A modern XAMPP alternative for Windows
XAMPP is the classic free stack, but on Windows it shows its age for Laravel: one PHP version (more means a manual FastCGI setup), hand-written virtual hosts, no built-in HTTPS or mail catcher. Dunebox runs six PHP versions at once with per-site trusted HTTPS, databases, Mailpit and tools already wired together.
Dunebox vs XAMPP
Side by side
| Feature | Dunebox | XAMPP |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Freefreeware | Free |
| PHP versions serving at the same time | ✓5.6–8.5, concurrent | —one; extra = manual FastCGI |
Local .test + trusted HTTPS |
✓automatic | Manualhand-written vhosts |
| Databases managed, free | ✓MySQL ×3, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis | ✓MariaDB |
| Mail catcher built in (Mailpit) | ✓ | — |
| phpMyAdmin / Redis UI built in | ✓both | ✓phpMyAdmin |
| Optional wildcard local DNS — no hosts-file edits | ✓ | — |
| Guided Cron Jobs editor | ✓ | — |
| Fully portable — no installer, no service | ✓ | — |
| Claude (Code / Desktop) integration | ✓ | — |
Why developers switch: every PHP version at once instead of one, .test domains with green
padlocks set up for you (no manual vhosts or certificates), a mail catcher and web tools included, and a
single portable folder. XAMPP still wins if you need Linux or macOS. See the
full comparison.
See also: Dunebox vs Laragon · Dunebox vs Herd
Move on from XAMPP.
It's freeware.
Download a zip, extract it anywhere, open it once — web server, every PHP version, databases and tools configure themselves. No installer, no Windows service.
Windows 10 / 11 (64-bit) · ~2–3 GB · internet on first launch