Pawan Saini
← Lab

Weplify

Build a WordPress site on your laptop, then publish it as a fast static site.

Type
Desktop app
Built with
Electron, Windows, Mac and Linux builds, React

01What it is

Weplify is a desktop app for WordPress work. It creates a private WordPress site on your own computer, lets you edit it freely, and then turns it into a plain static website and puts it online on Netlify with one click.

WordPress is great to build with, but running it live means hosting, updates and security worries. Many small sites do not need that. Weplify lets you keep the WordPress editing experience and publish only the fast, safe, finished pages.

02Major features

  • A WordPress site per project

    Each site gets its own WordPress and database in Docker, on its own local port. Create, start, stop or delete them from the app.

  • One-click publish

    The app starts the site, saves every page as static files, creates a Netlify site, fixes all links and deploys it.

  • Live progress and logs

    Watch each step with a progress bar and live logs for the export and the deploy while it happens.

  • Smart page capture

    It reads the site's sitemap first. If that fails, it crawls the site by following links, so pages are not missed.

  • Secure token storage

    Your Netlify token is kept in the computer's own secure keychain, not in a plain file.

  • Recovers from crashes

    If the app closes in the middle of a publish, it cleans up on the next start and marks that run as failed, instead of leaving things stuck.

03How it works

  1. Create

    Name the site and set an admin login. Weplify starts WordPress and its database in Docker and sets it up.

  2. Build

    Open the local site and build it as usual in WordPress.

  3. Export

    On publish, the app saves the site as plain HTML, CSS, images and scripts.

  4. Fix links

    Local addresses are replaced with the new live address, and redirect rules are added.

  5. Go live

    The files are deployed to Netlify and the live link is shown. The local site is stopped again.

04Tech stack

Desktop
ElectronWindows, Mac and Linux builds
Frontend
ReactViteTailwind CSSRadix UISocket.io client
Backend
Node.jsExpressMongoDBSocket.io
Publishing queue
BullMQRedis
Sites
Docker ComposeWordPressMySQL
Hosting
Netlify

05Built to be steady

  • Publishing runs in a background queue, so the app stays responsive
  • A free port is picked automatically for each new site
  • Stuck or interrupted publishes are cleaned up on restart
  • Passwords are hashed and sign-in uses tokens