Laravel Forge

Server management for PHP/Laravel deployments

4.1(0 reviews)paidFounded 2014United States

managed optionapi access

Integrates with

AWS Let's Encrypt WordPress Next.js PostgreSQL Redis

Laravel Forge provisions and manages PHP servers for Laravel applications. Auto-deploys from GitHub, manages Nginx, databases, SSL, and cron jobs. The standard for Laravel deployments.

What Laravel Forge actually is

Laravel Forge is a server management and deployment service: it provisions a server, installs and configures the web stack, and then keeps your applications deployed, secured and monitored on it. Taylor Otwell announced it from the stage at Laracon NYC in 2014, alongside Homestead, and it has been the default deployment path for Laravel applications ever since. A decade on, it is still run by Laravel Holdings — the Little Rock company that raised a $57 million Series A from Accel in 2024 — and it is still opinionated in the same direction: you own the server, Forge runs the chores.

The important mental model is that Forge is a control plane, not a host. Your compute lives either on Laravel VPS — Laravel's own one-click Ubuntu servers, which provision in seconds — or on a provider you connect: DigitalOcean, Akamai/Linode, Vultr, AWS (non-government), Hetzner Cloud, a custom VPS, or any machine you point it at. Forge then handles Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL or Postgres, Redis, queue workers, cron, SSL certificates, firewall rules and deployments. You get root access and the provider's bill; Forge charges a flat monthly fee for the automation.

The current product is a substantial rewrite of the original. Zero-downtime deployments ship out of the box (the separate Envoyer subscription is no longer needed), SSL and domain management are automated, there are first-class integrations for Nuxt and Next.js alongside PHP, WordPress and Statamic, and the platform adds health checks, heartbeats, real-time metrics, role-based access control, organizations as billable entities, hosted on-forge.com preview domains, an integrated terminal with shared SSH sessions on Laravel VPS, and a documented API. In our view, this is the most complete version of Forge there has been.

Pricing: what you really pay

Forge is a flat subscription on top of your server costs, and the plan table is public. Hobby is $12 per month: unlimited Laravel VPS servers, one external server, unlimited sites and deployments, zero-downtime deploys, managed databases, hosted Forge domains, server monitoring and community support. Growth is $19 per month and is the plan Forge recommends: unlimited external servers, standard support with a 24-hour response goal in business days, and a 5% discount on Laravel VPS. Business is $39 per month: advanced support with an 8-hour response goal and a 15% discount on Laravel VPS. Larger arrangements go through sales.

Then there is the compute. Laravel VPS starts at $6 per month, billed by the server, with the usual vCPU/RAM/storage tiers above that. Pair the two and the economics are the point of the product: a Forge Hobby plan plus a $6 Laravel VPS is about $18 a month for a fully managed single-server deployment, and if you attach Hetzner Cloud or a similar inexpensive provider instead, the server side can be cheaper still. Compare that with a PaaS charging per instance at multiples of raw VPS pricing — the trade is that you think about servers at all.

We also want to be specific about what the support goals mean, because "support" varies sharply by plan. Hobby is community support with no fixed response time. Growth is a 24-hour response goal on business days. Business is an 8-hour goal. Laravel VPS customers get prioritized ticket support regardless. There is no uptime SLA anywhere in the product — consistent with the fact that Forge manages infrastructure it does not own.

Performance & infrastructure

There is no "Forge performance" to benchmark in the usual sense: the servers are yours. What Forge controls is the software layer on them, and that stack is mainstream and defensible — Nginx, PHP-FPM with configurable versions, MySQL or Postgres, Redis, Supervisor-managed queue workers, cron scheduling, ufw firewall configuration, and Let's Encrypt SSL that renews automatically. Laravel VPS servers are Ubuntu-based with root access, provisioned in under 10 seconds per the product documentation, and new Ubuntu LTS releases are adopted across supported server providers as they land.

Deployments are where the product earns its keep. Push-to-deploy works from GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket; deployments can be stacked and queued so you can see exactly what shipped and in what order; zero-downtime deploys work out of the box on a single server; and the newer health checks and heartbeats catch broken deploys and dead scheduled jobs before your users do. Real-time CPU, memory and bandwidth charts round out the monitoring. For teams, there are organizations with role-based access and billing separation — the agency case — and a shared terminal for live debugging on Laravel VPS.

