October 21, 2024

Essential Tools Every Developer Needs for Local Host Switching

In our previous article on hosts files, we discussed their importance, use cases, and how to locate and edit them. We are now exploring tools that will help you edit and manage hosts files seamlessly, allowing you to use them in various real-life applications without needing to access the hosts file directly.

Local Host Switching in Mac with iHosts

When it comes to host switching in local, iHosts is a best tool available in Mac. It provides a seamless way to manage your local development environments, making it effortless to switch between your local setup and test servers. With iHosts, you don’t have to worry about manually re-configuring settings each time you switch environments; a single group change is all it takes to adapt to different server setups.

Configuring iHosts for Host Switching

Download iHosts application on your mac by visiting iHosts App Store page.
Once the installation is complete, open the iHosts app. You should see the iHosts icon appear in the top menu bar (navbar) of your screen.

Click the iHosts icon in the menu bar and select Edit Hosts.
Choose or create a node for Development/Test server.
Add the server entries.

127.0.0.1 www.myfirstwebsite.com
127.0.0.1 www.dotsperpixels.com
127.0.0.1 www.example.com

Hosts File Editor App in Windows

Hosts File Editor app is a Windows option for host switching. Similar to iHost, it will let you group the based on your use case.

Install Hosts File Editor App

Download Direct Link:- Hosts File Editor Download
If the above link is not working go to Hosts File Editor application https://hostsfileeditor.com/.
From the Download Section select the Download Latest Installer option.
After installation, you can add or edit host entries in the Host File Editor app.

Adding host file Write Permission to the current User

For adding or editing entries, we usually require to give the right permission to the Host File Editor app, here you can see how to achieve the same.

Got to the Host file Location of hosts file c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.
Open properties for this file by right-clicking.
Click on the security tab.
Click Edit the permission.
Add write access and save.

LiveHosts

LiveHosts is a Browser plugin that is available in both Chrome and Firefox that works across all operating systems. It allows you to manage the settings both at the browser level and individually for each tab. This flexibility makes it easy to control host configurations directly within your browser.

Conclusion

We’ve looked into several host switching options that we’ve personally tested, and there are plenty of similar applications available. Just a quick reminder: it’s best to use only one host switching application or plugin at a time. Be sure to disable the selected option once you’re done, as failing to do so could affect your other testing environments.