Setting up Apache on localhost vs. using mamp on a Mac

I’m going to be replacing my old Macbook Pro with a 2019 model and am wondering if it would be better to setup the new Macbook as its own localhost server to run Apache, PHP & MySql or use MAMP to setup the environment with one ‘easy’ install. Does Pinegrow work well with MAMP or MAMP PRO as a server environment? Can anyone in the PG community using PG with MAMP pass along their opinions and advice?

I’ve had good luck with using MAMP along with Pinegrow for Wordpress or static sites that have php components. You have to refresh the MAMP side when you make changes or export your theme, but they play together well.

And there are many free auto refresh plugins for Chrome and Firefox like this:

Mac OS comes with PHP. Setting up localhost on a Mac and creating a folder called ‘websites’ is dead easy (lots of tutorials on the web) and - what I can’t understand even with the latest version of Pinegrow it cannot use localhost.
The preview on my old Coda 2 can do this
As you can download MySQL for free - there really is no need to use MAMP

True, but modern web dev. is not only about a web server and an old version of PHP without extensions :wink:

It is very useful to be able to install MAMP or Local.app or Xamp and so on to benefit from the many helpers / tools / last versions of the libraries and more available with these solutions.

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