As a premier Laravel Development company, Hybrid Web Agency develops robust solutions for clients and community members. For this, efficient server management is a critical part of the process. However, spending hours configuring servers and troubleshooting problems can really eat into our time.
That’s where Laravel Forge comes into play. It is one of the most important tools used by our developers. As a server management platform designed specifically for PHP and Laravel applications, Forge helps us streamline all our backend tasks.
With Forge automating server tasks, We have the freedom to carefully plan and execute what we can create. So let’s get familiar with Forge to optimize your development process.
What is Laravel Forge?
For those who haven’t heard of it yet, Laravel Forge is a server management platform built specifically for Laravel and PHP applications. Its main goal is to take the hassle out of deploying, maintaining, and monitoring our apps in production.
Rather than logging into servers directly, Forge gives us a beautiful dashboard to overlook everything. We can deploy new code with a single click, set up automated backups, rotate SSL certificates, secure your application, and more – without touching the command line.
By abstracting away all the technical nitty-gritty, Forge lets us work at a higher level. We get to creative coding while it ensures everything just works in the background. Some see it as a “GitLab for servers” – a one-stop shop to take charge of any infrastructure task.
How and Why You Should Use Laravel Forge
With tight deadlines and limited resources, we need ways to optimize our workflows. This is where Laravel Forge really shines.
Some other key benefits of choosing Laravel Forge include:
- Easy deployment – Integrated Git integration allows deploys from a single click. No more manual processes slow down code pushes.
- Peace of mind – Forge handles automatic security updates and backups, so we don’t have to worry about uptime or breaches.
- Cost savings – By optimizing servers, Forge helps minimize hosting costs over time. Its dashboard also provides visibility to spend wisely.
- Speed – Forge deploys are blazing fast. And with auto-scaling and caching, apps stay highly performant as traffic grows.
- Flexibility – Manage individual servers or entire fleets through the same unified interface.
By bringing order and efficiency to our infrastructure, Forge truly transforms how we build applications.
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How Does Laravel Forge Work?
Now that we know why Laravel Forge is so useful, let’s take a tour of its dashboard and setup process. The interface is clean and intuitive to help us accomplish anything server-related with ease.
At the top, we see any servers we’ve added along with their status at a glance. Below, menus for common tasks keep everything organized. Want to deploy code? A single tab has version control perfectly integrated.
Setting up a new server starts by clicking “Add Server” then selecting our hosting provider. Forge auto-detects server details and provisions it securely in minutes. We can then assign domains, configure SSL certificates with one click, and tweak server configurations as needed.
To manage our sites, the dashboard lists each project and its deployed Git branch. Want to deploy changes? One button push deploys the latest code to our optimized stack. Logging and error monitoring help find and fix issues immediately.
Other convenient features include scheduled backups of our entire server, load balancing for high traffic, queued job processing, and integrated addons like caching. Monitoring tabs offer insights into metrics like memory usage and request times too.
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How to Deploy with Laravel Forge
Now that our server is set up, it’s time to start deploying our application code. This is where Forge really shows its power through seamless Git integration.
The first step is making sure our code is deployment-ready. This means having a .env file with environment variables instead of directly in code. It also means any composer/npm assets are installed to avoid errors.
Forge simplifies deploy scripts through its built-in tools. We can specify a forge key in our composer.json file:
"scripts": {
"post-deploy": "php artisan migrate"
},
"forge": {
"hooks": {
"post-deploy": "composer install"
}
}
This will run composer and migrations after each deploy. Handy! We can also set environment variables directly in Forge rather than commit them to Git.
Finally, we head to the Deploy tab and connect our GitHub/GitLab repository. Forge will automatically rebuild our stack and deploy the latest changes with a single click. What used to take hours now takes seconds!
If we ever need to rollback, previous deploy versions are logged with an easy rollback button. Forge automates it all so we’re free to focus on the fun stuff.
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Benefits of Laravel Forge
Beyond just simplifying deploys, Laravel Forge provides many other benefits that boost our productivity and security. Some of the top features include:
Enhanced security – Forge keeps our servers updated with the latest security patches, and also monitors for vulnerabilities. It handles encryption, firewalls and more so we don’t have to stress over breaches.
Simplified management – Tasks like procuring SSL certs, setting up cron jobs and queue workers that used to take all day are now one-click integrations. No more wasting hours on repetetive tasks!
