XAMPP bundled with PHP 7.4 was once the standard for local development, but as of April 2026, it is officially End-of-Life (EOL)
: Older Laravel versions (like Laravel 6) are often run using PHP 7.4. Xampp With Php 7.4 -
The choice to use XAMPP with PHP 7.4 is often a strategic one. Developers frequently encounter projects where upgrading to PHP 8 is not yet financially or technically feasible. In these instances, having a local XAMPP instance running PHP 7.4 is essential for: XAMPP bundled with PHP 7
Security Note: By default, the MySQL 'root' user has no password. While fine for local work, you should set one if you are on a shared network. but as of April 2026