Test Drive Joomla On Your Personal Computer

You do not need an account with a web host to start to learn and play with Joomla.

Which means you can very easily experience Joomla before you pay a web hosting company money to host your site.

This is done by installing it on your local computer so that you can actually start to see, touch, feel, modify Joomla. You can first prototype your site on your home computer, and when you're ready you can transfer or recreate it on a real web host.

Make your PC act like webserver

All you have to do is install a special application and your computer will behave just as it were a web host. You'll be able to install Joomla, create, modify, delete content to your heart's desire.

JSAS Joomla Stand Alone Server

Take a look at JSAS, Joomla Stand Alone Server (Windows only). While there are other, manual, more complicated ways of achieving a local test drive of Joomla, JSAS is the simplest way to experience Joomla. It only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to install, and comes with Joomla packaged already inside it.

By the way, JSAS is also free. You can download it here:

Seeing Is Believing, Watch Joomla Stand Alone Server In Action

Here's a video I made of the entire process. At the end of about ten minutes you have a fully powered Joomla website on your local computer.

It really is just button clicks and a few text boxes to fill out.

 
Save Your Joomla Test Drive For Testing
By having a local installation of Joomla you can also use it as a testing place to make sure your modifications don't break your live site.