A LAMP stack is a computer with the following software installed:

• (L)  – Linux operating system
• (A)  – Apache Server
• (M) – MySQL database engine
• (P)  – PHP server side scripting language

This combination of software allows a computer to serve up dynamic websites. While there are many other combinations of software which make up a server, LAMP is the most popular. There are a few reasons for this:

• LAMP has been around for over two decades.
• All the software in a LAMP stack is free and open source.
• AMP come bundled with a fresh install of most Linux distributions.
• The top 3 content management systems are designed to be used with a LAMP server.

LAMP is slowly losing market share to other server stacks. Despite this it will remain a major player for many years to come.

LAMP Alternatives

For each of the four software packages making up a LAMP server, there is equivalent software. Any of them can be swapped out and the stack will perform similarly. For example,

• The equivalent stack built on Windows is called a WAMP stack. Similarly, there is a MAMP stack for OSX on Macs.
• Apache Server is often swapped out for Nginx.
• MySQL is sometimes swapped out for PostgreSQL or MariaDB.
• PHP is often swapped out for Perl or Python.

Additionally, whole new paradigms have appeared such as the MEAN stack.

Read More

Read more about LAMP at the Wikipedia LAMP article.