As a matter of experience, many people (especially for personal webmasters) have deeply understood the installation of Apache server on localhost is definitely not an easy thing, not to mention adding a MySQL, PHP or Perl component, harder. Nevertheless, luckily there are tools similar to XAMPP integrate frequently-used development environments into one package.
XAMPP (former name: LAMPP, short for Apache + MySQL + PHP + Perl) is the current best and most popular, most powerful open source, freeware Apache distribution development environments (including Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl and more). It's very easy to install and use, as a must-have local tools package for webmasters' localhost developing and testing usages.
Moreover, now within XAMPP, you can even install any web apps (server software) you want to test (like Drupal, Joomla!, WordPress and many other popular open source apps) as add-ons of XAMPP, with the help of free all-in-one app store for server software - Bitnami.
In brief, XAMPP allows users to easily set up an efficient, fast and powerful local web server on their computers, in order to develop, test or debug their own or ready-made PHP application, CMS (content management system), WordPress blog app and many more with ease.
Key Features
- The most popular PHP dev package
- For Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris & Linux
- Easy installation and configuration
- Completely free of charge
- Multiple languages support
Integrated Development Environments
- Apache
- MySQL
- PHP
- Perl
- phpMyAdmin
- Webalizer
- Fake Sendmail
- OpenSSL
- Zend Optimizer
- FileZilla FTP Server
- Apache Tomcat (need JDK supports)
- Mercury Mail Server
- ... and more
Official Demo Video
Related Links
- Add-ons and Themes for XAMPP
- XAMPP Frequently Asked Questions (Windows | Mac | Linux)
- Bitnami app store for server software
Download URLs
| License | Version | Download | Size |
| Freeware | Latest |  (mir) |
n/a |