Description
Contrary to popular belief, Jetpack does not require you to connect your website to WordPress.com before you can use it at all.
Several Jetpack modules are self-contained and do not require a WordPress.com connection to function:
Asset CDN
Beautiful Math
Carousel
Contact Form
Copy Post
Custom CSS
Custom content types
Extra Sidebar Widgets
Gravatar Hovercards
Infinite Scroll
Lazy Images
Markdown
Sharing
Shortcode Embeds
Site verification
Sitemaps
Tiled Galleries*
Widget Visibility
The Development Mode for Jetpack plugin enables (wait for it…) Jetpack Development Mode, which does two things:
Eliminates “nags” to connect a Jetpack-enabled site to WordPress.com.
Allows usage of modules that do not require a WordPress.com connection.
It also means you can stop using individual Jetpack modules that have been forked out into standalone plugins by random people. These plugins tend to be unsupported and out of step with the latest version of the official Jetpack equivalent.
Please note that this plugin requires Jetpack to be activated alongside it to be of any use, and will not help with the following modules that do require a WordPress.com connection:
Ads
Backups and Scanning
Comment Likes
Comments
Enhanced Distribution
Google Analytics
Image CDN
JSON API
Likes
Monitor
Notifications
Post by email
Protect
Publicize
Related posts
SEO Tools
Search
Secure Sign On
Site Stats
Subscriptions
VideoPress
WP.me Shortlinks
WooCommerce Analytics
WordPress.com Toolbar
Lists of Jetpack modules in this plugin description should not be considered comprehensive or authoritative, and may change at any time.
According to the previously linked documentation page for Jetpack Development mode:
Tiled Galleries requires the WordPress.com Photon CDN; however, in Development Mode, Jetpack provides a fallback so developers can have a similar experience during development and testing.
Other modules may also have “reduced functionality” but retain “a good-faith representation of the feature.”