How to Set Up a CMS Locally for Development
BeginnerQuick Answer
TL;DR
To set up a CMS locally for development, the approach depends on your CMS type. For cloud-hosted headless CMSes (Sanity, Contentful, Hygraph): install the CLI or SDK, configure API credentials in a `.env` file, and run the admin UI locally while content lives in the cloud. For self-hosted CMSes (Strapi, Directus, WordPress): use Docker to spin up the server and database locally. Most modern headless platforms scaffold a local dev environment in under five minutes.
Key Takeaways
- Cloud-hosted CMS: local dev means running the admin UI locally; the content API is always remote
- Self-hosted CMS: Docker Compose is the fastest way to run server + database locally without polluting your machine
- Always use a separate development dataset or environment — never develop against production content