I like xampp a lot, because it's a complete package. I used to configure the whole thing myself on the Mac, but it took a lot of time. Xampp, on the other hand, is just so easy to configure and install. The biggest problem I had was that Xampp has to be started manually, and this is bad because I use my Mac mini as a demo server to show my work to customers before going live. If there is a power failure and I am not around, the server won't start. After some head scratching, obfuscated further by reading too much on the net, I found an obvious and simple solution.
All I needed to do was to write this very simple Applescript:
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080616193556924