What is Laravel Forge? Everything You Need To Know in 2024.

I. Introduction

I have been using PHP professionally for about six years now, and very few new things in the ecosystem had excited me as much as I was excited when I learned about Laravel Forge. Unfortunately, most of us software engineers would instead focus on writing code rather than the logistics of setting up and configuring Linux servers, SSL certificates, DNS records, and everything DevOps. And that, my friends, is where Laravel Forge comes in.

II. What is Laravel Forge?

Laravel Forge is a web-based platform that allows developers to easily manage and deploy their PHP-based web applications, WordPress websites, and, most importantly, those built with the Laravel framework.

It provides tools for server provisioning, deployment, and management, making it a convenient option for developers to handle the DevOps aspect of their projects.

It was developed and maintained by the creator of Laravel, Taylor Otwell, to monetize his open-source framework. As with many open-source projects, the developers allow the public to use and monetize their work for free. Unfortunately, as a result, some projects either die off or stall due to a lack of financing for the project developers to focus on their open-source projects.

Laravel Forge is one of the many tools in the Laravel ecosystem, like Vapor, Nova, Scout, and Valet.

III. Is Laravel Forge Free?

No, Laravel Forge is not free. Instead, it offers three pricing packages based on the number of servers and sites you need to manage.

IV. Does Laravel Forge Offer a Free Trial?

Yes, Laravel Forge offers a free trial. Forge now allows new users to enjoy a 5-day Free Trial. You will be required to add and connect your card before starting your free trial.

V. Laravel Forge Pricing Packages

Laravel Forge Annual Price Packages

VI. Laravel Forge Features

Forge comes packed with loads of features, all packed into a simple and intuitive dashboard that any developer can easily get around.

The features include:

• Server Provisioning. Provisioning a cloud server is very simple on Laravel Forge. You don’t even need to log in to your cloud provider. Forge installs Nginx, PHP, Redis, Postgres, MySQL, and any other dependencies for you as it spins up the server of your choice in minutes.
• Push To Deploy. Automated CI/CD is inbuilt into Laravel Forge. As soon as you press git push on your code editor, it takes over and deploys your changes, including dependencies all configured in your deployment script.
• Free TLS Certificates. Laravel Forge is directly integrated with Lets Encrypt, allowing you to secure your sites with enterprise-level end-to-end encryption.
• Queue Workers. Configure a worker and leave all your queue workers’ management to Laravel Forge.
• Security. Laravel Forge requires SSH authentication on top of coming with a firewall configured by default. Security updates are also installed automatically to ensure none of your servers is left vulnerable.
• Server monitoring and logging. Users on the Business Plan can monitor various aspects of their servers, including CPU usage, disk space, and memory usage. They can also configure email alerts when their server health status changes to avoid downtime.
• Database Backups. Users on the Business Plan can backup their databases to AWS S3 storage or DigitalOcean Spaces.
• Task Scheduler. You can schedule all your CRON jobs with an easy customizer on the server dashboard.

VII. What cloud providers does Laravel Forge support?

Laravel Forge supports DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon, Hetzner, and custom Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

VIII. How do you set up a server on Laravel Forge?

To set up a server, you must create an account and connect it to your cloud provider, primarily through API Keys. Once connected, you can create a new server, configure it to your needs and deploy your application.

For a detailed guide on setting up a server on Laravel forge, you can take a look at the post below.

How To Deploy A Laravel Application to Digital Ocean Using Laravel Forge

IX. Conclusion

I hope this post has answered all your questions on Laravel Forge and that you may consider it for your next PHP project. After all of the talking points covered above, you may still be asking, is Laravel Forge worth it? The answer is Yes.

Give it a shot, I promise you won’t regret it!