Switching from Laragon or XAMPP
Rezure is a local development environment for Windows, like Laragon and XAMPP: a web server, PHP, and a database behind start/stop buttons. If you already use one of them, you don't have to start over. Rezure can serve your existing projects in place and open your existing MySQL data directory without copying it, and you can keep the old stack installed while you try it.
What carries over
| You have | In Rezure |
|---|---|
Projects in C:\laragon\www or C:\xampp\htdocs | Link each folder in place from the Projects page; nothing is copied or moved. See Add an existing folder. |
| Laragon's or XAMPP's MySQL / MariaDB databases | Add data directory finds them at their default locations and serves them with that tool's own server binary and my.ini. See Use a Laragon or XAMPP data directory. |
root with an empty password | An adopted data directory keeps its own users and passwords, so your .env files keep working. |
| HeidiSQL, DBeaver, or another SQL client | Rezure finds installed clients, including Laragon's bundled HeidiSQL, and opens a database in them. |
.test domains | Rezure uses .test too: a folder named myapp becomes myapp.test. |
| Laravel, CodeIgniter, Symfony, WordPress projects | Each one's framework is detected and served from the right folder (public/ for Laravel, CodeIgniter 4, and Symfony), with no per-site config to write. |
Vite, Next.js, or Nuxt apps on localhost:5173 | They get a .test domain too: Rezure runs the dev server and Nginx passes the domain to it. |
Step by step
- Install Rezure. Follow Installation. Nginx and PHP 8.3 ship inside the installer.
- Stop Laragon or XAMPP. Both stacks want port 80 and port 3306, and only one program can hold a port. You don't need to uninstall anything. If you forget, Rezure names the program holding the port: "port 80 is held by Laragon (nginx.exe, pid 10244)", and offers to stop it. See Port Conflicts.
- Adopt your databases. On the Databases page, open the target switcher, click + Add data directory, and add the Laragon or XAMPP install Rezure finds. Switch to it.
- Link your projects. On the Projects page, add each existing project folder: the project's root, not its
publicfolder. Rezure shows the framework it detected and the folder it will serve, writes the Nginx virtual host, and you click Sync hosts file so the domain resolves. - Pick a PHP version. Install the PHP versions your projects need from the Switch page, and pin a version per project if they differ.
- Run the Requirements Check on each project to catch a missing PHP extension or a database setting that won't connect.
What's different
- Nginx, not Apache. Rezure's web server is Nginx. Laravel, WordPress, and most PHP apps run on it without changes, but
.htaccessfiles are ignored. Custom Apache rewrite rules need an Nginx equivalent. - PHP listens on port 9100 and up, not 9000, so it never collides with the PHP that Laragon or XAMPP runs there.
- Several PHP versions at once. Each project can be pinned to its own PHP version, and they serve side by side.
- PostgreSQL and SQL Server run beside MariaDB, installed from inside the app. See PostgreSQL and SQL Server.
- No local HTTPS yet. Sites are served over plain
http://. - Windows only, like Laragon. There are no macOS or Linux builds.
Running both
You can keep Laragon or XAMPP installed and switch back whenever you like; just don't run both stacks at once. One thing to watch: both Laragon and XAMPP can rewrite the Windows hosts file and remove Rezure's entries. If Rezure's domains keep dropping out of the hosts file, stop the other tool or turn off its own hosts management. See Projects.
An adopted data directory can only be served by one server at a time. Rezure checks this before switching and refuses while Laragon's or XAMPP's database server is still running against the same folder.