Why Use Docker? Step‑by‑Step Guide to Set Up a PHP Development Environment with Docker and Docker Compose

Docker provides developers with an isolated, portable way to run applications, solving the “it doesn’t run on my machine” problem.

Its advantages include portability, easy installation, and isolation, which improve development efficiency and team collaboration.

Step 1: Install Docker and Docker Compose

Visit the official Docker website, download the appropriate version for your OS (Windows, macOS, Linux), and follow the installer. After installation, verify with:

docker --version

Step 2: Create a Dockerfile for a PHP environment

Create a file named Dockerfile in your project directory (no extension) and add the following content:

FROM php:8.0-apache

# Set working directory
WORKDIR /var/www/html

# Install required PHP extensions
RUN docker-php-ext-install mysqli pdo pdo_mysql

# Expose port
EXPOSE 80

Step 3: Define services with Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml file to run PHP and MySQL together:

version: '3.8'

services:
  php:
    build:
      context: .
    container_name: php_container
    volumes:
      - ./src:/var/www/html
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    networks:
      - app-network

  mysql:
    image: mysql:5.7
    container_name: mysql_container
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpassword
      MYSQL_DATABASE: mydatabase
      MYSQL_USER: user
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: password
    volumes:
      - dbdata:/var/lib/mysql
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    networks:
      - app-network

networks:
  app-network:
    driver: bridge

volumes:
  dbdata:

The PHP service builds a container from the Dockerfile and mounts the source code into /var/www/html . The MySQL service uses an official image, stores data in a persistent volume, and runs on a bridge network.

Step 4: Start the project

Run the following command to launch the services in the background:

docker-compose up -d

This starts the containers defined in docker-compose.yml . Access the application at http://localhost:8080 in a browser.

After these steps, you have a complete PHP development environment powered by Docker.