Deploy PHP / Laravel

This guide deploys a Laravel application with a production web server and connects it to a managed PostgreSQL database. For the shared deploy flow, see Deploy from GitHub.

Prepare Your App

php artisan serve is for local development only. In production, run a real server bound to 0.0.0.0 and the port you expose. There are two reliable paths.

Option A: FrankenPHP or Octane

A single process that reads the port directly. Add Octane, then start it:

sh -c "php artisan octane:start --server=frankenphp --host=0.0.0.0 --port=$PORT"

Option B: Nginx with PHP-FPM

A Dockerfile based on an nginx and PHP-FPM image, with the web root pointed at Laravel's public/ directory. Make sure nginx listens on the port you expose rather than the image default.

Deploy

Create an application from your repository with the Dockerfile build method, and expose the port your server listens on.

Connect a Database

Create a managed PostgreSQL database and provide its connection string. The variable depends on your Laravel version:

• Laravel 10 and earlier read DATABASE_URL.
• Laravel 11 and later read DB_URL.

DB_URL=postgres://user:password@host:5432/dbname?sslmode=require

Connections require SSL, so keep ?sslmode=require in the string.

Run Migrations

Out Plane has no pre deploy hook. Run php artisan migrate --force once from the browser terminal, or fold it into your container's start sequence.

Environment Variables

Production Notes

• A 502 or no response usually means the server is not listening on the exposed port.
• Run php artisan config:cache only after all environment variables are set.

Next Steps