Why
Stackyard is a light alternative to Laragon, XAMPP or WAMP: unzip it, run Stackyard.exe, press
Start all, and http://localhost/ works. No installer, no Windows services, no admin rights.
Everything, settings and databases included, lives in the folder you unzipped, so you can move it
to another drive or copy it to a USB stick.
Features
- Services: start and stop Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Mailpit, one by one or all at once. Port
conflicts are detected and named (for example "port 80 is used by Laragon"). Crashed services are
noticed and their log tail is shown.
- Mail catcher: PHP's
mail() (or your app's SMTP settings, 127.0.0.1:1025) delivers to
Mailpit, which keeps every message in a web inbox instead of sending it.
- Xdebug and PHP extensions: switch Xdebug on (downloaded from xdebug.org for your PHP version)
and turn extensions on or off with checkboxes. A change PHP can't load is undone.
- Database backups: one click dumps MySQL or PostgreSQL to a
.sql file. Switching to a database
version that keeps its data elsewhere tells you where your databases are.
- Versions side by side: keep several versions of PHP, Node.js and the others and switch from a
list. A running service restarts on the new version.
- Updates in the app: check for and download new PHP, Node.js, Composer and Mailpit versions,
verified with SHA-256.
- PATH management: add the selected tools to your Windows user PATH with one switch (a backup is
kept before every change), or open a terminal (cmd, PowerShell, Git Bash, Windows Terminal) with
every tool already on PATH.
- Virtual hosts:
shop.localhost -> www\shop\public in two clicks. *.localhost needs no hosts
file edit and no admin rights.
- Adminer for MySQL and PostgreSQL, one click away, already logged in to the local servers.
- Tray icon: closing the window keeps the services running; start with Windows and restore the
services that were running.
- SQL Server drivers (
sqlsrv, pdo_sqlsrv) are enabled when present, for Laravel apps on MS SQL.
- Light and dark theme; English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil) and Ukrainian.
- Small: the app is a ~5 MB native executable (Rust + Tauri).
What's in the download
| Tool | Version |
|---|
| Apache (Apache Lounge) | 2.4.69 |
| PHP (Thread Safe x64) | 8.3 |
| MySQL Community Server | 8.4 LTS |
| PostgreSQL | 18 |
| Mailpit | 1.32 |
| Node.js | 26 |
| Composer | 2 |
| Git for Windows (portable) | 2.56 |
| Python | 3.13 |
| Adminer | 6.2 |
The Visual C++ runtime the servers need is included, so there is nothing else to install. Other
versions: unzip them into bin\<tool>\<version>\ and press Refresh.
Quick start
- Download the zip from Releases.
The
-lite zip is the same without MySQL and PostgreSQL, about 120 MB smaller.
Before unzipping: right-click > Properties > Unblock.
- Unzip to a folder with only English letters in its path, e.g.
D:\Stackyard. Spaces are fine;
letters like ą or é are not, because PHP and MySQL cannot handle them.
- Run
Stackyard.exe. It is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn you:
More info > Run anyway.
- Start all, then open
http://localhost/. Put your projects in www\.
MySQL: user root, no password, port 3306. PostgreSQL: user postgres, no password, port 5432.
Coming from Laragon? Quit Laragon (or change Stackyard's ports), copy your projects into www\
or add virtual hosts pointing at their current folders. project.test becomes
project.localhost. A MySQL 8.4 data folder can be copied over as is; see README.txt in the zip
for the details.
Requirements
Windows 10 or 11, x64, with Microsoft Edge WebView2 (part of Windows 11 and of an up-to-date
Windows 10).
Building from source
Stackyard is a Tauri 2 app: a Rust backend and a TypeScript frontend without a framework. See
app/README.md.
License
Stackyard is released under the MIT License. The bundled tools keep their own licenses;
see THIRD-PARTY.txt.
Support
Stackyard is free. My Claude subscription isn't. Chip in a coffee?
Bug reports and ideas are welcome in Issues.
Built with Claude Code. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.
