WampServer Editor's Review

Empower your development team with this easy to admin web server for Windows.

If there's one thing that I know well, its software development and the web.  While its not as easy as some people might think, its tools like WampServer that make things a heck of a lot easier than they could be. WampServer is a web based development environment for Windows, and its easy to use and admin.

Having a reliable development environment for your web apps isn't just about a decent XML/HTML editor.  You need a web server to help you view your pages and see how they would react in the wild.  WampServer is a Windows web development environment. It allows you to create web applications with Apache2, PHP and a MySQL databases and then test them to insure they function correctly.

The functionality of a web server is to allow for the surfing or browsing of web pages. In order for that to happen, they have to be served up, or made available to the file browser.  This is WampServer's main function. I'm not going to go into additional details here.  However, from an administration point, which is where Devs and Dev Managers will be concerned, WampServer’s easy to use.

With a left click on WampServer’s tray icon, you will be able to manage your Apache and MySQL services.  This gives your applications access to both web and database services so that specific pages can be displayed and database elements called and written to from them.  You can switch services online or offline, giving access to a broader audience or only to the localhost, or I should say, to yourself.

You can install and switch Apache, MySQL and PHP releases, giving you the ability to upgrade and manage the web services running in your applications.  You can also manage your server settings and access your server logs.

Pro’s: Easy to use and manage

Con’s: Limited application use – meant for development use only

Conclusion: WampServer is an easy to manage and use web server. Its meant for in-house development use and gives network admins easy access to settings, services and options. If you're looking for a fast, easy to use web server to help you develop web based applications with, this may be the one for you.