I was not aware of Laragon WAMP for development until it was mentioned in a zulip chat.
It is only available for Windows and runs like a portable app similar to xampp with several advantages including being faster. I tried it out, and YES! Laragon is definitely faster. There is an immediate and noticeable improvement. No waiting, or less, is a relief.
My first warning is to backup your windows hosts file. Laragon will overwrite the hosts file and existing lines for virtual machines, etc. may be lost.
Site developers may be very happy with how it auto creates vhosts and platforms such as for Wordpress sites, without the need for any server configuration knowledge. Although, you will need to create a template for Backdrop CMS to do the same. The auto create vhosts can be disabled and manually creating vhosts and databases provides full control as needed for backdrop and other sites.
It's also interesting how it uses containerization.
https://backdrop.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/218635-Backdrop/topic/Use....
For those who do not know Laragon as a development environment, here is a link : https://laragon.org/download/index.html
This allows you to switch between the different versions of Apache, PHP, Ngnix, SQL, Memecached etc. at lightning speed and generate new websites of various types in approx. 1 second.
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Thanks for sharing this. Although not a question, I've pinned as an FAQ so new users can easily find it.
I was a bit cautious when I first saw that the latest Laragon was updated more than 15 months ago and developed by a single developer. I then came across a blog post by the author from March 2023 that made me less reluctant and spurred me to go ahead and try it. So far, I'm glad I have.
In one of the comments on that blog post is one that says:
While learning about Laragon I also came across the Wordpress Hosting Benchmark Tool.
I haven't tried it yet as I haven't added a WP platform to laragon but the plugin caught my eye as something that might be useful. I'm not sure if Backdrop or Drupal have anything like this.
By default Laragon, uses MySQL whereas XAMPP uses MariaDB by default.
Adding MariaDB is not difficult and both can coexist, each creating its own data sub-directory. This can also be helpful when upgrading versions.
https://devwl.pl/laragon-install-mariadb-update-mysql/
I deleted the previous link on migrating to MariaDB.
Each time a database engine and version are added when the service is first started an extra DATA subdirectory is created that includes a my.cnf configuration file where a default collation and charset can be set.
The way Laragon adds different sql databases and versions is very nice. Once a database engine and version are added it remains available and can be selected before starting laragon. Stop, switch and restart. Pretty cool. Whatever the project requires.
Although, the data must be exported from one version and imported into other when migrating from one version to another.
Different php versions can be easily added and selected as needed with laragon. When each php version is first used a php.ini file is created for that version, that can be edited as needed.
https://medium.com/@oluwaseye/add-different-php-versions-to-your-laragon...