Localhost refers to your own computer, used as a stand-in server address for testing purposes. It’s a common way to run and preview a website locally, before it’s ever published to the live internet.
Its numeric equivalent is 127.0.0.1, which always points back to the same machine you’re using, regardless of your actual internet connection.
Why Developers Use Localhost
Testing changes on a live website can be risky — a broken plugin update or a messy design experiment could disrupt real visitors. Running WordPress on localhost lets you build and test freely, entirely offline, without any risk to a live site.
Tools That Make This Easy
Local WordPress development environments handle all the technical setup — installing a local server, database, and WordPress itself — so you can start building on localhost within minutes, without configuring any of it manually.
Once you’re happy with your local changes, you can move, or “migrate,” your work to a live hosting server for the public to see.