To set up a personal web server and to manage websites locally MAMP (My Apache, MySQL, PHP) is there as a full solution stack that offers free and open source web development platform that uses Apache as web server, MySQL as database management system and PHP as programing language to develop dynamic Applications by installing a local server environment on your MAC OS or Windows operating systems. MAMP also allows you to develop web applications not only with PHP but also with Perl and Python programming languages. MAMP is commonly used with WordPress and Drupal for setting up a local web development environment. The most key element of using MAMP is that user can develop web applications offline and then easily transfer it later to the web host provider. So in this article, I will walk you through each step on how to install MAMP on MAC OS.
Before we start with the stepwise guide, there are some requirements that you should preserve in order to install MAMP on MAC OS.
- Your MAC OS X should be 10.10.5 (Yosemite) or higher.
- You MAC OS should be using 64-bit CPU of Intel x86.
- You should be logged in from the account that has administrative privileges on your MAC.
- You should have internet connectivity throughout the process.
Step 1: Download MAMP
From your browser go to https://www.mamp.info/en/downloads/ or click on the link to open the MAMP download page automatically on your default browser. After the above-shown download page opens up, click on the MAMP & MAMP PRO 5.2 under Apple’s icon as highlighted above.
This will download the latest version of MAMP package file. Now, wait until the download is complete as shown above.
Step 2: Install MAMP
Now open up the installed file and wait until the Installer wizard launches up as shown above. In the Introduction phase of the Installer, click on the Continue button to proceed.
From the Read Me Phase, read the Important Information, which will ask you not to rename or move the folder in the Destination Select phase and leave it as default. Click on the Continue button to proceed as shown above.
From the License Phase, you can select the License language from the drop-down menu as shown above, after learning the License Agreement, click on the Continue button to proceed as highlighted above.
After clicking the Continue button in the License phase, a pop-up message will appear as shown above. Simply click on the Agree button to proceed.
Now from the Destination Select phase, it is recommended to leave everything as default and click on the Continue button.
From the Installation Type phase, click on the Install button to start the MAMP installation process as highlighted above. You can also click on the Customize button to deselect the MAMP pro option.
In the Installation process phase, wait until the installer installed the MAMP on your MAC as shown above.
After the installer successfully installs the file, you will be directed to the Summary phase from where you will notice that the installation was successful and the MAMP was installed on your MAC as shown above. Simply click on the Close button as highlighted above.
Step 3: MAMP Configurations
You can now launch MAMP from applications. After MAMP launches up, type in “MAMP” in the search bar as highlighted above, now click on the MAMP option as shown above.
Now you can see that MAMP screen is now launched up as shown above.
Before you start the MAMP servers there are some configurations that you should do to set up the local server environment.
From the Menu bar, click on the MAMP option, as shown above, this will drop-down its context menu. Click on the Preferences option as highlighted above. This will open up the MAMP preferences from where you can configure its following settings:
- General Settings
From the General tab, Make sure to uncheck the Start servers checkbox if you don’t want to start the MAMP server every time you run the app. Checkmark the other checkboxes as highlighted above. Now click on the OK button to apply changes.
- Ports Settings
From the Ports tab, the default Apache port and MySQL port will be 8888 and 8889 respectively. You can set the Apache Port at 80 if you want to visit localhost page without entering the port number in the link (http://localhost instead of http://localhost:8888). If you set the port number to 80, it will ask you to enter admin password each time you connect or start your local server by MAMP. In order to do that simply click on the “Set Web & MySQL ports to 80 & 3306” button. Now click on the OK button to apply changes.
- PHP Settings
From the PHP tab, make sure to select the latest version of the PHP as highlighted above. Set the Cache off from the drop-down menu and click on the OK button to apply changes.
- Web Server Settings
From the Web server tab, make sure your web server is selected as Apache as default and the Root folder is “MAMP htdocs” as highlighted above. Simply click on the OK button to apply changes.
Now at this moment, you are done with the MAMP preferences configurations.
Step 4: Run Localhost
Go ahead and Start the Servers. Make sure that Apache and MySQL servers turn green as shown above.
From your browser open up the MAMP’s localhost server from where you can see all the server Configurations as shown above. This means that you have successfully configured MAMP on your Mac.
That’s it! Hope this article helped you on how to install MAMP on MAC. If you had any confusion or faced any difficulty following the instructions, please let us know in the comments sections below.
