The moves you picked up in Playground carry over exactly to the real WordPress. This final lesson is a map of where you can run WordPress from here on. “If Playground vanishes, does that mean renting a server is the only next step?”—no. There’s one more home in between, and it’s free.
WordPress has three possible homes
WordPress is a program: it saves your posts and assembles your pages. So to run it, you need somewhere a program can run—and there are broadly three candidates.
| Home | Does it vanish? | Cost | Public on the internet | What it’s good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside your browser (Playground) | Vanishes on reload | Free | No | Quick tries, experiments you can break |
| Inside your own computer (a local environment) | Doesn’t vanish | Free | No | Building things, theme development |
| On a server | Doesn’t vanish | From ~500 yen/month | Yes | Letting other people see it |
The most important thing in that table is this: “doesn’t vanish” and “costs money” are two separate things. A home that doesn’t vanish is available for free. Money only becomes necessary when you want other people to see it.
Home 1: inside your browser (Playground)
This is the place you’ve been using all through this course. It runs the moment you open it, and a reload resets everything. In exchange for being perfect for experiments where breaking things is the point, you can’t pick up where you left off.
Home 2: inside your own computer (a local environment)
WordPress can, in fact, run inside your own computer. This “environment that exists only on your machine” is called a local environment. Install the free app Local and a WordPress site comes up in a few clicks.
It has two strengths over Playground.
- It doesn’t vanish—it stays on your computer as a folder, so tomorrow you can carry on from where you stopped
- You can reach the files—you can open a theme’s or plugin’s insides in VSCode and rewrite them
And it has exactly one weakness: it isn’t on the internet. Only your own computer can open it, so you can’t show it to anyone—it’s a workshop for the pre-publish stage.
Theme developmentStand up WordPress inside your computer with LocalInstalling Local and creating a site is covered step by step in this lesson of the theme development courseHome 3: on a server (publishing)
A server only becomes necessary at the point where you want people around the world to see it. Your own computer stops the moment you turn it off, so instead you have WordPress live on a computer that keeps running 24 hours a day—a server. This is where costs start. There are broadly two paths.
Path 1: a rental server (the standard route)
You sign up for a rental server that lends you a server for roughly a few hundred to a thousand yen a month, and install WordPress on it. This is the standard route for personal sites and blogs in Japan.
You might think “installing sounds hard,” but today’s major rental servers (Xserver, ConoHa WING, Lolipop, and others) have a one-click install feature, and it finishes in a few minutes following the on-screen guide.
- Cost feel—server fee around 500–1,500 yen a month + domain fee around 1,000–2,000 yen a year
- Who it suits—people who want to seriously grow their own blog or site. Themes and plugins are free too
- The responsibility that comes with it—managing the site, like updates and backups, becomes your job (plugins will help you)
Path 2: WordPress.com (leave it to them)
The service edition that takes on the server management for you is WordPress.com. Make an account and you can start a blog right away, and there’s a free plan too.
- Cost feel—from free. A custom domain and free choice of themes/plugins are on paid plans
- Who it suits—people who want to start writing first, without the hassle of management
- Watch out—the free plan shows ads and limits the themes and plugins you can use, so you have less freedom
If you’re publishing, which one?
| Rental server | WordPress.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | From 500 yen/month + domain fee | From free |
| Freedom | ◎ Unlimited themes and plugins | Depends on the plan |
| Management effort | Yourself (it’s getting easier) | Mostly left to them |
| Fit | Want to grow it seriously | Just want to write |
If you’re torn—a rental server if you’re serious about growing it, WordPress.com if you’re just trying it out is the guideline.
So, which home comes next for you?
Pick by what you actually want to do right now and you won’t get lost.
- I want to poke around a bit more and get used to it → stay on Playground. It’s free, and any mistake resets in an instant
- I want to pick up where I left off, or edit a theme’s insides → move to a local environment (Local). Also free
- I want people to see it, and to be found in search → now it’s a server’s turn. Costs start here
Summary of this lesson
- WordPress has three homes—inside your browser (Playground) / inside your own computer (a local environment) / on a server
- A home that doesn’t vanish is available for free (a local environment). Money only becomes necessary when you want other people to see it
- When you do publish there are two paths—a rental server + one-click install (from ~500 yen/month) to grow it seriously, or WordPress.com to try it out