PortBayvsLocalWP
LocalWPLocalWP does one job well: WordPress. It installs a site in one click, bundles nginx or Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Mailpit, and deploys to WP Engine or Flywheel through Connect. PortBay covers WordPress and the rest of your local work: Node apps, static sites, seven database engines including Postgres, Redis, and MongoDB, plus an agent task board, all in one native app. HTTPS shows the difference in approach. LocalWP issues self-signed certificates, and on macOS Big Sur and newer you trust each one by hand in Keychain; PortBay issues mkcert certificates on .test domains that browsers accept without a manual step. Both tools are free. LocalWP stays free with WP Engine hosting as the business around it; PortBay is open source under AGPL-3.0 with a 10 dollar per month Pro tier for unlimited projects (last verified July 2026).
Which one is right for you
You want the full stack, open source.
Your Mac runs more than WordPress: a Next.js app here, a static site there, a client's Laravel project, and a Postgres or Redis instance behind them. PortBay manages all of it in one app, with browser-trusted HTTPS that needs no Keychain surgery, per-instance databases across seven engines, one-click Cloudflare tunnels, and a task board that dispatches your coding agents. It is open source, so the tool itself is auditable.
It already fits your workflow.
You build WordPress and nothing else, and you host on WP Engine or Flywheel. LocalWP's one-click WordPress install, Blueprints, cloud backups to Google Drive or Dropbox, and Connect deploys straight into your host's staging and production are a workflow PortBay does not replicate. LocalWP also has a Windows build; PortBay does not.
Where PortBay and LocalWP actually differ
The table below has the row-by-row detail. These are the three shapes it cannot draw: the job you already use one of them for, the job only one of them does, and what survives the move.
PortBay and LocalWP overlap on the everyday job: a local site on a real domain, over HTTPS, with the services it needs. If that is all you need, either will do it.
Claude Code
Codex
CursorMove a card to To Do and PortBay launches Claude Code, Codex or Cursor against a project that is already running. LocalWP has no board to dispatch from.
Point PortBay at the folders you already have. They stay where they are, .test domains are re-issued on the first run, and databases are imported rather than rebuilt.
Feature by feature
LocalWP rows come from LocalWP’s own site and docs, on the date below. PortBay rows come from the app’s source. We mark partial support honestly — including where the other side wins.
LocalWP facts on this page were last checked against localwp.com/features on . Pricing and limits change — check their site before you decide.
Coming from LocalWP
A WordPress site is files plus a database, and both move cleanly. Export the site from Local (or copy its site folder), create a PortBay MySQL instance, and import the SQL dump with the bundled client. Point a new PortBay project at the folder, update wp-config.php with the new database port, and the site comes up at an https .test domain with a certificate your browser trusts without a Keychain visit. Local can keep running beside PortBay while you move sites one at a time.
Export the site from Local, or locate its site folder and take a database export.
Create a PortBay MySQL instance, import the dump, and update wp-config.php with the new port and credentials.
Add the folder as a PortBay project and update the site URL to its https .test domain with WP-CLI.
PortBay vs LocalWP, in plain terms
Yes, with one honest caveat: PortBay has no one-click WordPress installer, so you scaffold new sites with WP-CLI or move existing folders in. Once running, a WordPress project gets the same treatment as everything else: an https .test domain with browser-trusted certificates, a managed MySQL or MariaDB instance, Mailpit capture, and one-click public tunnels.
Not yet. PortBay's one-click importer covers Laravel Herd, ServBay, MAMP and Laravel Valet; Local sites move manually. The manual path is short because a WordPress site is a folder plus a MySQL dump: export from Local, import the dump into a PortBay database, add the folder as a project, and update wp-config.php and the site URL.
Scope and source. LocalWP runs WordPress only; PortBay runs WordPress next to Node apps, static sites, and 7 database engines including PostgreSQL, Redis, and MongoDB, and adds an agent task board that dispatches 11 agent CLIs per project. PortBay is also open source under AGPL-3.0, so you can audit and fork the tool itself. If everything you run is WordPress, LocalWP remains an excellent fit.
LocalWP issues a self-signed certificate per site with a one-click Trust button, but on macOS Big Sur and newer that automatic step fails and Local's docs walk you through trusting each certificate manually in Keychain. PortBay installs one mkcert development CA and issues per-project certificates under it, so every https .test site is trusted by your browsers without per-site manual work.
No. PortBay stays on your machine: it runs, serves, and shares local projects, but has no deploy pipeline to a host. Local's Connect feature pushes sites to WP Engine production, staging, and development environments and to Flywheel, and can create new WP Engine sites from inside the app. If that workflow anchors your agency, keep Local for deploys.
Give your projects and your agents a real local home.
Download for macOSFree & open source · macOS 11+ on Apple Silicon · Pro from $10/mo