[FIXED] Which stack to use for developing Laravel app on Windows?

Issue

Although Laravel documentation does not mention using XAMPP, I would like to know whether using XAMPP stack, sticks to the best practices for Laravel development on Windows?

Which of one of the stacks (LAMP, WAMP, XAMPP, Laragon, Homestead) do you recommend for developing with Laravel on windows?

Solution

Source

Xampp

XAMPP stands for Cross Platform ,Apache , MariaDB (MySQL) ,PHP ,Perl. XAMPP is a free and open source cross-platform web server solution stack package developed by Apache Friends, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.

Advantages of XAMPP :-

It is Easy to Install as compare to other web server's like WAMP. It is Multi Cross Platform which means XAMPP is available for Windows and Linux. It also comes with a number of other modules including OpenSSL, phpMyAdmin, MediaWiki, Joomla, WordPress and more. XAMPP is offered in both a full and a standard version (Smaller version). You can start and stop the whole webserver+database stack with one command.

Disadvantages of XAMPP :-

Configuration and Setting is tough to do as compare to WAMP Server.

Wamp

WAMP is sometimes used as an abbreviated name for the software stack Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP. It is derived from LAMP which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. As the name implies, while LAMP is used on Linux servers, WAMP is used on Windows servers.

Advantages of WAMP :-

It is easy to Use. (Changing Configuration). WAMP makes easy to code PHP and Creating Data bases (in MySQL) in Windows platform. WAMP is Available for both 64 bit and 32 bit system.

Disadvantages of WAMP :-

It is not easy to install as compare to XAMPP.

There is also a lite version of xampp available for limited usage. Usually you can set it up with either one but I prefer xampp over wamp.

Lately op tries to include laravel homestead in the list so a very detailed description of homestead is here in its documentation. And for pros and cons of using homestead is given here.

If you just only want to learn laravel than homestead is fine because its specially developed for laravel framework but if you want to give it a try to gain server knowledge and setting up of the same with different settings I suggest you using xampp in which you will come to know some very basic server settings used for hosting.

Answered By - Parth Pandya

Answer Checked By - Timothy Miller (PHPFixing Admin)