Do you want to test out WordPress without having to purchase a domain name or hosting?
A domain name and hosting are typically required to create a WordPress website. Nonetheless, before investing money, many consumers might wish to give it a try.
This post will demonstrate several ways to test out WordPress without a domain or hosting. We’ll also discuss creating a live website and WordPress experiments.
Why Try WordPress for Free without Domain or Hosting?
A domain name and hosting account are typically required to create a WordPress website.
The typical cost of a domain name is $14.99 per year (sometimes non-refundable), and the monthly cost of web hosting is $7.99. (usually paid yearly).
If all you want to do is test out WordPress, that is a substantial sum of money.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a free WordPress trial available on the WordPress.org website.
Fortunately, there are still many options for trying WordPress without having to pay for a domain name or open a hosting account.
1. Try WordPress Online with Full Refund on Hosting
Using a WordPress hosting provider with a risk-free money-back guarantee is the simplest approach to test out WordPress on the internet (i.e full refund for up to 30 days or even 90 days in some cases).
The advantage of this approach is that you can test out WordPress for website creation. With just one click, you may put your website online if you like it (no extra work needed).
You can ask your WordPress hosting company for a complete refund if you don’t like it.
With this technique, you must pay for WordPress hosting up front with a credit card, but you can get a full refund if you aren’t satisfied.
Here are some of the largest WordPress hosting companies that offer a full refund policy:
- Bluehost – offers free domain + web hosting with 30 day money back guarantee.
- Hostinger – offers free domain + web hosting with a 30 day refund policy.
- SiteGround – offers cloud WordPress hosting with risk-free 30 day refund policy.
- Dreamhost – offers free domain + WordPress hosting with 97 day refund policy.
All of the aforementioned hosting providers either already have WordPress installed or provide a 1-click WordPress setup option.
With any of them, you can instantly get started to try WordPress online without any risk.
For the purposes of this article, we will demonstrate the process step by step using Bluehost, one of the top hosting companies for WordPress.
Visit the Bluehost website and select the green “Get Started Today” option first.
Next, you’ll be asked to choose a plan.
Since you just want to experience WordPress, we advise starting with Basic. If you choose to stick with Bluehost, you can always improve your hosting package.
You will now be prompted to select a domain name. WPBeginner members can presently take advantage of Bluehost’s free domain offer and 72% discount by utilising our Bluehost coupon.
When you request a refund, the business will take the domain name registration fee into account, though. For a full refund, you must select the “I’ll create my domain later” option at the bottom to skip this step.
Next, you’ll be asked to provide personal details and finalize the hosting package.
It is important that you uncheck all optional extra addons on this page.
You are only qualified for a full refund of your hosting fee; addon costs are not refundable.
To finish the purchase, you must enter your payment information.
Your hosting account will now be created by Bluehost, and you’ll receive an email from them with directions on how to access your hosting control panel.
You can see that Bluehost has already set up WordPress for you in your hosting control panel. To access your website, just click the log in to WordPress button.
Requesting Refund on Bluehost
Go in to the dashboard of your Bluehost account and select the Support icon. You then need to start a live chat session by scrolling down to the contact section.
Once connected to a live chat agent, you can request them to issue a full refund and cancel your account.
Important: Please make sure to read and fully comprehend the refund policy of the hosting provider you’re using if it isn’t one of the ones cited above before making a purchase. Contact the hosting provider by email if you have any questions.
2. Try WordPress on Your Computer
Installing WordPress on your computer is a common approach to test it out. Several seasoned developers perform this on client websites.
Using this technique, you may test out WordPress without having to purchase a domain or hosting. On your own computer, you can create a complete website and install plugins and themes.
The disadvantage is that your website can only be viewed on your computer and is not accessible to the general public online, but you can always use our tutorial to subsequently make your local website accessible online.
You can set all of this up on your computer using some fantastic free software.
Local is the one that is the simplest of all. On your computer, it enables you to quickly set up a local WordPress development environment. It runs on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh.
Visit the Local page and download the appropriate version for your operating system.
Your operating system may cause the installation wizard to change somewhat. Just click on the downloaded file on MacOS, drag Local.app to the Applications folder, and then release your mouse button.
Once you have installed Local, open the app on your computer.
Then click on the ‘Create a new site’ button.
