Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

Downloading WordPress for Mac: A Comprehensive Guide

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world today. It powers more than 30 percent of the websites on the internet. If you are a Mac user and interested in creating a WordPress site, you're probably wondering how to download it on your computer. Follow this guide to download and install WordPress on your Mac.

Step 1: Install MAMP

MAMP (Macintosh, Apache, MySQL, PHP) is a web server solution that comes with Apache, PHP, and MySQL pre-configured. MAMP makes it easy to set up a local development environment for your WordPress site on your Mac. Visit the MAMP website and download the latest version of MAMP. Once you have downloaded it, double-click the .dmg file to start the installation process, and then drag the MAMP folder to your Applications folder.

Step 2: Download WordPress

After installing MAMP, you can download WordPress from the official WordPress website. Download the latest stable version of WordPress. The download will be a .zip file that you can extract to your computer. Once you have extracted the file, rename the folder to something easy to remember, such as 'wordpress.'

Step 3: Move WordPress to MAMP's Document Root

Now that you have the WordPress folder, you need to move it to MAMP's document root, where MAMP will be able to access it. To do this, open Finder and navigate to the Applications folder. Open the MAMP folder, and then open the htdocs folder. Drag the 'wordpress' folder that you downloaded in Step 2 to the htdocs folder.

Step 4: Start MAMP

Open the MAMP application, which you installed in Step 1. Click the 'Start Servers' button to start the Apache and MySQL servers. The MAMP application will turn green once the servers are running. You can then click on 'Open WebStart page' to open MAMP's web interface.

Step 5: Create a MySQL Database

With MAMP's web interface open, click on the 'phpMyAdmin' button. This will open up the web interface for MySQL. Click on the 'Databases' tab and enter a name for your database. Click on the 'Create' button to create a new database.

Step 6: Configure WordPress

Now that you have your WordPress files stored in MAMP's document root and your database set up, you need to configure WordPress to use that database. Open the WordPress folder you downloaded and find the wp-config-sample.php file. Rename it to wp-config.php. Next, open the wp-config.php file in a text editor and update the values for DBNAME, DBUSER, and DB_PASSWORD to match the database you created in Step 5. Save the file.

Step 7: Install WordPress

With everything set up, you can now install WordPress. Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:8888/wordpress. This will launch the WordPress installation page. Follow the prompts to enter your site information, create a user account, and install WordPress.

Congratulations, you now have a fully functional WordPress site running on your Mac! You can access it by going to http://localhost:8888/wordpress in your web browser.