Advantages of using MAMP stack over Mac’s native Web Sharing and downloaded MySQL

apacheMySQLPHP

I'm wondering what are the advantages of using a MAMP stack instead of Web Sharing provided with Mac natively and MySQL downloaded and installed manually?

I can see how in some cases MAMP can have latest/other versions of apache/mysql/php, but are there any other advantages?

My MCB came with Snow Leopard 10.6.6 with Apache 2.2.15 and PHP 5.3.3 – so fairly recent (although not the latest) versions.
Since they both were installed I saw little reason getting something that has same functionality.

Installing MySQL was dead simple too so that couldn't be the reason.

Best Answer

I'd say unified GUI integration.

MAMP

With MAMP, you've got a single window to manage Apache, PHP, and MySQL. Whereas with the built-in stack, you have to active PHP manually and have another interface for MySQL (with no easy way to turn it on or off)

MAMP settings