Next, you’ll be asked to provide a title for your website.
Simply enter any name you want to website for your demo site and click on the Continue button.
You will then be prompted to select your local environment. For instance, you can choose the version of MySQL or PHP you want to use as your server software.
If you’re unsure, just select one of the Recommended choices and press Proceed.
You can select a username and password to get into the WordPress admin area of your local site on the following screen.
In case you need to regain your login information, you can easily alter the WordPress admin email.
To complete the setup wizard, click the Proceed button.
Now Local will download the most recent version of WordPress, install it, and build a fresh local website for you.
You will then view information about your neighbourhood website. The WP Admin button can be clicked from here to reach the WordPress dashboard.
Check out MAMP (for MacOS) or WAMP if Local doesn’t work for you for whatever reason, or if you just want to try something different (for Windows).
3. Try WordPress with WordPress.com (No Domain Needed)
WordPress.com is a different choice you’ll frequently see if you want to try WordPress.
It’s crucial that you comprehend how WordPress.com differs from a self-hosted WordPress.org website before you proceed.
Both a website host and a publishing platform, WordPress.com. In essence, there is no maintenance or WordPress installation required.
The drawback is that you have limited control over the background-running applications. The flexibility and freedom are lost as a result.
You can test out the limited free plan on WordPress.com. Unfortunately, many of the capabilities of a self-hosted WordPress.org website will be absent.
See our comprehensive guide on the distinctions between WordPress.com and WordPress.org for more information on this subject.
WordPress.com just announced a Pro plan that enables the installation of plugins and themes, but it is significantly more expensive than the other WordPress hosting choices that we have already discussed.
Things You May Want to Try in WordPress
Now that you have created a free WordPress website, you are probably wondering which things you should try.
1. Creating Content in WordPress
We recommend you start with creating blog posts and making some must have pages for your website.
2. Choosing a Website Design
Following that, you might want to pick a website design. You may utilise a tonne of WordPress themes, both free and paid. We advise choosing a free theme and personalising it to make it your own.
You can even install a free page builder plugin like SeedProd to experience designing your website with a drag & drop interface.
3. Exploring WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins are where the platform’s true power lies. With the help of them, you may add new features and enhance the functionality of your WordPress website.
More than 60,000 free WordPress plugins are accessible.
These are a few WordPress plugins that you really must use.
1. WPForms – You may add a lovely contact form or survey to your website using this plugin. You can test out the WPForms Lite version without cost.
2. All in One SEO for WordPress – It is the top WordPress SEO plugin available and aids in search engine optimisation. You may also test out the AIOSEO free version.
The finest WordPress social media plugin is SmashBalloon, which enables you to show stuff from your social media accounts in lovely galleries and layouts. Smash Ballon is available in a free version for the Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube feeds.
Need more plugin suggestions? See our full list of essential WordPress plugins that you can try on your free WordPress demo.
4. Learning WordPress Basics
Now if you are struggling finding your way around WordPress or just want to cover WordPress basics, then you can learn WordPress for free right here.
The largest WordPress beginner reference website on the planet is WPBeginner. We’ve been around since 2009 and offer a vast collection of beginner-friendly resources.
Our guide on how to learn WordPress for free is the best place to start. There, you’ll find a step-by-step WordPress training programme broken down into seven days.
Starting with our free WordPress video series is another option. That is a beginner-friendly step-by-step programme as well.
After learning the fundamentals, you can explore WordPress Tutorials further, review the WordPress lexicon, or subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive frequent updates on WordPress hacks, tips, and how-tos.
Launching Your WordPress Website
After using WordPress for a while, you might want to formally create a live WordPress website.
You’ll need a hosting account and a domain name to do that.
We advise utilising Bluehost. They have agreed to give WPBeginner users a free domain name and a sizable hosting discount because they are the biggest WordPress hosting providers.
Following your registration, you can use our step-by-step instructions to create a website.
Several of you might want to transfer the website you made during your free WordPress trial to your new website at this point.
Just follow our instructions to transfer your WordPress website to a new host. You can follow our instructions to migrate your WordPress website.
We sincerely hope that this post has shown you how to use WordPress without a domain name for free. Moreover, you might be interested in our review of the top website builders available or our instructions on how to establish an online store and start selling.