EnvKit vs Yerd
Yerd is a young, MIT-licensed local PHP environment written in Rust: a small daemon, a tray app and a CLI for macOS and Linux, with .test domains, trusted HTTPS, PHP per site, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, mail capture and a dump inspector. It does not run on Windows yet. EnvKit covers Windows and macOS, and a wider stack.
| Feature | EnvKit | Yerd |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Windows, macOS | macOS, Linux |
| Price / license | Free | Free, MIT |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | No |
| Multiple PHP versions per site | Yes | Yes |
| MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Redis | Yes | Yes |
| MongoDB | Yes | No |
| Mail capture and dump inspector | Yes | Yes |
| Public share URL | Yes | Yes |
| Node dev servers on .test | Yes | Proxy to a server you start |
| MCP server for your own AI agents | Yes | Yes |
| Health check command | In the app and over MCP | Yes |
| Small native binary | No | Yes |
Yerd details checked on against Yerd on GitHub, Yerd docs, Yerd AI agents docs and Yerd services docs. Prices and plans change; the linked pages are the authority.
What you gain over Yerd
Windows today
EnvKit runs on Windows 10/11 and Apple Silicon Macs. Yerd lists Windows as planned.
Beyond Laravel
One-click WordPress with the admin installed, CodeIgniter, Symfony, and Next.js, Vite, Angular and Express dev servers on their own .test hosts.
More services
MongoDB, Mailpit, phpMyAdmin, pgAdmin, Python and a cron manager next to MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis, with several database versions side by side.
More for your AI agent to do
Both ship an MCP server. EnvKit’s also starts and repairs services, snapshots and restores databases, runs artisan, manages queue workers and the scheduler, and shares sites, and it registers itself in Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI and JetBrains Junie for you.
Imports from Laragon, XAMPP and Herd
Bring your projects, databases and PHP pins over instead of setting them up again.
Where Yerd still fits better
iYerd is open source and runs on Linux
Yerd is MIT-licensed and ships packages for Debian, Fedora and Arch. EnvKit is free but closed source.
iYerd is much smaller
Yerd is a Rust daemon of about 8 MB with no Electron. The EnvKit installer is around 100 MB.
iA doctor in the CLI
yerd doctor checks the setup from the terminal. EnvKit diagnoses services in the app and over MCP, with no single doctor command yet.
Moving from Yerd
Add your project folders from the Sites page. EnvKit detects the framework, assigns a .test host and issues a certificate. Dump your databases from Yerd and import them into the bundled servers.
irm https://envkit.net/install.ps1 | iexFree, no account, no card. Windows 10/11 and macOS (Apple Silicon).
Questions people ask
- Is EnvKit open source like Yerd?
- No. EnvKit is free to use with no paid tier, but its source is not public.
- Does EnvKit run on Linux?
- Not yet. EnvKit ships for Windows 10/11 and Apple Silicon Macs.
- Can I run Yerd and EnvKit together on a Mac?
- Not on the same ports. Stop Yerd first, or change the EnvKit ports in Settings.