The 20+ Best WordPress Maintenance Tools

Your website is like your car. You drive it every day to work, to school, and back home. Having a flat tire, a damaged headlight, or worse, a dysfunctional brake system will cost you a lot. Just like your car, you need to have only the best WordPress maintenance tools for your website.

Website maintenance is as important as site development. However, the former is often missed. Often only a small amount of time is allocated to keeping a website in good running condition. Do not wait until everything crashes. Consider the best WordPress maintenance tools from hereon in.

Best WordPress Maintenance Tools

Local Development Environments

Local development environments are local “places” where you create, host, test and tweak files. Additionally, these environments are visible only to the developer. The servers of a hosting company are necessary later on to set the site live.

DESKTOP SERVER

One of the best WordPress maintenance tools is DesktopServer. It makes your local WordPress installation hassle-free and easy. With DesktopServer, you are just a few clicks away from your site going live.

DesktopServer works both on Mac and Windows. It claims to be the only tool with optimized local AMP stack. It supports Dreamweaver Live view and Panic Coda. At the same time, you can create and manage countless WordPress websites using the premium account.

Get a free trial with DesktopServer. If you want to continue after the trial period, contact DesktopServer for a customized pricing package.

XAMPP

XAMPP is an abbreviation for Cross-Platform (X), Apache (A), MariaDB (M), PHP (P) and Perl (P). It is a simple Local Development Environment tool. It is completely free and easy to use. This Apache-developed tool consists of Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, PHP and Perl programming languages.

XAMPP offers an extractable file which one needs to set up the web server. Furthermore, this tool moves easily across various platforms such as Linux, Mac, and Windows. It is also seamless in its transition from a local test server to a live server through XAMPP.

MAMP

Install everything in seconds with MAMP. This is a local server environment platform. It is one of the best WordPress maintenance tools. MAMP is a set of software subsystems or stacks that additionally has a free and open-source instrument. It is dynamic and runs websites on different OS such as Windows and MAC.

The latest version, MAMP 4.0, offers endless opportunities for web developers. Enjoy MAMP free or get the latest MAMP PRO version for as low as $29.00.

VAGRANT

Vagrant makes it really easy to work with virtual machines. It is another tool for building and maintaining portable virtual software development environments. Furthermore, this tool increases the development productivity of software. It simplifies the software configuration management.

Vagrant supports various operating systems including FreeBSD, Linux, macOS and Microsoft Windows. What’s more, it was written in Ruby.

LOCAL BY FLYWHEEL

One of the best WordPress maintenance tools, Local by Flywheel is excellent for local WordPress development. It provides users with diverse hosting options that are very stable, too! This tool has easy-to-understand features making the job easier for developers.

You can sign up for free at Local by Flywheel. After that, single-site plans start at $15 per month and  depend on the package.

Boilerplate Generators

UNDERSCORES

Underscores is one of the most popular WordPress Boilerplate generators and starter themes. It is an easy to use tool written in HTML5 and CSS. The WordPress team was able to develop and provide this tool to developers. Underscores is lightweight and properly maintained.

WORDPRESS PLUGIN BOILERPLATE

Kick off your WordPress development and maintenance tasks the right way with WordPress Plugin Boilerplate. It is well-organized, easy to navigate, and has an object-oriented foundation. It lets you create and maintain high-quality WordPress plugins.

The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate includes .gitignore, CHANGELOG.MD, README.md, and plugin-name. It is further based on Plugin API, Coding Standards, and Documentation Standards.

BEDROCK

Another rockstar in the boilerplate generation, Bedrock is a modern WordPress stack. This tool helps you kick off your website development and maintenance. So thanks to Roots for making this open source project possible!

Code Editors

SUBLIME TEXT

One of the best WordPress maintenance tools, in terms of code editing, is Sublime Text. It is lightweight and compact, yet very powerful. Fully customizable, Sublime Text offers cross-platform assistance. It also supports a black background to achieve a better view of the screen.

Try Sublime Text if you are new to programming. It can be one of the best HTML and PHP editors to work with. Sublime Text can be had free and with a minimum payment of $70 after the trial.

PHPSTORM

A top code editor is PhpStorm. This tool is a professional Integrated Development Environment or IDE. PhpStorm was developed and licensed by JetBrains. It hosts PHP among other web languages.

PhpStorm is not free, however, a trial version is available. Subscriptions are either monthly or annually. It can be used by both individuals and organizations for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

NOTEPAD++

Notepad++ is a zero cost source code editor that supports various languages. This software is written in C++ and uses Standard Template Library (STL) and a 32-bit version of Windows or Win32 API.

This software is based on Scintilla. The features of Notepad++ include code folding, syntax highlighting and limited autocompletion for markup languages, programming, and scripting.

