The folks at WordPress have launched an innovative tool call WordPress Playground. Essentially WordPress Playground is a browser-based, fully functioning clean installation of a WordPress website. Barebones, no plugins or themes, simply what one would expect to encounter after installing WordPress on a server or development environment.
The Dashboard is fully accessible. One can make posts and pages while accessing all of the built-in tools and features. From the website:
WordPress Playground makes WordPress instantly accessible for users, learners, extenders, and contributors. You can:
- Try a block, a theme, or a plugin
- Build an entire site, save it, host it
- Test your plugin with many specific WordPress and PHP versions
- Embed a real, interactive WordPress site in your tutorial or course
- Showcase a plugin or theme on your website
- Preview pull requests from your repository
- …or even run WordPress locally using the VisualStudio Code plugin or a CLI tool called
wp-now
For developers, there are some nifty features listed above. However, many of these tasks feel more simple and straightforward when done with a tool like MAMP, or the extremely user-friendly Local by Flywheel.
Where WordPress Playground really shines is in its ability to provide a hands-on, carefree environment for learning WordPress without the need to spin up a new installation, while eliminating any fear about mucking up a live website. For inexperienced users or those brushing up skills, this is the perfect playground for practicing or learning WordPress.
Managing a WordPress website is not for everyone. However, publishing content on a WordPress website just got a little more accessible with WordPress Playground.