What you should understand before choosing Forge is where its responsibility ends. It configures the server; it does not guarantee the server. Backups are configured (managed databases, scheduled dumps) but the retention and storage are part of the setup you control. Security patches for the OS and the underlying provider are the provider's job. If the box dies at 3am, that is your provider's incident and your pager. This is the deal: PaaS-grade chores, VPS-grade responsibility. Our /benchmarks page shows what the underlying hardware costs in isolation.

Where it falls short

The monthly fee on top of server costs is the obvious one. Twelve dollars a month is nothing next to a PaaS bill and a lot next to a $6 server — for one small site, Forge is a doubling of your infrastructure spend. The value is real once you run several servers or bill clients for the work, and weak if you run a single low-traffic app and enjoy SSH.

Second, language scope. Forge is PHP-first by design. The FAQ is candid: beyond PHP it supports vanilla PHP, WordPress, Statamic, and now Node.js, Nuxt and Next.js, with broader language support "coming in the future". If your portfolio is Rails, Go or Python services, this is not your tool yet, and the JavaScript support is newer and shallower than the PHP machinery.

Third, support economics. The plan most individual developers buy — Hobby — has community support only. Combined with the absence of any uptime SLA, that means Forge is a tool for people who can largely diagnose their own servers, wearing a very good automation coat. That has always been its audience, but it is worth stating plainly.

Fourth, operational surface. Forge touches production servers with SSH and rewrites web server configuration; the provider documentation carries explicit warnings that provisioning an existing server with existing applications can cause serious data loss. It is a power tool. Teams adopting it should standardise on Forge-managed servers rather than pointing it at machines with history.

Who should pick this

We would pick Forge for Laravel and PHP teams deploying to VPS infrastructure who want PaaS-style deployment mechanics without PaaS pricing or PaaS lock-in. It is our pick for freelancers and agencies running client applications across multiple cheap servers — the organizations feature, the flat pricing and the breadth of supported providers fit that shape exactly. Teams that want root access, provider portability and a decade-tested workflow should be looking here first.

We would not pick it for non-PHP stacks outside the supported JavaScript frameworks, for teams that want someone else responsible for uptime, or for one-site hobby projects where the subscription is the largest line item. If you want a fully managed platform where servers never appear, compare the PaaS options in /category/managed-cloud instead; if you want Forge-style control inside the Laravel ecosystem specifically, Laravel's own cloud platform is the newer alternative to weigh.

Two practical notes before you commit. First, budget the server bill alongside the subscription — Forge's flat fee is small next to a $6/month VPS, but it stacks across a fleet. Second, treat the first provisioning run as a rehearsal on a throwaway server; the provisioning model assumes a clean machine, and we would not learn it on a client's live site.

Key takeaways

Server management, not hosting: Forge provisions and configures servers on Laravel VPS, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, Hetzner Cloud or your own machine, and you keep root access.
Flat pricing: Hobby $12/month (1 external server, unlimited Laravel VPS), Growth $19, Business $39 — on top of server costs; Laravel VPS starts at $6/month.
Zero-downtime deployments, automated SSL, managed databases, queues, cron, health checks and heartbeats are all in the box; Envoyer no longer requires a separate subscription.
Announced at Laracon NYC 2014 and still actively developed by Laravel Holdings (Little Rock, $57M Accel Series A in 2024).
Support is plan-tiered (community / 24-hour goal / 8-hour goal) and there is no uptime SLA — reliability remains yours and your provider's.
Best fit: PHP and Laravel teams, agencies with multiple client servers, and anyone who wants VPS economics with deployment automation.

Sources

Pros

Flat, published pricing ($12/$19/$39) on top of cheap self-chosen servers — strong cost control versus PaaS
Zero-downtime deployments, automated SSL, managed databases, queues, cron, monitoring and heartbeats in the box
Provider flexibility: Laravel VPS, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, Hetzner Cloud, or bring your own server
A decade of Laravel deployments behind it; backed by Laravel Holdings with a $57M Series A and active development
Agency-friendly: organizations with role-based access and billing separation, unlimited sites and deployments

Cons

Monthly fee on top of server costs — poor value for a single small site
PHP-first; Node/Nuxt/Next.js support is newer and broader language support is still promised
No uptime SLA and community-only support on the Hobby plan
Power tool: provisioning existing servers can cause data loss; backups and OS security are your responsibility
Reliability of the running app depends on the underlying provider Forge does not control

Best For

Laravel and PHP developers — and agencies running multiple client servers — who want automated provisioning and deployment to any cloud VPS while keeping root access and provider choice