Launched this week
WP Launcher spins up isolated WordPress sites on demand — pre-loaded with your plugins and themes. Local dev: Docker-based, choose PHP (8.1–8.3) + database (SQLite/MySQL/MariaDB) per site. Wildcard subdomains, built-in email testing, live PHP config. Agency demos: Sites launch in ~10 seconds, auto-expire, sandboxed with capability restrictions. Perfect for client demos. Open source. Self-hosted. One-click VPS installer.
👋 Hey Product Hunt! I'm Shahzad, the maker of WP Launcher.
I built this out of a frustration I kept hitting at my agency. Every time a potential client wanted to "try" a plugin we built, we'd spend 20 minutes setting up a throw-away WordPress install, then forget to clean it up. Multiply that by dozens of demos a week and it becomes a real problem.
The first version was just a bash script. Then it grew into an API. Then a dashboard. Then I realized it could also replace my local dev setup entirely. That's how it ended up doing both.
A few things I'm most proud of:
The 10-second cold start: plugins and themes are baked into Docker images at build time, so there's nothing to install at launch
SQLite-powered WordPress: no MySQL sidecar needed for simple demos, dramatically faster for dev
The sync feature: push a local site to a remote WordPress install or pull it back, with automatic URL replacement. Useful for client handoffs
The productivity monitor: I wanted WakaTime-style time tracking that actually understood WordPress activity, not just file saves, so I built it as an MU-plugin that sends heartbeats to the same API.
CLI Interface: A beautiful CLI dashboard with useful commands to manage everything from terminal.
Everything is open source. If you're running an agency or building WordPress products, I'd love feedback on what's missing. Happy to answer any questions here!