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You have a grand idea, but you’re not sure how to move forward with your new blog. Should you start paying for hosting even though the content isn’t there yet and no one is coming to your site? Or should you go through the process of installing WordPress locally with a development environment like XAMPP just to test out a new plugin or theme? If you’d rather not spend the cash on an unfinished site, and you’re not keen on running a local WordPress install, you still have an option to create a WordPress test site with full functionality.
How is this done? Brace yourself…
It’s through a free, online sandbox service called jurassic.ninja.
Despite the rather ridiculous name (chosen to keep commercial services from abusing the free service for fear of embarrassment), jurassic.ninja offers one of the easiest ways for all types of users to create a WordPress test site. And in this post, we’ll show you exactly how it works!
When should you use jurassic.ninja as your WordPress test site?
Because WordPress is so popular, you have a bunch of options to create a WordPress test site. In fact, we’ve written about many other ones. We’ve shown you how to create local WordPress development sites with odd sounding tools like:
And those are all great options if you want a more permanent development site and always work from the same computer.
Jurassic.ninja definitely has a place, though. All those methods above:
- Require some technical knowledge, which makes them impractical for a casual user who just wants to test a few things.
- Take a couple minutes to create a new site, which can be frustrating if you need to create WordPress test sites often.
- Are tied to a single computer, which means that if you travel a lot, you might not be able to access them.
Jurassic.ninja, on the other hand, is cloud-based, dead simple, and only takes a couple seconds to spin up a new install. That makes it great for a temporary tool to rapidly test anything WordPress-related.
How does jurassic.ninja work?
Rather than installing software like all the local development methods linked above, you simply start by going to the jurassic.ninja website.
The jurassic.ninja homepage is about as simple as they come, with a nice black background to go along with the name and a simple button to create your WordPress test site.
To start the process, you click on the button that reads create.
A cartoon spins around for a bit (the setup takes a few minutes to load.), telling you the site is being created. And within minutes (not an exaggeration,) a page shows up that says you’re all done and you can continue to the installation. Click on the “The new WP is ready to go, visit it!” link to proceed.
You’ll then see the regular WordPress dashboard. You can perform any of the actions you’d normally take. Feel free to install plugins or themes, write posts, change up settings…it’s full-featured.
Finding your login credentials to log in later
Towards the top of the jurassic.ninja dashboard you’ll notice a box with your WordPress login credentials. If you’re using the WordPress test site for a few minutes there’s no reason to remember the credentials. But if you’re planning to come back to your WordPress test site in the future, make sure to save the credentials for future use.
Free Wordpress Site Maker
You can use this test site for seven days. If you want to extend it by seven more days, simply logout and login using the given credentials.
Moving your WordPress test site to your web hosting
You might be asking yourself whether or not you can turn this WordPress test site into a real, hosted one. Absolutely!
A site migration works just as it would if you were to move from an old host to a new one. For example, you can even use the Duplicator plugin with a test site that you create using jurassic.ninja.
Are you ready to meet the jurassic.ninja?
If the more complicated WordPress local development solutions overwhelm you, or if you’re just looking for a quick way to test out a new WordPress plugin or theme, jurassic.ninja is just about the simplest method that you’ll find.
Beyond clicking a couple buttons, there’s literally no setup. And your site is full-featured so there’s no limitation on your testing. To get started, just head on over to jurassic.ninja.
Have any other questions about how to use jurassic.ninja to create a WordPress test install? Let us know in the comments!
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