CarotDAV - Download

I stumbled on CarotDAV when I was trying to run a simple PHP site locally without installing a full stack. Been using it off and on for years, mostly because it’s tiny and doesn’t ask for permission to do anything. It’s not flashy - no GUI wizardry, no dashboard - but it just runs. And that’s the point. If you’re doing basic web dev on an older Windows machine and don’t want WAMP or XAMPP cluttering your system, this is a solid stopgap.

The good stuff

It’s shockingly small - like, 10MB total. I’ve had it running on a Windows 7 laptop with 2GB RAM and zero issues. The setup is straightforward: drop it in a folder, start the app, and boom - Apache, PHP, and MySQL are live on localhost. I once needed to test a form submission with POST data, and it worked exactly as expected. No config files to tweak, no cryptic error messages. It just served the page. That’s rare these days. Also, the fact that it hasn’t been updated since 2012 feels less like a red flag and more like “it works, so why fix it?”

The not-so-good

And yeah, it’s from 2012. That means no modern PHP versions - you’re stuck with whatever came out around then. If you’re building something with recent Laravel or WordPress, forget it. It also doesn’t have any built-in tools for managing databases or logs. You’re on your own there. And honestly? The interface is… minimal. Like, barebones. If you’re used to WAMPServer’s nice little tray icon and status indicators, this feels cold. But hey, it’s free, and it’s not trying to be everything.

Bottom line

If you’re working on old-school PHP scripts, testing static sites, or just need a no-fuss local server on Windows without downloading a bloated package, CarotDAV - Download for Windows is worth the 5 seconds it takes to grab it. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re not overcomplicating things, it’ll get you there. Not fancy, but dependable. Free, functional, and still alive in the wild. Go ahead and download it - you won’t regret it.