You Can Blog from Your Local WordPress Site on iPhone. Here’s How.

But first:

I came up with a task list. One of those mental checklists you think you’d never forget about because all the tasks were pretty straightforward:

1. Install Nginx and PHP-FPM with Homebrew.
2. Pick out a theme, setup a bunch of plugins.
3. Grab Simply Static, set up GitHub and let Cloudflare Pages do its thing.
4. Blog away!!

I’m sure you're chuckling about how all that Just Worked ™.

I’d love to tell you about the plugins that worked and the ones that didn’t. Or about how PHP would run out of memory while trying to clean up Simply Static’s output. Or how I spent not hours but weeks getting everything up to perfection.

From the theme to the sitemap, the comments to the subscriptions, it was one experiment after another.

But those will need 3 more posts… So let’s not bore you.

Instead, let me tell you how I’m writing this right now on my iPhone - while WordPress is quietly sitting on my Mac behind localhost.

Don't quite get what I'm saying?

WordPress is installed locally on my Mac. No access to the outside but I still use it to write my posts and create my pages. I then use a plugin called Simply Static to export the entire website and host it on Cloudflare Pages.

The only issue with this workflow is the fact that it makes it nearly impossible to use the WordPress app on other devices, whether it's your phone or tablet because these don't have a way of discovering where your WordPress installation is via the internet.

Great. So what's the solution?

There are two, that work perfectly for this. The first is ZeroTier and the second is Tailscale. Both these services have a free tier that allow you to set up a private network mesh (think VPN) that you have complete control over. This means that your phone connects to a secure network that you can choose to add services to.

And for this use case? It's actually perfect

Great. How do I get started?

The process is almost exactly the same for both services but I'll share how it's done with ZeroTier.

Setting It Up with ZeroTier

Here’s how you can access your local WordPress site from your phone, even if it’s just on localhost.

1. Install ZeroTier on both devices

• On your Mac, download and install ZeroTier.
• Do the same on your iPhone (it's on the App Store).

• Once installed, both devices will get unique Node IDs.

  2. Create a ZeroTier Network

• Go to my.zerotier.com and sign in (GitHub login works).

• Click “Create a Network”.

• Copy the Network ID (you’ll need it in the next step).

3. Join the Network from each device

• On your Mac: zerotier-cli join <your-network-id> (or use the GUI if you prefer)
• On your iPhone: Paste the Network ID into the app and tap Join Network.
• Go back to the ZeroTier dashboard and approve both devices under Members.

4. Find your Mac’s ZeroTier IP

• Once connected, ZeroTier assigns your Mac a virtual IP like 10.x.x.x.
• You’ll see this IP in the ZeroTier dashboard next to your Mac’s name.

5. Update WordPress to accept remote connections

• Edit wp-config.php and add the following. Doing it this way allows WordPress to respond to both localhost (or whatever you set your local domain to) and IP addresses. This works out perfectly because, well, it's on your local machine anyway.

define('WP_HOME', "http://$host");
define('WP_SITEURL', "http://$host");

6. Open the WordPress App on iPhone

• Add the full IP address of your Mac and port like: 10.x.x.x:8080
• Log in with your WordPress credentials.

Remember that you can't use custom hosts here as your phone doesn't know which address that host points to.

That’s it! You’re In ®

Setting It Up with Tailscale

Want the same magic but using Tailscale instead of ZeroTier? The steps are nearly identical — just a bit more elegant thanks to its identity-based access and built-in DNS.

1. Install Tailscale on both devices

• On your Mac, download and install Tailscale.
• On your iPhone, install the Tailscale app from the App Store.

• Sign in on both devices with the same account (Google, GitHub, or Microsoft).

  2. Authorize devices in your Tailscale admin panel

• Go to login.tailscale.com/admin/machines.

• You should see both your Mac and iPhone listed.

• Approve them if required (usually automatic).

3. Note your Mac’s Tailscale IP or MagicDNS name

• Tailscale assigns your Mac a stable IP like 100.x.x.x, or a MagicDNS name like: geekist-mac.local.tailnet-yourname.ts.net
• Either one works. MagicDNS is easier to remember (and you won’t need to hardcode IPs later).

4. Update WordPress to accept remote connections

Just like in the ZeroTier setup, edit wp-config.php with:

define('WP_HOME', "http://$host");
define('WP_SITEURL', "http://$host");

Where $host can be either:

• 100.x.x.x:8080 (Tailscale IP), or
• geekist-mac.local.tailnet-yourname.ts.net:8080 (MagicDNS)

5. Add your site to the WordPress app

• Open the WordPress app on your iPhone.
• Choose “Add self-hosted site”.
• Enter the full address including port, e.g.: http://100.x.x.x:8080 or http://geekist-mac.local.tailnet-yourname.ts.net:8080
• Log in with your normal credentials.

💡 If you use MagicDNS, there’s no need to remember the IP address. It just works.™

Wait. So Which one to pick?

Honestly, it comes down to what kind of person you are.

If you prefer seeing everything? Maybe naming your networks or manually approving devices? And if a web dashboard feels like you’re running your own little ISP, ZeroTier will speak your language. It gives you fine control over your private mesh and feels wonderfully self-contained. The trade-off is that setup takes a little more intent, especially when dealing with permissions and IP tracking.

Tailscale, on the other hand, behaves more like something that’s already part of your system. You sign in & it just works. Devices show up automatically, MagicDNS remembers the names for you, and you don’t have to click “approve” anywhere. If you're the type who wants to forget you ever set it up, this one's probably the better fit.

Both are excellent, both are free for the use case we’ve talked about and both will let you blog from your phone like some sort of secret agent tunneling into your own localhost.

If you already use one of them for other projects, stick with it. If you're starting fresh, try both. You’ll know within ten minutes which one feels right.

Blogging from your phone doesn’t have to mean surrendering control to third-party platforms or cloud editors. With a simple mesh network setup and a local WordPress install, you can draft, edit & publish your posts exactly how you want (from wherever you are).

And whether you go with ZeroTier or Tailscale, it doesn't matter much because the results are the same:

Your blog, your rules, your environment. Private and under your control.