How to Set Up a Complete Local PHP Dev Environment on macOS Without Docker

If you've spent more time configuring your local development environment than actually coding, you're not alone. The PHP developer experience on macOS has been... let's say "fragmented." For years, the options were: MAMP Pro: Bloated, expensive, clunky UI Laravel Valet: Great, but tightly coupled to Laravel Docker: Overkill for local development, memory hungry, another moving part Manual Homebrew setup: Works, but managing PHP versions, Apache config, SSL certs, and DNS is a nightmare I've done all of them. And I finally found a better way. The Problem With Status Quo Last year, I was juggling three projects simultaneously: A legacy WordPress site running PHP 7.4 A modern Laravel app on PHP 8.2 A Node.js service that needed SSL with Apache as a reverse proxy Every time I switched between projects, I'd either manually edit Apache configs or use Valet commands. Creating SSL certificates meant digging into mkcert documentation. Virtual hosts? More config files. DNS setup? Even more pain.