MAMP, or DIY web server for development?

9 years ago from Ray Brigleb, Creative Director

For years, we've used MAMP or MAMP Pro as a simple method of running several web servers (along with their databases and so forth), particularly for developing CMS-based sites.

However, with the rise of front-end toolchains based on Grunt and Gulp, I feel like it's cumbersome and a bit counterproductive to still spin up these services with a GUI.

Does anyone have better alternatives for getting a web server, PHP, MySQL, and basic local-hosted domain name for testing, up and running quickly from the command line? Other suggestions?

14 comments

Ryan LeFevre, 9 years ago
You can probably get everything setup easily with Homebrew. I haven't done any PHP development in awhile, but it should have everything you need.
What version of PHP are you guys using? Starting with 5.4, PHP comes with a built-in web server for development.
3 points
- Ray Brigleb, 9 years ago
  Fascinating. I'm evidently on 5.5 and did not realize that feature was there.
  0 points
Kyle Conrad, 9 years ago
I've incorporated BrowserSync (http://www.browsersync.io/) into my Gulp build, and man is it terrific. It spins up a local server for me for static and JS stuff, and apparently you can even build it out for PHP stuff as well (from what I've read). Also, as you code, it live updates way better than LiveReload ever did (and doesn't need a browser extension to do it).
1 point
Matt Felten, 9 years ago
I've been using Pow and Powder recently to spin up a quick server.
I haven't figured out an easy workflow to get WordPress up and running without MAMP though. I don't know enough MySQL to automate database migrations. That's my next weekend project.
1 point
- Ray Brigleb, 9 years ago
  Nice, I hadn't heard of Powder. Very cool. Getting close!!!
  0 points
- Denis K, 9 years ago
  Same here, I've been running Vagrant/Chef for provisioning environments. Except for node projects for that I use a custom web.js script. Interesting find!
  0 points
Geoff Yuen, 9 years ago
I've been looking for the same thing as you and it seems like the current hotness is setting up a VM using Vagrant.
http://www.vagrantup.com/
It looks complicated but you can replicate a production server pretty closely using this whereas you can't really customize MAMP that much.
0 points
Bowen Li, 9 years ago
OSX comes with apache/PHP already installed. http://osxdaily.com/2012/09/02/start-apache-web-server-mac-os-x/ and http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.macosx.bundled.php
MySQL has an OSX installer: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/
Postgres.app runs without an installer: http://postgresapp.com/
0 points
Jimmy Hooker, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )
It is far, far better and ultimately easier to just install your own lamp stack locally.
This is my favorite guide: http://jason.pureconcepts.net/2012/10/install-apache-php-mysql-mac-os-x/
0 points
Luke Mitchell, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )
Why not keep MAMP but start it from the command line? If you look in /Applications/MAMP/bin you'll find two scripts, start.sh and stop.sh. use ln -s or cp to add them to you $PATH. Easy.
You should be able to use something like 'Anvil' for dev addresses.
0 points
- Matt Felten, 9 years ago
  Anvil is basically a GUI for Pow which, last I checked, doesn't play well with MAMP. I had to uninstall Pow every time I wanted to turn on MAMP.
  MAMP Pro does dev addresses though.
  0 points
Matt Lambert, 9 years ago
I use both, depends on the project. Anvil is also a good choice for a localhost server
0 points
- Ray Brigleb, 9 years ago
  I love Anvil (which uses Pow) for static site development, but sadly it doesn't really take into account any database (as far as I can tell). Would love to be wrong!
  0 points
  - Matt Lambert, 9 years ago
    Yeah not sure about db integration, I only use it for static sites. Mostly creating Bootstrap themes
    0 points

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