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  1. Stackups
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  5. MAMP vs XAMPP

MAMP vs XAMPP

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

XAMPP
XAMPP
Stacks142
Followers272
Votes6
MAMP
MAMP
Stacks63
Followers132
Votes2

MAMP vs XAMPP: What are the differences?

Introduction:

MAMP (Macintosh, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) and XAMPP (Cross-platform, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl) are both popular local development environments used for web development. However, they have several key differences that set them apart.

  1. Operating System Compatibility: MAMP is designed specifically for macOS, while XAMPP is a cross-platform solution that can be installed on various operating systems such as macOS, Windows, and Linux. This makes XAMPP a more flexible choice for developers working on different platforms.

  2. Included Software Versions: MAMP typically includes updated versions of Apache, MySQL, PHP, and phpMyAdmin. In contrast, XAMPP often includes older software versions, although it provides the option to upgrade to the latest versions if desired. This means that MAMP users may have access to more up-to-date features and security patches.

  3. Ease of Installation: MAMP offers a straightforward installation process, specifically designed for macOS. On the other hand, XAMPP installation can be more complex and may involve additional configuration steps, especially on Windows and Linux systems. Therefore, MAMP might be more suitable for beginners or users looking for a hassle-free setup.

  4. Configuration: MAMP provides a user-friendly interface for managing Apache, MySQL, and PHP configurations, allowing users to easily modify settings without editing multiple configuration files. XAMPP, on the other hand, requires manual configuration through editing the specific configuration files, which may be more suitable for advanced users who prefer fine-grained control.

  5. Additional Features: While both MAMP and XAMPP offer the core components needed for web development, MAMP Pro (the paid version of MAMP) includes additional features such as virtual host management, dynamic DNS support, and SSL/TLS certificate creation. XAMPP, on the other hand, provides the option to add additional components and modules based on the developer's requirements.

  6. Community and Support: Both MAMP and XAMPP have active user communities and resources available online. However, XAMPP tends to have a larger user base and more extensive documentation, making it easier to find answers to common issues and receive community support.

In summary, the key differences between MAMP and XAMPP lie in their operating system compatibility, included software versions, ease of installation, configuration options, additional features, and community support. The choice between the two depends on the developer's platform requirements, preference for up-to-date software versions, ease of installation, level of configuration control, need for additional features beyond the core components, and access to community support.

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Detailed Comparison

XAMPP
XAMPP
MAMP
MAMP

It consists mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MariaDB database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.

It can be installed under macOS and Windows with just a few clicks. It provides them with all the tools they need to run WordPress on their desktop PC for testing or development purposes, for example. It doesn't matter if you prefer Apache or Nginx or if you want to work with PHP, Python, Perl or Ruby.

Statistics
Stacks
142
Stacks
63
Followers
272
Followers
132
Votes
6
Votes
2
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 6
    Easy set up and installation of files
Pros
  • 1
    Comes with PHP and phpmyadmin preinstalled
  • 1
    Great Support of Native Languages
Integrations
No integrations available
Windows
Windows
macOS
macOS

What are some alternatives to XAMPP, MAMP?

NGINX

NGINX

nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, as well as a mail proxy server, written by Igor Sysoev. According to Netcraft nginx served or proxied 30.46% of the top million busiest sites in Jan 2018.

Apache HTTP Server

Apache HTTP Server

The Apache HTTP Server is a powerful and flexible HTTP/1.1 compliant web server. Originally designed as a replacement for the NCSA HTTP Server, it has grown to be the most popular web server on the Internet.

Unicorn

Unicorn

Unicorn is an HTTP server for Rack applications designed to only serve fast clients on low-latency, high-bandwidth connections and take advantage of features in Unix/Unix-like kernels. Slow clients should only be served by placing a reverse proxy capable of fully buffering both the the request and response in between Unicorn and slow clients.

Microsoft IIS

Microsoft IIS

Internet Information Services (IIS) for Windows Server is a flexible, secure and manageable Web server for hosting anything on the Web. From media streaming to web applications, IIS's scalable and open architecture is ready to handle the most demanding tasks.

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat

Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.

Passenger

Passenger

Phusion Passenger is a web server and application server, designed to be fast, robust and lightweight. It takes a lot of complexity out of deploying web apps, adds powerful enterprise-grade features that are useful in production, and makes administration much easier and less complex.

Gunicorn

Gunicorn

Gunicorn is a pre-fork worker model ported from Ruby's Unicorn project. The Gunicorn server is broadly compatible with various web frameworks, simply implemented, light on server resources, and fairly speedy.

ngrok

ngrok

ngrok is a reverse proxy that creates a secure tunnel between from a public endpoint to a locally running web service. ngrok captures and analyzes all traffic over the tunnel for later inspection and replay.

Jetty

Jetty

Jetty is used in a wide variety of projects and products, both in development and production. Jetty can be easily embedded in devices, tools, frameworks, application servers, and clusters. See the Jetty Powered page for more uses of Jetty.

lighttpd

lighttpd

lighttpd has a very low memory footprint compared to other webservers and takes care of cpu-load. Its advanced feature-set (FastCGI, CGI, Auth, Output-Compression, URL-Rewriting and many more) make lighttpd the perfect webserver-software for every server that suffers load problems.

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