Reliability – Forge ensures high availability of our sites through automatic backups, autoscaling, load balancing and redundancy features. We can relax knowing it will handle any spikes in traffic.
Blazing speeds – Its optimized server templates come pre-configured for top performance. Plus, integrations for caching, databases, CDNs and more keep our apps lightning fast.
Scalability – As needs grow, Forge allows easy horizontal scaling of servers and databases. It gives insight to benchmark and optimize resources on demand.
Together, these benefits translate to massive time-savings, reduced stress, and stronger, more robust applications. That’s a win-win for both us and our clients.
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Advanced Features and Integrations
While Forge already streamlines the basics, it also offers powerful integrations for more advanced needs. This includes load balancing, robust database management, and tying into other tools in our stack.
Load balancers – For high traffic projects, Forge supports auto-scaling groups of servers and configuring load balancers like Traefik and Nginx. This ensures apps stay fast and responsive under heavy loads.
Databases – It provides a full featured database panel to manage migrations, backups and scaling. We can add read replicas and connect additional services easily through integrations.
Envoyer – Forge now offers zero downtime deployments, thanks to a seamless first-party integration with Envoyer.
Third party tools – Popular CI/CD services like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Travis CI and Jenkins fully integrate through webhooks. We can also connect Elasticsearch, Redis, Memcached and more.
Third party services – With Forge’s open API, developers are writing addons to integrate best-of-breed tools like New Relic, DataDog and SparkPost for more robust monitoring and capabilities.
This leaves Forge able to interface with any part of our stack. So whether we use it out-of-box or tie into our favorite dev tools, it streamlines any infrastructure needs or workflows.
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Laravel Forge Pricing and Plans
Laravel Forge offers the following scalable plans to suit all business needs:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Key Features |
| Hobby | $12 | One Server, Unlimited Sites/Deployments, Basic Support, Database Backups, Server Monitoring |
| Growth | $19 | Unlimited Servers, Sites/Deployments, Basic Support, Database Backups, Server Monitoring |
| Business | $39 | Unlimited Servers, Sites/Deployments, Priority Support, Database Backups, Server Monitoring |
The Hobby plan at $12 is suitable for individual developers or freelancers.
The Growth plan at $19 provides the ability to scale with unlimited servers as your business grows.
For larger companies, the $39 Business plan offers dedicated support and the full Laravel Forge feature set.
All plans offer push button deployments, sharing servers with teammates and automatic database backups. As needs change, plans are flexible to scale up or down monthly. Overall, Laravel Forge provides excellent value and capabilities at every level.
Community and Support
Beyond the product itself, one of Laravel Forge’s greatest strengths is its vibrant community. As part of the larger Laravel ecosystem, there are countless resources and passionate people willing to help.
Documentation – Forge has extensive guides covering setup, deployment workflows and available features on their site. This is often enough for quick troubleshooting.
Laracasts – Laracasts video library includes tutorials specifically focused on optimizing deployments with Forge. These are worth watching for any tips.
Stack Overflow – On Stack Overflow, Laravel and general PHP tags are well monitored. Chances are good your Forge or server management questions have been asked before.
Subreddit – /r/laravel is active with over 200k subscribers. People regularly share Forge workflows, configs and new integration ideas here.
Events – Both virtual and in-person conference talks at Laracon and other events feature Forge best practices. Attending exposes you to expert insight.
With around 500,000 installations, the community activity surrounding Laravel Forge is stronger than any competing product. Leveraging these resources makes it even more powerful.
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To Sum It All Up
By automating away tedious infrastructure tasks, Forge allows you to maximize your productivity and focus on building innovative digital experiences. From initial server setup to advanced features like load balancing and integrated third-party services, it offers best-in-class capabilities.
We leverage Laravel Forge every day to rapidly and reliably deploy solutions for our client portfolio. By leveraging Forge and our skilled Laravel developers, we stay nimble to evolving requirements while maintaining the highest standards of performance, security and availability.
If you’re interested in discussing how we can use Laravel Forge to provide you rapid Laravel Development Services or augment your in-house team with our flexible staffing models, we invite you to contact us for a free 30-minute consultation. Our aim is to understand your unique needs and challenges, then craft the right strategic partnership to optimize delivery of your most impactful digital products and services.
We hope you found this overview of Laravel Forge informative. Please don’t hesitate to reach out – we’d be delighted to discuss how collaborating with our agency can maximize the value you derive from this powerful platform.