PHP DESIGNER 8

phpDesigner 8 helps you create and develop websites that you will love! This PHP editor has built-in CSS3-, HTML5-, and JavaScript editors. phpDesigner 8 is a fast PHP Integrated Development Environment.

Aside from editing, you can easily analyze, debug or publish various websites. This tool is a fully featured editor. One of the remarkable features of phpDesigner 8 is that it has intelligent syntax that spots errors as you type.

Browser Development Tool

CHROME DEVELOPER TOOLS

Website development and maintenance is made easy with Chrome Developer Tools. Abbreviated as DevTools, this set of tools allows you to enhance the profile of your site. Chrome DevTools provides more access to the browser’s internal sections and web application areas.

You can use these debugging tools to correct layout issues. You can also set JavaScript breakpoints to optimize the coding process. Chrome DevTools has eight (8) main groups, as follows:

• Audits
• Console
• Elements
• Network
• Profiles
• Resources
• Sources
• Timeline

FIREFOX DEVELOPER TOOLS

Welcome to the home of tools where developers can benefit from using Firefox. Firefox Develop Tools is a comprehensive set of instruments which can authorize, debug and carry out various actions.

With the latest Firefox Developer Edition, features are up-to-date and special developer tools are more exciting than ever. One can create different activities on websites and web apps. These tools include the following:

• Creating Tools – Scratchpad, Style Editor, Shader Editor
• Debugging Tools – Page Inspector, Web Console, Debugger, Network Monitor
• Mobile Tools – App Manager, WebIDE
• Performance Tools – JavaScript Profiler, Paint Flashing Tool, etc.

Database Management

PHPMYADMIN

phpMyAdmin is an open source web-based MySQL and MariaDB manager. One can efficiently create and manage databases, tables and database users. Many developers and designers use this database management software. It is one of the best WordPress Maintenance tools.

This tool is available in 72 language translations. It supports both LTR and RTL languages. Also, it has an intuitive web interface. It can administer multiple servers at a time.

ADMINER

Adminer is a full-featured database management tool available in PHP. One can manage databases, tables, indexes and so much more from the web-based interface. With Adminer, the user has a tidier user interface and reliable support for MySQL features. With this tool, you can achieve greater performance and better security.

Adminer supports popular database management systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, Oracle, and MongoDB. Different UI designs are available for you to download as CSS files.

SEQUEL PRO

Sequel Pro is fast and easy to use even for beginners. It is an open source MySQL database management tool. Users have direct access to MySQL databases on local and remote servers. This tool suits well for Mac OS users.

SQUIRREL SQL

This database management tool is a graphical JAVA-based platform. SQuirreL SQL Client allows users to view the structure of a JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) compliant database. As of Squirrel Version 3.0, the latest version of Java support 1.6x. SQuirreL SQL Client supports databases such as Firebird, IBM DB2, InterBase, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and Sybase.

FTP Clients

FTP client refers to File Transfer Protocol. It’s software which creates a connection between a host computer and a remote server. This tool involves the methods of uploading, downloading and managing files on the server.

FILEZILLA

Filezilla is your free FTP (File Transfer Protocol) solution both for client and server. This cross-platform graphical FTP, SFTP, and FTPS file management tool runs smoothly with Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and more operating systems. This open source software is under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It is free of charge.

Among its features are IPv6 support, remote editing, filename filters, HTTP/1.1, SOCKS5 and FTP-Proxy support. This tool is available in many languages which makes it widely accessible to the public.

WinSCP

One of the most powerful FTP clients for Windows user is WinSCP. Easy to use, it has many features. This tool supports SFTP, SSH, and the old FTP therefore making it simple to handle files. Assigning a default editor comes easily as well. WinSCP also offers scripting and basic file management functions.

Backup Tools

COMODO

Comodo Backup is free backup software that offers many advanced features. This tool secures files in hard drives, local drives, network drives, partition tables, and virtual drives via FTP server or online storage.

This software supports different backup methods including differential, full backup, incremental backup, and synchronized backup.

ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE

Looking for a complete and reliable backup solution for your home computer? Backup files however you want. You can secure your whole PC or just a portion of your information with Acronis True Image. This tool saves your files on an FTP server or external hard drive.

One of the best WordPress maintenance tools, Acronis True Image costs $49.99. This software supports different Window versions as well as MAC OS. When doing a backup, cloning or imaging, are your options when duplicating the entire system.

Wrapping Up

Since no website survives without proper attention and maintenance. How do you think successful brands thrive online? They have solid maintenance for their online presence and activities.

WordPress maintenance is more than just upgrading a site layout or changing the color scheme to fit the brand. Website maintenance helps prevent security breaches. It secures important documents and files online. Furthermore, it helps you optimize your strategies. Thus, all WordPress maintenance tools should be more than just an option.