XAMPP portable web server. XAMPP is likely the best and most popular portable USB webserver available today. It is distributed as an all in one package that includes Apache, MySQL (MariaDB), PHP and Perl. This easy to use Apache webserver distribution has been around for more than a decade and has quite a large following in the community.
XAMPP is a Free web server software that enables users to host a Website, Blog, CMS or try out PHP code and test MariaDB MySQL database structures all from a testing or production environment (in our case a removable drive). This open source portable http server can help you easily run a website from a USB flash drive, enabling you to bring your websites and server with you, to use while on the go! Use it for website presentation, performing php editing, database code work, etc.
It should be noted that this USB web server weighs in at around 800 MB, after extracted, so it is by no means tiny. Though I have personally found it to be the most compatible with website PHP and database code moved between it and my production servers.
Table of Contents
XAMPP Portable Web Server
License: Open Source
Authors Website: apachefriends.org
Supported Operating Systems: Windows 11/10/8/7/XP, Linux, Mac OS X
Extracted File Size: 800 MB
How to run XAMPP Portable from USB
To run XAMPP portably from a USB drive,
- First, Download the zip file and extract the contents of the zip to your USB device.
- Double click xampp-control.exe and start your server applications via the control panel.