XAMPP equivalent — ready to use, zero configuration.
Apache 2.4 · PHP 7.4 · MariaDB 10.6 · phpMyAdmin · Portainer

Download and install Docker Desktop for your system.

Windows: Docker Desktop automatically installs everything it needs (including WSL2). Restart if prompted.

Option A — Without Git (beginners)

1. On this page, click the green <> Code button (top right)
2. Click Download ZIP
3. Open the downloaded ZIP file
4. Extract (unzip) the folder to your Desktop
5. Name the folder PHPenv

Option B — With Git

cd ~/Desktop
git clone https://github.com/selinachegg/php-docker-environment.git PHPenv

Launcher (recommended) — An interactive menu to manage everything:

The launcher lets you start, stop, restart the environment and reset Portainer from a single menu.

Individual scripts (start.bat, stop.bat, start.command, stop.command) remain available for manual use.

The first launch takes 5 to 10 minutes (downloading images). After that: ~10 seconds.

Your PHP files go in the htdocs/ folder. Changes are instant — no restart needed.

<?php
// htdocs/hello.php → http://localhost:8080/hello.php
echo "Hello world!";
?>

<?php
$pdo = new PDO(
    "mysql:host=db;dbname=app;charset=utf8mb4",
    "app",   // username
    "app"    // password
);
?>

Open the Interactive tutorial (HTML) in your browser for the complete step-by-step guide (Mac and Windows).

PDF versions are also available in the tutorials/ folder:

• Tutorial Mac (PDF)
• Tutorial Windows (PDF)

• PHP 7.4 — PDO, MySQLi, GD, ZIP, MBString, OPcache
• Apache 2.4 — mod_rewrite enabled
• MariaDB 10.6 — 100% MySQL compatible
• phpMyAdmin 5.2
• Portainer Community Edition