XAMPP vs WAMP: Choosing a Web Server Stack for Local Web Development
If you are considering to test your blogs, websites, CMSs, or other applications like e-commerce or cloud storage softwares locally on your computer, and wondering which web server stack, XAMPP or Wamp Server, would be better for running your blog, CMSs such as WordPress or Drupal, or any other website easily and efficiently on your laptop or desktop computer, you can see the detailed guide below on XAMPP vs WampServer.
XAMPP and Wamp Server are free and open source web server package for running a web server on your computer. Both XAMPP and WampServer primarily consist of Apache server and PHP, and other softwares which are required for running websites and web applications. For databases WampServer comes with MySQL while XAMPP now contains MariaDB in place of MySQL. XAMPP or WampServer can be quite useful to easily run and test websites and web applications locally on your laptop or desktop PC.
Update: XAMPP now contains MariaDB in place of MySQL for databases.
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Although both XAMPP and WampServer contain the same basic softwares required for running a web server, they have some differences. For example, both XAMPP and WampServer can be used for running PHP based websites and applications, but XAMPP can also be used for running applications written in Perl programming language in addition to PHP.
The main advantage of using both the XAMPP and the WampServer is that you don't need to install Apache, PHP, MySQL, MariaDB, etc. individually in order to run a web server on your computer. You just need to download XAMPP or WampServer installers from their websites and then install them on your laptop or desktop PC.
You can easily test PHP based CMSs, blogs, and applications on your computer by installing WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal using either XAMPP or WampServer. You can also install e-commerce softwares like osCommerce and cloud storage systems such as ownCloud using XAMPP or WampServer.
In this guide, we will show you how XAMPP and WampServer are similar and different from each other in detail, and which one will be a good choice for your local web development environment.
XAMPP vs WampServer: What are XAMPP and WampServer
XAMPP
XAMPP is a multi-platform web server package and it is available for all the three major desktop operating systems Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. XAMPP consists of Apache server, MySQL, PHP, Perl, and some other software tools such as PhpMyAdmin for working with MariaDB databases using a graphical user interface.
XAMPP is suitable for running websites and web applications written in PHP or Perl programming languages.
WampServer
Unlike XAMPP, WampServer is available only for Windows operating system. It consists of the basic softwares for running a web server such as Apache, PHP, MySQL, and PhpMyAdmin. WampServer can be used on Windows computers to run websites and applications written in PHP programming language.
XAMPP vs WampServer: User Interface
Since both XAMPP and WampServer consists of multiple softwares such as Apache, PHP, MySQL, MariaDB, etc., they come with a simple and easy to use control panels. The control panel is a graphical user interface which you can use to switch on or off individual component softwares in XAMPP or WampServer while they are running.
XAMPP
XAMPP has a control panel as shown in the image below. You can see it has buttons to start and stop individual components such as Apache while XAMPP Control Panel is running.
WampServer
WampServer also comes with a graphical user interface to switch on or of individual component softwares while WampServer is running.
XAMPP vs WampServer: Installation
Both XAMPP and WampServer can be installed easily on your computer. If you are on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, or Mac OS X or Linux computer, you can just download the XAMPP installer and install it as you install any other application.
If you are on a Windows laptop or desktop computer, you can download WampServer and install it easily as you install other applications.
XAMPP vs WampServer: Performance
In both XAMPP and WampServer, the main internal component softwares are Apache, PHP, and MySQL or MariaDB which are required for running a web server locally. So, if you are using either XAMPP or WampServer for similar work which requires the same component softwares, the performance of XAMPP or WampServer should be nearly equivalent.
In addition to the basic component softwares Apache, PHP, MySQL or MariaDB in XAMPP, and PhpMyAdmin, XAMPP comes with more softwares and tools than WampServer such as Webalizer, Mercury Mail, FileZilla FTP server, Tomcat, and Strawberry Perl. So, the size of XAMPP installer is greater than WampServer installer.
Depending on the number and type of internal component softwares which are running inside either XAMPP or WampServer, memory and CPU consumption may vary. For example, if you are running more number of component softwares inside XAMPP or WampServer simultaneously, it may take more memory and CPU.
If you are running Mac OS X or Linux on your computer, you should use XAMPP since WampServer is available only for Windows. If you are using a Windows laptop or desktop PC, you can use either XAMPP or WampServer depending on the type of use.
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