WordPress publishing software can now run entirely in a web browser, the organization that develops open source publishing software announced Wednesday. Through a new service called my.WordPress.net, WordPress software allows users to set up a site and start publishing without signing up, setting up a hosting plan, or registering a domain. Instead, the new solution leverages the same technology that powers WordPress Demo and makes it available as a permanent self-publishing platform.
There are major caveats when running WordPress this way. Sites set to my.WordPress.net are private by default and cannot be accessed from the public internet.
A blog post introducing the new service explains that it is “not optimized for traffic, discovery, or presentation, nor does it need to be.” “Instead, WordPress becomes a personal environment where ideas can exist before you’re ready to share them, or may never be shared at all.”
Sites created through this service are bound to your web browser and their data is saved in your browser’s storage. This means you can’t access the site from another device. However, if you want to make your site public, you can move it to a dedicated WordPress host.
This positions WordPress as a personal workspace for activities such as personal writing, journaling, drafting, research, learning, or building tools for personal use. For the latter, my.WordPress.net is equipped with an app catalog that offers a variety of tools built with WordPress plugins, such as a personal CRM, a personal RSS reader, a bookmarking tool, an AI workspace, and more.
This post states that my.WordPress.net is powered by WordPress Playground. WordPress Playground is an open source project that lets you install WordPress on any device with one click and integrate with OpenAI and CLI apps to create new tools. As a result, you can use the AI assistant to modify my.WordPress.net, tweak plugins, or build new ones.
You can also ask the Assistant about the data stored in WordPress. The Assistant remembers that data, allowing WordPress to become your personal knowledge base accessed by AI.
The post warns that the service will take some time to start up the first time you use it, and recommends saving regular backups. Storage starts at around 100 MB, making it suitable for small personal apps and use cases.
If at any time you want to remove your current work, you can reset your site with the click of a button. Alternatively, you can set up a new temporary instance that automatically resets when the browser is refreshed.
The launch of this service follows the formation of the WordPress AI team last year, which was focused on launching new AI products for the developer community. Commercial hosting platform WordPress.com also released an AI website builder last year that lets you design your site using an AI chatbot-style interface.
