The free InstaWP alternative with unlimited sites

Summary

The WordPress Playground is a free alternative to InstaWP that lets you create temporary WordPress sites from your browser, no account required, and without any restrictions on the number of sites you can create.

I’ve been developing WordPress sites for nearly 6 years now, and one thing I’ve found myself doing over and over is creating temporary WordPress sites to quickly test configurations, plugins, and themes on a fresh install of WordPress.

There are several ways to do this, but with my favorite one, InstaWP, has limitations in its free plan. Luckily, there’s an alternative that doesn’t cost money and gives you unlimited sites.

A note about wp-env

WordPress has an official wp-env CLI tool that can create temporary staging environments without much hassle, but it can be slow if you don’t have the latest hardware, and it’s not as seamless as InstaWP.

InstaWP

Given the demand for throw away test sites and the limited options out there to create them without installing a bunch of other software, it’s no surprise that InstaWP has skyrocketed in popularity over the past year. It’s a web app that spins up temporary WordPress sites in seconds, giving you a one-click login to the admin. It’s without a doubt the fastest and most convenient way to drop into a clean WordPress installation. And no, this is not an ad. It’s been very helpful to me as a WordPress developer.

I remember when it first launched you didn’t even need to create an account with them to create a temporary WordPress site. Today, they require sign up, and although it has a free tier, there are restrictions on the total number of staging sites you can create in a month.

So, what do you do if you don’t have the budget for them but still want the convenience of an instant WordPress test site?

Introducing the WordPress Playground

The WordPress Playground has been in development by the WordPress team for a few years now but only recently became usable enough that I feel comfortable recommending it over InstaWP.

If you want to jump right in, here’s the link: playground.wordpress.net

Screenshot of the WordPress admin dashboard after being created by visiting the WordPress Playground. It looks like a standard WordPress installation except for a bar at the top of the browser window that has some configuration options.

It will create a fresh WordPress site that runs in your browser, no sign up required. There is no limit on the number of sites you can create. To create a new site, just open a new browser tab and go to the same link.

What can the WordPress Playground do?

The WordPress Playground provides a few of the same configurations and tools as InstaWP. They are certainly more limited, but for most people these options should be sufficient.

You can:

change PHP version.
change the WordPress version.
reset the whole site in one click.
download and restore a site as a zip file.
view PHP logs.
download plugins and access the internet as you would be able to in a real WordPress installation.

Of course, saving the state of the sites as zip files is not as convenient as logging into InstaWP and having everything there, but if you need a really temporary site, it shouldn’t be too much of a downside.

Screenshot of the configuration options for the WordPress site. The options are: PHP version, WordPress version, whether to save data to the browser or clear the site upon exit, whether to allow network access, and whether to download ceratin PHP extensions.

Screenshot of the menu in the WordPress Playground, with options to reset the site, download and import the site as a zip, and to view PHP logs, among others.

Is the WordPress Playground really free?

Yes. There is a note in the WordPress Playground documentation about how the site may not be available (for free) in the future if the traffic is too high, but for now it seems like it will be around for a while.

Go ahead and try it out! playground.wordpress.net