accept that you're an amateur trying to operate in a technical field fraught with risk, would be my suggestion here, as it will frame the choices you make.

Definitely don't host on your own machine, as you risk being hacked in minutes.

It will be worth you paying for a decent hosted service that takes care of all of this for you. They'll be able to sell you a domain name, have it hooked up to a space on their server with WordPress installedv or at least with a one click installer. You'll be able to tinker with that to your heart's content via a web admin control panel, and better still if they will take care of security updates for you. You should get email with this too.

You can expect to pay a small annual fee for the domain name (circa £10 to £20), plus another for the hosting service above (hundred to hundreds).

This is really the cheapest someone like yourself can "safely" do this.

If you Google "TechRadar wordpress hosting" TechRadar have a decent list of providers and some more background info (sorry I'd offer a link, but to comply with forum rules I'd have to quote too much of the article to make sense and that would infringe copyright).

You could also have a look at some of the drag and drop website building and hosting services available these days, like wix. Depending on your need some of them are pretty good.

I think perhaps your da should consider how much this is actually worth though. Lots undervalue this kind of thing and want to cheap out on it, when in fact they need a proper business case and to be willing to make a decent investment.

 

[ABB125]

Accept that you're an amateur trying to operate in a technical field fraught with risk, would be my suggestion here, as it will frame the choices you make.

Definitely don't host on your own machine, as you risk being hacked in minutes.

It will be worth you paying for a decent hosted service that takes care of all of this for you. They'll be able to sell you a domain name, have it hooked up to a space on their server with WordPress installedv or at least with a one click installer. You'll be able to tinker with that to your heart's content via a web admin control panel, and better still if they will take care of security updates for you. You should get email with this too.

You can expect to pay a small annual fee for the domain name (circa £10 to £20), plus another for the hosting service above (hundred to hundreds).

This is really the cheapest someone like yourself can "safely" do this.

If you Google "TechRadar wordpress hosting" TechRadar have a decent list of providers and some more background info (sorry I'd offer a link, but to comply with forum rules I'd have to quote too much of the article to make sense and that would infringe copyright).

You could also have a look at some of the drag and drop website building and hosting services available these days, like wix. Depending on your need some of them are pretty good.

I think perhaps your da should consider how much this is actually worth though. Lots undervalue this kind of thing and want to cheap out on it, when in fact they need a proper business case and to be willing to make a decent investment.

Thanks very much - I'll have a look at some other website builders.
Is it possible to build a website without it actually being "live", a bit like if I type a basic HTML document and it can be viewed in a web browser (which is what we did at school) but cannot be accessed over the internet? Or would I have to use some other software? To me it seems a bit restrictive to have to set up the infrastructure for a website before you can even start to build it.
As for your last point, he does have a proper company working on a website at the moment (and I think they're actually getting somewhere, which is good!), me doing some work is more a case of coming at it from a different angle and giving me something to do. I would hope that anything I made would be at least looked at by people who know what they're doing before being used for real!

 

[Camden]

It's certainly possible to develop locally, and technically that's the usual thing to do, although if you go with a completely hosted solution you might find it difficult to get your stuff online and instead have to redo your work.

WordPress is a program written in the PHP programming language, and which uses usually a MySQL database to store its information.

Your web host server has these technologies which enables your WordPress site to run, so what you need to do to develop locally is basically recreate that set up on your computer.

You do that by setting up a "localhost", and an easyish way to do that is to use an AMP stack such as https://bitnami.com/stack/wamp/installer

AMP stands for Apache (which is a web server), MySQL, and PHP.

Be aware though that installing such software can introduce security holes in your computer if not set up correctly (although installers do a good job of walking you through, generally).

When you have your AMP stack installed, you can then follow the instructions on the WordPress site to install that inside your new localhost.

