Level Up

A collection of resources for WordPress Developers, written and curated by experts

Workflow53 resources

The Best WordPress Backup Plugins for 2025

Backing up your site is a little like buying fire insurance. You never need it outside of a catastrophe, but not having it is just going to make the catastrophe… Read more

Mike Davey

Dec 5, 2024

Install WP-CLI

The Complete Guide to Installing WP-CLI

The WordPress command line interface (WP-CLI) is a powerful WordPress-developer focused tool. We use it to help us write tests, manage changes to site databases, and we even have WP-CLI… Read more

Erik

Oct 24, 2024

Minimizing DNS Propagation Issues With a Reverse Proxy

Migrating servers is a complex process that involves many moving parts. One of the most challenging aspects of server migration is dealing with DNS propagation. When you update your DNS… Read more

Mike Davey

Aug 9, 2024

The Best Local WordPress Development Environment: XAMPP vs MAMP vs Laragon vs Local

A local development environment lets you make changes to dev sites quickly without having to transfer files. It also greatly reduces the risk of making and breaking changes on a… Read more

Mike Davey

Mar 28, 2024

WP-CLI Packages: Supercharge Your WordPress Development

WP-CLI packages take the increased efficiency of the command line even further by extending it with new or modified commands. In this article, we’ll show you how to install packages,… Read more

Mike Davey

Mar 21, 2024

How to Test Webhooks From Public APIs in Local Development

Webhooks are a mechanism for receiving notifications about events from disparate systems without having to continuously poll them. Also called Reverse APIs, they can be thought of as providing “API… Read more

Sanjucta Ghose

Feb 15, 2024

How to Set Up AMP on WordPress

Should your WordPress sites use Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)? It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. In this article, we’ll cover how AMP works, how to use both… Read more

Mike Davey

Feb 1, 2024

How to Use WebP Images on WordPress

Serving lightweight WebP images can help boost your site speed, critical to the user experience and as a ranking factor. In this article, we’ll look at a few different ways… Read more

Mike Davey

Jan 25, 2024

Using Npm Scripts as a Build Tool

There are typically two types of JavaScript build tools: task runners and module bundlers. In this article, we’ll look at how to use project specific npm build scripts as a… Read more

Jonathan

Jan 5, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About Installing WordPress in a Subdirectory

In this article, we look at the benefits and limitations of installing WordPress in a subdirectory, how to install and manage subdirectory installs, and how to move WordPress core out… Read more

Iain Poulson

Nov 30, 2023

Strategies for Handling Large WordPress Media Libraries in Dev and Staging Environments

Offloading your media files is a well-known tactic for speeding up your WordPress sites, but WP Offload Media can also greatly reduce the time it takes to replicate a new… Read more

Ian

Aug 11, 2023

How To Set Up Amazon SES for WordPress Emails

Running a site that sends a lot of emails, like an ecommerce or membership site, needs a reliable service to keep up with that volume. Using an existing email provider… Read more

Matt Shaw

Jul 20, 2023

JavaScript in the Shallow End: Browser-Based React Native With Expo Snack

“Learn JavaScript. Deeply,” is good advice, but jumping right into the deep end when you’re first learning to swim may not be the smartest move. In this article, we’re going… Read more

Mike Davey

Jun 8, 2023

WordPress Security Fundamentals: How to Not Get Hacked

WordPress has come a long way towards its stated goal of democratizing publishing, powering roughly 43% of the websites on the web. However, that status makes it a prime target… Read more

Mike Davey

Apr 20, 2023

Mastering Migrations: Faster, Easier, and Safer Ways to Move Your WordPress Sites

Every WordPress developer knows the feeling of despair when a migration fails, balanced by the immense feelings of relief when one succeeds. It’s a frustrating process for many devs, with… Read more

Kevin Hoffman

Mar 9, 2023

The Developer’s Advanced Guide to the wp-config File

How well do you really know wp-config? There’s a surprising amount of power in those few lines of PHP! This article is a tour of some bits of wp-config that… Read more

Ross Wintle

Sep 27, 2022

Managing WordPress Dev Environments With WP-CLI and Robo

Automating repetitive tasks is one of the best ways to save time in your development workflow. In my day to day work as a plugin developer, I often have to… Read more

Erik

Sep 13, 2022

How to Switch Your WordPress Site from HTTP to HTTPS

Just about every WordPress website should be served over HTTPS instead of HTTP, for reasons of both security and SEO. HTTP content isn’t encrypted, leaving your site vulnerable, and Google… Read more

Matt Shaw

Aug 10, 2022

Installing, Updating, and Managing WordPress Plugins With WP-CLI

WP-CLI allows you to do practically anything you can do in the WordPress admin, but on the command line. This saves a lot of time and provides a cleaner workflow.… Read more

Erik

Jul 26, 2022

Managing Your WordPress Site With Git and Composer

Managing WordPress with Git and Composer has some big advantages. In particular, it can give you version control and helps get new people up to speed quickly. But it’s not… Read more

Ross Wintle

Jul 6, 2022

Our Guide to WP-CLI Command Structure

The WordPress command line interface (WP-CLI) is an incredible tool for improving your development workflow. Understanding how commands are structured is key to using WP-CLI to its full potential. In… Read more

Erik

Jun 28, 2022

How to Use tmux for Remote & Local Development

The tmux terminal multiplexer is often used in remote development, but it has interesting applications for local dev work as well. In this article, I’ll explain what a terminal multiplexer… Read more

Ian

May 25, 2022

Debugging React, JavaScript, and PHP at the Same Time With PhpStorm

Ever since I discovered how to configure PhpStorm with Xdebug for debugging, it’s been my go-to solution for hunting down difficult to reproduce bugs. What I didn’t know until very… Read more

Jonathan

Mar 29, 2022

Create Your Own SSL Certificate Authority for Local HTTPS Development

In 2018 Google started advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption, by marking sites not using an SSL certificate as “not secure” in their Chrome browser. This was widely accepted as… Read more

Brad

Nov 23, 2021