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In honor of Native’s eighth anniversary and the latest launch of Native v9.1.0, I’d wish to mirror on how the software has grown and altered alongside the WordPress neighborhood all through the years.
I can actually say that I like and imagine in Native greater than ever. I’ve seen it change a lot through the years, and I’m proud to have supported the product because it’s grown right into a software with greater than 1.7 million downloads and 100,000 recurring month-to-month customers.
For these unfamiliar, Native is the world’s main native improvement software for WordPress websites. It gives a free, easy strategy to construct websites in your native machine—irrespective of who you’re, the place you host, or what you’re constructing. Native’s mission has all the time been to empower all WordPress builders with superior workflow options.
Once I began at Flywheel greater than seven years in the past, Native had simply change into a part of the Flywheel model, and I’ve been supporting it in numerous methods since. On the time, our groups had been thrilled to accumulate this unimaginable software known as Pressmatic (extra on that in a second). Since then, it’s grown and improved builders’ workflows worldwide. (Enjoyable reality: Greater than 80% of Native customers are outdoors of the U.S.!)
As we have a good time Native’s eighth 12 months, learn on for a better take a look at the improvements and investments which have made it one of the vital beloved free instruments within the WordPress neighborhood!
A short historical past of Native
If you happen to’re aware of the WordPress ecosystem circa 2016, it’s possible you’ll keep in mind Pressmatic, the favored brainchild of Clay Griffiths. Pressmatic revolutionized native web site improvement with a easy and easy strategy to spin up WordPress websites. It rapidly grew in recognition, to the purpose that Flywheel bought it in December 2016.
Rebranded as Native by Flywheel, the software continued to develop, combining its unique strengths with Flywheel’s design-first mindset. Over the next years, we doubled down on community-requested options and expanded Native’s choices to incorporate Native Professional and Native for Groups, supporting totally different developer workflows. We additionally created methods to offer again to the WordPress neighborhood by means of open-source Add-on creation and developer applications like Native Lab.
When Flywheel and Native had been acquired by WP Engine in June 2019, we took a step again to reexamine the product’s imaginative and prescient and mission and introduced all performance into the free model of Native, eliminating paid tiers.
Our objective was all the time to make it as simple as doable for everybody to work with WordPress: a spot to study, develop, share, and construct the WordPress ecosystem!
Whereas Native can do many issues, listed here are a number of key options we’ve added through the years that I’d be remiss to not point out!
- Dwell Hyperlinks: Assessment and check your websites with provisioned website tunnels, which remodel your regionally constructed website right into a shareable surroundings with only a few clicks.
- Hyperlink Checker: Scan your Native website content material and get an inventory of damaged hyperlinks to rapidly entry and replace the content material inside WP admin.
- Picture Optimizer: Scan your native website for pictures and compress them offline with out the necessity for cloud-based providers.
- Prompt Reload: Refresh the browser window mechanically when saving a CSS file, making real-time updates and opinions a breeze.
- Blueprints: Create a website by using pre-saved website settings resembling themes and plugins.
- Cloud Backups: Join your native websites to your Google Drive or Dropbox to rapidly save any Native website to the cloud.
Native was based on the concept all builders ought to have the ability to rapidly and simply create, construct, replace, and keep WordPress websites for everybody. We stay happy with our efforts to create a product the complete WordPress ecosystem would discover precious.
Making WordPress improvement accessible to all
Our perception is that constructing and giving again to the WordPress neighborhood begins with high quality instruments constructed with open-source values.
Over the previous six years, enhancements to Native included numerous options that enhance the workflows of all WordPress builders. From easy deployments with Native Join and MagicSync to increasing WP-CLI performance and opening website shell for a number of terminals, Native empowers builders to create with confidence on WordPress.
Listed below are only a handful of the enhancements requested by the Local people that our groups have carried out through the years:
- Sizzling-swapping PHP environments and different website providers
- Main efficiency enhancements for the appliance on a number of working techniques
- Editable Dwell Hyperlinks passwords to guard your website previews
- One-click opening your website in VS code
- Website grouping for higher group and workflows
- Drag-and-drop imports of WP Migrate recordsdata
- Creating headless WordPress websites with a Node.js frontend
To this finish, we’re all the time in search of consumer suggestions, you probably have function requests or different concepts on how we are able to enhance Native for everybody, head over the the Local people boards!
Constructing a neighborhood round WordPress
Along with supporting the broader WordPress neighborhood, we’ve constructed the “Native Group” inside our neighborhood boards!
A core a part of sustaining Native is contemplating the number of customers worldwide who depend on it every day. We’re proud to assist the companies and particular person builders constructing plugins, themes, and instruments inside the WordPress ecosystem. Native has additionally been useful in testing the newest variations and updates to WordPress core.
We imagine anybody who makes use of Native ought to have the ability to construct confidently with a protected, safe place to construct, study, and experiment with WordPress! Past that, Native’s improvement surroundings retains your websites, plugins, and themes protected from outdoors interference.
Each at Flywheel and WP Engine, the crew behind Native has demonstrated its dedication to supporting customers within the boards by fixing product bugs, taking function recommendations, troubleshooting points, offering an area to study WordPress, and discussing workflow hacks.
Trying to the longer term
Native has all the time been free—that’s not going to alter. We wish to maintain constructing for the longer term and making WordPress accessible to all.
This consists of maintaining Native up-to-date with the newest variations of WordPress and PHP, addressing neighborhood and safety points promptly, and making certain compatibility and efficiency as expertise evolves.
“We’re captivated with what Native empowers builders to do,” stated Native Senior Product Supervisor Austin Wendt.
“Whether or not it’s engaged on a website construct or simply making a sandbox to check out the newest applied sciences, we would like Native to be a spot for everybody constructing with WordPress. Our focus has been and can proceed to be on creating the very best improvement software for WordPress customers, it doesn’t matter what plugins they use, the place they host, or what sort of websites they construct.”
In my view, I’ll proceed to assist this unimaginable neighborhood and maintain powering the liberty to create on WordPress by harnessing the ability of Native.
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