Laravel Forge in 2023: here's why it's a good idea to use it

What is Laravel Forge?

Laravel Forge is a service that automatically provisions optimized PHP servers using the hosting provider of your choice.

It was created by Taylor Otwell in 2014. He was tired of manually creating and configuring servers, so he automated the process. At some point, he realized he could release it as a paid product and considerably improve Laravel's developer experience.

If you're curious, you can watch the 2014 Laracon, where Taylor unveiled Forge to the world.

I checked my first invoice for this article, and I've been using it since 2015, which is crazy! 🤯

Is Laravel Forge free?

Laravel Forge isn't free.

You also have to take into account your hosting provider, because Forge plugs itself into it.

That said, the features save a considerable amount of time and pricing is pretty damn good. To me, Forge is a necessary investment to make any Laravel-based online business easier.

Laravel Forge pricing

Monthly

The hobby plan has everything you need. Unless you need to use multiple servers, this is the way to go. The only critical thing missing for me would be database backups, but you can set this up yourself with spatie/laravel-backup for instance.

The growth plan is the perfect balance of price and features because you can manage multiple servers. Database backup are still not available, but who cares?

The business plan is perfect and if you're actually running a business. $39 is nothing. Database backups can be set up via Forge's UI and is compatible with pretty much anything (S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, etc.).

Annually

Basically, the annual plans let you save 17%, which is a no brainer if your business depends on it.

The pros of Laravel Forge

• Great prices for all budgets;
• Logs viewer right into Forge;
• Free one-click SSL certificates;
• Deploy a new website in minutes;
• Edit your .env file right into Forge;
• Using Laravel's tasks scheduler is effortless;
• Create redirections at Nginx's level right into Forge;
• Monitor your server and send alerts whenever you reach a threshold you defined;
• Provision highly optimized and secure web servers for any PHP project in a few clicks;
• Update PHP, install multiple versions of PHP, and use a specific version of PHP on any project;
• Invite your employees to help you manage your projects. No need to pay for multiple accounts;
• Deploy your apps in a few clicks, and update them every time you push new code to your remote Git repository.
• Automatic database backups performed by Forge on the location of your choice (it can be S3, DigitalOcean Spaces or whatever you want);

The cons of Laravel Forge

• I'd love to have zero-downtime deployments without paying for Envoyer;
• The UI looks modern but is far from being perfect. I still have a few complaints;

How to get started with Laravel Forge

1. Create an account and subscribe to the desired plan (you get a 7-day free trial no matter what);
2. Subscribe to a web hosting provider (you will find my recommendations in this article, such as Vultr, my favorite);
3. Connect your provider to Laravel Forge (this is where having root access over SSH comes in handy 👍);
4. Deploy your application (the documentation will help you get started).

The best web hosting providers for Laravel Forge

The best web hosting providers for Laravel Forge are:

1. Vultr (read review)
2. Hostinger (read review)
3. GreenGeeks (read review)
4. DigitalOcean (read review)

Vultr

Vultr manages over 45 million cloud server instances deployed by thousands of clients. I love their UI and UX, they're cheaper than DigitalOcean, and their customer service is top-notch.

It's the perfect hosting for Laravel Forge, which supports Vultr out of the box.

Pros:

• DDoS protection;
• Automatic backups;
• Awesome UI and UX;
• Great customer service;
• PHP 8.x and MySQL 8.x;
• NVMe SSD-based hosting;
• 27+ global server locations;
• Good prices considering the quality of this service;
• 100% uptime (you get free credits when this promise isnt fulfilled).

Cons:

• High-end plans are less available globally (but you don't need high-end plans unless you're really big);
• There's DDoS protection, which is nice to have, but it can easily be overwhelmed. Switch to a better solution as your business scales up.

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Hostinger

Hostinger is a web hosting company that offers VPS hosting and dedicated servers. They're a great choice for beginners and small businesses that want the cheapeat and most affordable option possible without sacrificing reliability (meaning uptime).

Since Hostinger provides full access over SSH, Laravel Forge can easily manage and provision your servers.

Pros:

• Incredibly cheap;
• Backups and snapshots;
• 99.9% uptime guarantee;
• Easy to scale your VPS up;
• NFS (Network File System) support. Great for working directly on your server;
• Root access over SSH on virtual private servers and dedicated servers.

Cons:

• 100 Mb/s networks;
• Too few global locations;
• Low-performance hardware (which is enough for small to medium projects, though);

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GreenGeeks

If you ever wanted to host websites without having a negative impact on the environement, GreenGeeks is there for you. They have servers in Europe, the United States and Canada.

Pros:

• 99.9% uptime;
• Daily backups;
• Free domain name;
• SSD-based hosting;
• Free SSL certificate;
• Environment-friendly;
• Good reactive support;
• 30-day money back guarantee;

Cons:

• Not enough global locations;
• VPS hardware configurations are limited.

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DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is a reliable cloud hosting provider that offers a delightfully simple and intuitive user interface. It's integrated into Laravel Forge and whatever you need for your Laravel project, they provide at a reasonable price.

Pros:

• Automatic backups;
• SSD-based hosting;
• PHP 8.x and MySQL 8.x;
• 14+ global server locations;
• Advanced users can still manage their own VPS;
• 99.99% uptime. I can't recall a time when my servers were down;
• Deploy Laravel or any PHP apps instead of managing servers with their App Platform.

Cons:

• Not enough global locations. I can't set up a VPS in Paris, for example.

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Laravel Forge alternatives

I don't know a lot of alternatives to Laravel Forge, but I'm researching and I will update this article as soon as I find more of them.

Cloudways

Cloudways is an alternative to Laravel Forge that powers more than 75,000+ businesses. It's an easy-to-use web hosting for people who want to save cost and time on DevOps matters.

Unlike Laravel Forge, Cloudways doesn't require you to have a DigitalOcean, Vultr or whatever else account first. They handle everything.

Pros:

• 24/7/365 support;
• SSD-based storage;
• Automatic backups;
• Ready-to-use Redis;
• PHP 8.x and MySQL 8.x;
• 1-click free SSL certificate;
• All their hosting providers have guaranteed +99.9% uptime;
• 60+ global server locations (Cloudways cumulates from all their hosting providers);
• No need for you to have an account for each provider, Cloudways handles everything unlike Laravel Forge;
• Reliable. They use the best cloud hosting providers on the market such as AWS, DigitalOcean, GCP, Linode, Vultr and more.

Cons:

• Don't remove your server in the trial period or it'll be cancelled;
• No root access. But Cloudways is a managed hosting service, so I guess it's fine!

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Kinsta

Kinsta is also an alternative to Laravel Forge. It now proposes applications hosting, which works in similar fashion as Forge and Cloudways, but even simpler. I really like how clean it is. Link to your GitHub repository, click to deploy, and you're ready!

Pros:

• Easy-to-use dashboard;
• Auto-deploy on Git push;
• Battle-tested infrastructure;
• Premium hardware from Google;
• Easily scale up or down your services;
• Use your Dockerfile to deploy your app;
• Temporary URL until you start using your own domain;
• Environment variables management from the dashboard;
• Free and unlimited team members. Great for large teams;
• Backed with Cloudflare, so you won't have to fear DDoS attacks;
• 24/7 support in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese from competent developers.

Cons:

• One hosting service and one database for each app, which can quickly make salty invoices.

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