 

[Camden]

Ps. If you're mainly just looking for something to do, I'd recommend going for a PHP basics book. Most of them do a good job of explaining the server set ups, interacting with databases, etc. As WordPress is a PHP program, it will give you an insight into how it works, how to fix issues as well as how to avoid pitfalls on security matters etc.

 

[prod_pep]

If you're familiar with HTML and CSS coding, in my opinion there's nothing better than Notepad++. This great free piece of software colour codes HTML tags and attributes, automatically starts new lines with indentation and allows you to choose different colour themes (I use a dark theme as it helps my eyes). Once you've coded a page and saved it as an HTML file, you can then view the file locally through a web browser and see exactly how it will look once published online.

I've used Wordpress in the past and personally dislike its restrictiveness, but if you're not familiar with coding sites from the ground up, it's a favourite with many people.

In terms of the cost, £10-£20 for a domain name sounds about right. Some domain providers offer cheaper alternatives if you go for more obscure, newer top-level domains ('.london', '.stream', '.xyz' etc.). For the web hosting itself, I'm sure you can get it cheaper than £100 a year if you look around.

 

[birchesgreen]

You can have a Wordpress site hosted on their own servers for 3 quid a month. A lot of web space providers will include a Wordpress install for you to use and will have similar prices. I pay 3 quid a month for my webspace (though i don't use WP)

 

[Camden]

Yes that's probably a good choice

 

[najaB]

Definitely don't host on your own machine, as you risk being hacked in minutes.

There's no reason not to run a local web server. The risk (such as it is) only comes with making the website available publicly. I do it all the time. If you've got Windows 10 Pro then spin up a VM in Hyper-V, otherwise install Virtual Box or similar - either way, drop a simple LAMP setup on there and you're good to go.

 

[Camden]

There's no reason not to run a local web server. The risk (such as it is) only comes with making the website available publicly. I do it all the time. If you've got Windows 10 Pro then spin up a VM in Hyper-V, otherwise install Virtual Box or similar - either way, drop a simple LAMP setup on there and you're good to go.

For local development, provided its set up correctly (don't forget your ports, passwords, htaccess need attention) yes, but not for actual public website hosting.

I think adding virtual machines into the mix adds more complication for the OP over a locally installed AMP. Convenient for the savvy, but more fuss for the beginner.

 

[Puffing Devil]

We've been using TSO Host for years for a small business website, developed in WordPress. £3.99/month + VAT for the basic set-up. Never had an issue. I also use them to host my family email only domains.

 

[ABB125]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

It's certainly possible to develop locally, and technically that's the usual thing to do, although if you go with a completely hosted solution you might find it difficult to get your stuff online and instead have to redo your work.

WordPress is a program written in the PHP programming language, and which uses usually a MySQL database to store its information.

Your web host server has these technologies which enables your WordPress site to run, so what you need to do to develop locally is basically recreate that set up on your computer.

You do that by setting up a "localhost", and an easyish way to do that is to use an AMP stack such as https://bitnami.com/stack/wamp/installer

AMP stands for Apache (which is a web server), MySQL, and PHP.

Be aware though that installing such software can introduce security holes in your computer if not set up correctly (although installers do a good job of walking you through, generally).

When you have your AMP stack installed, you can then follow the instructions on the WordPress site to install that inside your new localhost.

Thanks, I'll have a look at that.

If you're familiar with HTML and CSS coding, in my opinion there's nothing better than Notepad++. This great free piece of software colour codes HTML tags and attributes, automatically starts new lines with indentation and allows you to choose different colour themes (I use a dark theme as it helps my eyes). Once you've coded a page and saved it as an HTML file, you can then view the file locally through a web browser and see exactly how it will look once published online.

I've used Wordpress in the past and personally dislike its restrictiveness, but if you're not familiar with coding sites from the ground up, it's a favourite with many people.

