Understanding Discrepancies Between Localhost and Live Website Display in WordPress

Are you developing a WordPress site and noticing that your website appears differently when viewed locally versus online? This is a common issue that can stem from various factors, especially related to image rendering and styling adjustments.

Case Scenario:
Imagine you have a personal portfolio site that looks perfect on your local development environment. However, once deployed to a live server, such as Heroku, the images resize unexpectedly, and certain style elements like borders around content boxes appear altered. Interestingly, mobile viewports seem unaffected, which suggests the problem may be related to specific styles or image handling.

Potential Causes and Solutions:

1. Image Paths and URLs
2. Issue: Sometimes, relative or absolute URLs differ between local and live environments, leading to improper image scaling.

3. Solution: Ensure your image URLs are correctly configured. Use WordPress functions like the_post_thumbnail() or wp_get_attachment_image() to manage images dynamically, preventing path issues.

4. CSS and Styling Differences

5. Issue: Styles may not load correctly or differ due to caching or environment-specific CSS files.

6. Solution: Check that your stylesheet is properly enqueued and not subject to caching issues. Use browser developer tools to verify if styles are being loaded as expected.

7. Responsive Design Settings

8. Issue: Media queries and responsive units might behave differently depending on the environment.

9. Solution: Test your site across multiple viewports. Verify that your CSS media queries are correctly defined and that container widths are fluid or fixed as intended.

10. Image Size and Compression

11. Issue: Images might be scaled differently depending on server configurations or caching.

12. Solution: Compress and optimize images consistently. Use plugins like Smush or EWWW Image Optimizer to maintain uniform quality and size.

13. Server Environment Differences

14. Issue: Variations in PHP versions, server settings, or CDN configurations can influence how images and styles are rendered.

15. Solution: Ensure that your server environment matches your development setup as closely as possible, and clear caches after updates.

16. WordPress Settings

17. Issue: Site URL and home URL settings may not be correctly configured, affecting media links.
18. Solution: Verify your site URL settings in Settings > General. Use functions like site_url() to manage links dynamically.

Final Thoughts:
Since your site functions