Live development environment?

Application Hosting Questions
1

Hi,

I have been wondering what other people use as live development links. I am planning a retheme for a client who is with Kinsta. It’s a project through a web agency.

I don’t want to develop locally, as I want the agency to be able to access the site/own the incompleted work. The agency has spare web space elsewhere, but ideally I avoid dealing with the differences between Kinsta and another host. I know I can create an extra staging environment on the client’s account, however I’d like to develop on a separate account that the end client doesn’t own. The most inexpensive option for a separate site with Kinsta $35 p/m.

What do others do in situations like this? I am tempted to say that the $35/m compared to the time issues at a random host can cost, it may be worth it, but I wonder whether I am overlooking something.

Thanks so much,
Noëlle

3

Hey Noëlle :wave:,

if you want to show the progress of your work without giving the client direct access to it, one of the option would be to use a local development app like DevKinsta, select specific ports for your sites and then edit your router configuration to allow port forwarding for those ports. By doing so you will be able to allow external access to the site hosted locally, although that will require a real domain (but a subdomain will do) or sharing your IP.
This would be handy as once ready you will be able to push the site to Kinsta in a few clicks (once your client adds you as a user to their company in Kinsta).

Of course, having a stand-alone site/plan in Kinsta would make things much easier, and would give a better preview of the actual performance of the site, so I wouldn’t toss it away as an option.

Regards,
Alessandro