Custom url domain in Xampp

If you are developing website in Xampp, you can use custom domain instead of localhost or 127.0.0.1. You can make url like http://mydomain.local as an url for you local development.

Prepare project #

I'm assuming you have website project directory in C:/xampp/htdocs/mywebsite. We want to use url http://mydomain.local. I like using .local TLD to differentiate it with actual internet url. Then, add this line in the bottom.

Edit hosts file #

Open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. You need Administrator Access to edit this file.

127.0.0.1 mywebsite.local
127.0.0.1 www.mywebsite.local

Edit httpd-vhosts.conf #

This file is located in C:\xampp\apache\conf\extra\httpd-vhosts.conf. Add this code to the bottom.

<VirtualHost *:80>
  DocumentRoot C:/xampp/htdocs/
  ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

Then, add this code and adjust with your projects.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs/mywebsite"
    ServerName mywebsite.local
    ServerAlias www.mywebsite.local
    <Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/mywebsite">
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Finishing #

You are done. Start or restart your Apache server. Go to http://mywebsite.local to test it. If you have any problems, drop the comments below.