How to Install PHP Without Apache

PHP can be installed independently without Apache. Here are the steps to install PHP on a Unix-based system such as Linux. If you’re using a Windows system, the steps are a bit different but the concept is the same.

## Update your package manager. Before you start, it’s a good idea to update your package manager to ensure you’re getting the latest software. On an Ubuntu system, you would use the following command:

sudo apt update

On CentOS, you would use:

sudo yum update

Install PHP.

On Ubuntu, you can install PHP with this command:

sudo apt install php

On CentOS, you would use:

sudo yum install php

Verify the installation.

You can verify your PHP installation by running:

php -v

This should display the PHP version that you’ve installed.

Please note that without a web server like Apache or Nginx, you won’t be able to serve PHP web pages. However, you can still use PHP for command-line scripts or as an interpreter for PHP files.

If you want to run PHP for web development without installing a web server, you can use PHP’s built-in server for development purposes. Navigate to your project’s directory in the terminal and then run the following command:

php -S localhost:8000

This will start a web server at localhost on port 8000, and you can access your PHP files in your web browser at that address. Please note that PHP’s built-in server should not be used for production environments; it’s designed for development use only.