Best hosting for larger Laravel apps
Hi all,
It's probably been asked a load of times, but what's the best hosting solution for larger apps? Over the past 2 years, I deployed over 40 sites to a shared server and to be fair, I've not had an issue. These are smaller clients though, and I've just landed my first large budget (for me anyway) client and I want to make sure that I offer the best solution I can.
The app will be an e-commerce platform with a large catalogue and a fair few integrations and API requests.
I will also be needing some additional help on this project pre and post go live so the ability to user control the server is essential as I'm not sure who the help will be yet haha.
Depending on the scale and the ability you would like to give the additional help, I would recommend using Laravel Forge and DigitalOcean.
Forge has a functionality called circles (https://forge.laravel.com/docs/1.0/accounts/circles.html) which would most likely be of interest to you when sharing access to the servers management and resources.
With regards to the hosting solution, DigitalOcean can scale with you easily on this project. However this is assuming the scale so I would read up on their offerings first before making any purchases. Here is their respective price list if you are interested: https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing
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Hi there,
As Brian already mentioned, there are quite a bit of options, and I also personally use DigitalOcean.
You can deploy a pre-configured server for Laravel using this 1-Click installation here:
If you need to scale, you can add a Managed database so that the load on the server would be reduced:
How to Set Up a Scalable Laravel Application using Managed Databases and Object Storage
Another option is to use the DigitalOcean App Platform which also comes with automated deployments and you would not really need to worry about the server management and configuration:
As Brian mentioned, good option is also to use DigitalOcean together with Laravel Forge which comes with automated server configuration and also deployments from GitHub to your DigitalOcean server. Forge is an official product managed by the Laravel team themselves.
Hope that this helps!
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Assuming that you don't feel like the option provided above (Forge + VPS) is for you.
If you want simple, I use Cloudways. They have a control panel and support in between you and DigialOcean VPS (or you can choose another). You don't get full root access, but they can install stuff for you. The support has been great for me. Jumping from shared hosting, I think this is the easiest.
It's perfect for me because I'm not ready to become a developer + systems admin. At the moment I like to keep my SSH tasks to a minimum and do the rest with GUI and support. Forge features to me don't make sense, so I assume it's more than I can handle, dunno. I feel like I need a "Laravel Forge for Idiots" guide to understand if it's worth me getting into it.
Note: they are forcing clients to switch PHP versions to ones that are being updated with security releases. So, something like Laravel 4.2 and PHP 7.1 will very soon not be an option.
Side note: Wow, I didn't realize now only PHP v8^ have security releases. https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php