SiteShift
SITESHIFT VS STUDIO

SiteShift vs Studio: real MySQL against WASM and SQLite.

Studio by WordPress.com is a free, Docker-free local app that runs WordPress on WebAssembly PHP with SQLite. SiteShift runs the stack your host runs — real PHP, real MySQL — and pushes to any SSH host. Studio is a very good preview; SiteShift is a working copy of production.

Get SiteShift — €9/mo See the table ↓

Checked September 2026 · Studio details from developer.wordpress.com

SiteShift vs Studio

SiteShift Studio
Price €9/mo Free
Docker required No No
PHP Native binaries, 8.1–8.4 WebAssembly
Database MySQL 8.4 SQLite
Deploys to Any SSH host WordPress.com
Pull a live site Any SSH host WordPress.com
Plugins needing MySQL As on your host May behave differently
WHICH ONE

Pick by what you're actually doing

Choose Studio when
  • You publish to WordPress.com and want its one-click sync
  • You're building content or a theme and don't touch the database layer
  • Free matters more than production parity
Choose SiteShift when
  • The site runs on a normal host with MySQL and you need it to behave the same locally
  • WooCommerce reports, caching plugins, custom tables — anything that assumes MySQL
  • You push over SSH to a host that isn't WordPress.com

Questions

For a brochure site, rarely. For anything with custom tables, MySQL-specific SQL or a caching plugin, a site can behave differently on SQLite than on your host's MySQL — and you find out on production. SiteShift runs MySQL 8.4 locally so there is nothing to find out.

Studio syncs with WordPress.com sites. For other hosts you export and migrate by hand; SiteShift pushes over SSH directly.

Made up your mind? SiteShift is €9 a month, cancel anytime.

Get SiteShift — €9/mo