In terms of the cost, £10-£20 for a domain name sounds about right. Some domain providers offer cheaper alternatives if you go for more obscure, newer top-level domains ('.london', '.stream', '.xyz' etc.). For the web hosting itself, I'm sure you can get it cheaper than £100 a year if you look around.

Unfortunately, my skills with HTML are... very basic! Although I do agree, Notepad++ is very good.

 

[Camden]

Sololearn is a good app for learning html and CSS.

 

[Crossover]

If I may, if you are looking for a host, I would recommend Krystal. Entirely UK based, I’ve been working with them across two companies over the last 9 years now and not at all badly priced. Gives quite a scope of options and includes builders for various site ‘software’ including Wordpress I believe (though I have no experience of this side of it as we’ve always had them built for us)

For doing some personal development you do have the option of a LAMP server - I have also done this for testing some bits and pieces, but for goodness sake don’t open it up to the wider world!

 

[AndyCK]

Just to add to replies already made, for the solution you ultimately decide to use I would include security considerations as a central part of your decision process. This is something that is quite often overlooked or forgotten about.

As you've been thinking about Wordpress - Wordpress sites can be vulnerable through various vectors such as insecure themes, plugins, outdated versions of Wordpress, etc., (this is not to say websites using other technologies aren't equally as vulnerable and have similar security concerns), so I would recommend a read of:

https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-security/

In this guide, we will share all the top WordPress security tips to help you protect your website against hackers and malware.

There have been some suggestions about hosting providers, and my advice is to look for a hosting provider that offers the ability to get a free TLS (SSL) certificate via Lets Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org/). In my opinion this is one of the best changes to improve security in recent times, as it removes cost as a barrier to encryption and there's no excuse to not use TLS anymore. Any hosting provider offering Plesk hosting should have the ability for you to use Lets Encrypt, but make sure to ask them if it's not immediately obvious! The reason I mention Plesk is that there is a built in option in the latest versions of Plesk to auto renew Lets Encrypt certificates, so you don't end up without trusted TLS security if a certificate expires.

Hope this helps!

 

[ABB125]

Sololearn is a good app for learning html and CSS.

If I may, if you are looking for a host, I would recommend Krystal. Entirely UK based, I’ve been working with them across two companies over the last 9 years now and not at all badly priced. Gives quite a scope of options and includes builders for various site ‘software’ including Wordpress I believe (though I have no experience of this side of it as we’ve always had them built for us)

For doing some personal development you do have the option of a LAMP server - I have also done this for testing some bits and pieces, but for goodness sake don’t open it up to the wider world!

Just to add to replies already made, for the solution you ultimately decide to use I would include security considerations as a central part of your decision process. This is something that is quite often overlooked or forgotten about.

As you've been thinking about Wordpress - Wordpress sites can be vulnerable through various vectors such as insecure themes, plugins, outdated versions of Wordpress, etc., (this is not to say websites using other technologies aren't equally as vulnerable and have similar security concerns), so I would recommend a read of:

https://www.wpbeginner.com/wordpress-security/



There have been some suggestions about hosting providers, and my advice is to look for a hosting provider that offers the ability to get a free TLS (SSL) certificate via Lets Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org/). In my opinion this is one of the best changes to improve security in recent times, as it removes cost as a barrier to encryption and there's no excuse to not use TLS anymore. Any hosting provider offering Plesk hosting should have the ability for you to use Lets Encrypt, but make sure to ask them if it's not immediately obvious! The reason I mention Plesk is that there is a built in option in the latest versions of Plesk to auto renew Lets Encrypt certificates, so you don't end up without trusted TLS security if a certificate expires.

Hope this helps!

Thanks very much, I'll have a look

 

[najaB]

For local development, provided its set up correctly (don't forget your ports, passwords, htaccess need attention) yes, but not for actual public website hosting.

Well, naturally not for hosting the actual website. But as I read the OP's query they wanted to know if there was a low-cost way to run Wordpress to get the hang of how it works before working on/replacing the existing site - which presumably already has hosting.