How to Host Laravel on DigitalOcean VPS: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Introduction to Laravel Hosting on DigitalOcean

Laravel has cemented its position as the most popular PHP framework for modern web development. However, building a great application is only half the battle; knowing how to deploy laravel on digitalocean droplet is the final hurdle to bringing your vision to life. While shared hosting might be fine for a simple simple website php tutorial beginners project, a high-performance application requires the power and flexibility of a Virtual Private Server (VPS).

DigitalOcean provides an excellent balance of performance and price, making it a favorite for developers. In this comprehensive step by step laravel digitalocean deployment guide, we will walk through every detail of setting up a production-ready environment. Whether you are migrating from a local environment or a different host, this guide ensures your laravel php framework hosting on digitalocean droplet is secure, fast, and scalable.

Why Choose a DigitalOcean VPS for Laravel?

Choosing the best way to host laravel on vps often leads developers to DigitalOcean. Unlike shared hosting, a VPS gives you full root access, allowing you to fine-tune the server configuration. This is crucial for Laravel because the framework requires specific PHP extensions and optimized web server settings to function correctly.

• Scalability: You can resize your Droplet (VPS) with just a few clicks as your traffic grows.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Starting at $4 or $6 per month, it is highly affordable for beginners.
• Control: You have complete control over the OS (Ubuntu), PHP version, and database engine.

For many, this is the logical step after following a php tutorial for beginners and moving toward professional deployment.

Step 1: Creating Your DigitalOcean Droplet

The first step in our installing laravel on digitalocean vps tutorial is creating the server instance. Log in to your DigitalOcean account and click ‘Create’ then ‘Droplets’.

1. Choose Region: Select a data center closest to your target audience for lower latency.
2. Choose Image: Select Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Long Term Support) as it is the industry standard for stability.
3. Choose Size: For beginners, the ‘Basic’ plan with 1GB RAM is sufficient.
4. Authentication: Use SSH keys for better security. While a password is easier, SSH keys protect you from brute-force attacks.

Once your Droplet is created, you will receive an IP address. This IP is where your hosting laravel application on private server journey officially begins.

Step 2: Connecting to Your Server via SSH

To setup laravel environment on linux vps server, you need to access the command line. Open your terminal (or PuTTY on Windows) and run:

ssh root@your_droplet_ip

If you used an SSH key, you should be logged in immediately. First, ensure your server packages are up to date by running:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 3: Installing the LEMP Stack

Laravel runs best on a LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP). Nginx is a high-performance web server that outperforms Apache in handling concurrent requests, making it the best PHP framework REST API authentication server choice.

3.1 Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx -y

3.2 Install MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Run sudo mysql_secure_installation to secure your database. To how to set up laravel with mysql on digitalocean, you must create a dedicated database and user for your app later.

3.3 Install PHP 8.2 (or latest)

Laravel requires several PHP extensions. Install PHP-FPM and the necessary modules:

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-common php-cli php-gd php-curl php-xml php-mbstring php-zip php-bcmath -y

Step 4: Installing Composer and Git

Composer is the dependency manager for PHP and is essential for any laravel digitalocean deployment for beginners. Download and install it globally:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

You will also need Git to pull your code from GitHub or GitLab:

sudo apt install git -y

Step 5: Deploying Your Laravel Application

Navigate to the web root directory and clone your repository. This is a core part of the Deployment process.

cd /var/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git laravel-app
cd laravel-app

Install the dependencies:

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

Ensure that you manage your storage properly. If your app handles many assets, check out our guide on laravel file storage cloud integration for advanced setups.

Step 6: Configuring Nginx for Laravel

To configure nginx for laravel on digitalocean, you must create a server block configuration. Create a new file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel-app

Paste the following configuration, replacing example.com with your domain:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/laravel-app/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;

    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ .php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~ /.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable the site and restart Nginx:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/laravel-app /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 7: Permissions and Environment Configuration

One of the biggest hurdles in setup laravel on ubuntu vps server is permissions. The web server (www-data) needs ownership of the storage and cache directories.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/laravel-app/storage /var/www/laravel-app/bootstrap/cache
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/laravel-app/storage /var/www/laravel-app/bootstrap/cache

Next, set up your .env file. Copy the example file and generate an app key:

cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

Edit the .env file with nano .env to include your database credentials and set APP_ENV=production and APP_DEBUG=false.

Step 8: Securing Laravel with SSL (Let’s Encrypt)

To secure laravel hosting on digitalocean with ssl, use Certbot. It provides free SSL certificates from Let’s Encrypt.

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot --nginx -d example.com -d www.example.com

Follow the prompts to redirect HTTP traffic to HTTPS. Your site is now secure!

Step 9: How to Point Your Domain to DigitalOcean

Knowing how to point domain to laravel on digitalocean is vital. Log in to your domain registrar (like Namecheap or GoDaddy). Change your Nameservers to:

• ns1.digitalocean.com
• ns2.digitalocean.com
• ns3.digitalocean.com

Inside the DigitalOcean dashboard, go to Networking > Domains and add your domain, pointing the ‘A’ record to your Droplet’s IP address.

Optimizing Laravel for a Production Server Setup

For a true laravel production server setup on digitalocean vps, run these optimization commands to speed up your application:

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

This stores the configuration and routes in a single file, reducing the overhead of parsing multiple files on every request. This is particularly important when you are deploying laravel using digitalocean app platform or a custom VPS.

Laravel Forge Alternatives for VPS Deployment

While this manual setup is great for learning, many developers look for laravel forge alternatives for vps deployment. Tools like Ploi, Moss, or even managed services like the DigitalOcean App Platform can automate these steps. However, doing it manually as described here gives you the deepest understanding of how your server works, which is invaluable for debugging.

Conclusion

You have successfully completed the setup laravel on ubuntu vps server. From creating a Droplet to configuring Nginx and securing it with SSL, you now have a professional-grade hosting environment. Hosting on a VPS might seem daunting at first, but following this step by step laravel digitalocean deployment guide ensures you avoid common pitfalls like permission errors or database connectivity issues.

For more technical insights, you can explore the official Laravel Deployment Documentation or check out DigitalOcean Community Tutorials for more advanced server hardening techniques.

Now that your site is live, you can focus on building features, knowing your foundation is solid. Happy coding!