Laragon — Windows Localhost

Laragon is a modern, portable local development environment for Windows. Unlike XAMPP or WAMP, Laragon features automatic virtual hosts, easy switching between PHP/Node versions, and a clean, lightweight design.

Why Laragon?

Download & Install

1. Download from laragon.org
2. Choose edition:
   • Full — Apache, MySQL, PHP, Node.js, Redis, etc.
   • Lite — Minimal (Apache, MySQL, PHP)
   • Portable — Run from USB drive
3. Run installer or extract portable version
4. Launch Laragon
5. Click Start All

Automatic Virtual Hosts

Laragon's killer feature: create a folder in www and it automatically becomes foldername.test

# Create project folder
C:\laragon\www\mysite\

# Automatically accessible at:
http://mysite.test

# No Apache config editing needed!

Quick Create Projects

Right-click Laragon tray icon → Quick app:

• WordPress — Downloads and configures WP
• Laravel — Creates new Laravel project
• Symfony — Creates Symfony project
• Drupal — Downloads and sets up Drupal
• Joomla — Creates Joomla installation

Switch PHP Versions

1. Right-click Laragon tray icon
2. Go to PHP
3. Select version (7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3)
4. Services restart automatically

Directory Structure

Enable HTTPS/SSL

1. Right-click Laragon → Apache → SSL → Enable
2. Access project at https://mysite.test
3. Self-signed certificate auto-generated

Included Tools

• Apache or Nginx (switchable)
• MySQL or MariaDB
• PHP (multiple versions)
• Node.js with npm
• Redis (optional)
• Memcached (optional)
• Git, Composer, npm
• Terminal (Cmder)
• HeidiSQL (database GUI)

Troubleshooting