For a very long time, I have been usingXAMPP as my local environment to create applications. XAMPP uses MariaDB which is almost similar to MySQL but here is the catch,almost.

The development team of MariaDB is very aggressive and has been constantly releasing new versions. However, there isn't much difference between the new versions. Instead, a lot of bugs have been introduced. I have experienced the situation where the database stopped working after an update.

So I have been looking for a solution to use MySQL inXAMPP but as I have found that, it is not difficult to do in Windows machines, but haven’t found any resource to make it work in Mac.

ServBay

I came across ServBay and wanted to give it a try. It’s most promising feature that I love is that I am in control of creating my owndev environment based on the tools and versions in my live server.

It's a gem of a product, but the problem was that, it hasn't been mentioned much by people as I've noticed on the Internet. Long story short, I have finally done it. In the next section, I shall describe step by step how you can work with ServBay too.

Installing ServBay in Mac

• The very fast thing you should do is that you download and install ServBay from theirwebsite. The minimum system requirements must be macOS 12.0 Monterey or higher.
• Double-click the downloaded.dmg file.
• In the pop-up window, drag theServBay.app icon into the Applications folder. All the steps are the same as installing ordinary Mac programs, and no code compilation is required.

• For the first-time use, ServBay requires initialization. Open ServBay inApplications ensuring ports are not occupied.

• In the pop-up window, select the package and version you wish to install, then click OK
• Once you see this page, it means you have installed ServBay successfully.

How to Use ServBay's Built-In MySQL Module

If you want to use it, come to the "Services" on the left

Select MySQL, and choose the version you want to install.

Waiting for a few seconds, and done.

Great job! That's very easy!

MySQL does not require configuration in ServBay. Of course, if you need deeper configuration, you can purchase the Pro version to unlock those features. However, ServBay is very thoughtful; for me, the default parameters in the free version are already sufficient for my daily development needs, and I don't need to make any changes.

ServBay provides a convenient way to manage and enable the MySQL module. With simple configuration and restart operations, developers can quickly enable the MySQL module.

With ServBay, I can also switch different versions of MySQL smoothly. Personally, ServBay is the best alternative for XAMPP in mac!