Ever faced this frustrating situation?

• Your Laravel app sends emails, processes data, or generates reports…
• But everything freezes when a slow task runs! 😤
• You can’t afford a fancy server (just shared hosting).

Solution? Laravel Queues! But how do you run them on budget shared hosting?

Let’s break it down—step by step.

🔍 Why Use Queues? (The Traffic Cop Analogy)

Imagine a busy restaurant:

• If the chef cooks & serves every order one by one, customers wait forever.
• Instead, orders go to the kitchen (queue), and the chef cooks in the background while the waiter keeps taking new orders.

Laravel Queues work the same way!
✅ Users don’t wait for slow tasks (like sending 1000 emails).
✅ Your app stays fast because heavy work happens in the background.

🛠 Setting Up Queues on Shared Hosting

Most shared hosts don’t allow long-running processes (like queue:work).
But we can trick the system using cron jobs!

Step 1: Configure Your Queue Driver

Shared hosts usually support database queues. Edit .env:

QUEUE_CONNECTION=database  

Then, create the jobs table:

php artisan queue:table  
php artisan migrate  

Step 2: Create a Job

Example: SendWelcomeEmail

php artisan make:job SendWelcomeEmail  

// app/Jobs/SendWelcomeEmail.php  
public function handle()  
{  
    Mail::to($this->user->email)->send(new WelcomeEmail());  
}  

Step 3: Dispatch the Job

Instead of sending mail directly:

Mail::to($user)->send(new WelcomeEmail()); // ❌ Blocks the request  

Do this:

SendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user); // ✅ Runs in background  

⏳ Running the Queue Worker (The Hack!)

Since queue:work won’t stay running, we use cron jobs to trigger queue:restart and queue:work --once every minute.

Step 1: Add a Cron Entry

In your shared hosting cron tab (e.g., cPanel → Cron Jobs):

* * * * * cd /path-to-your-project && php artisan queue:restart && php artisan queue:work --once  

💡 What this does:

• Runs every minute.
• Processes one job per minute (adjust as needed).

Step 2: Test It!

Trigger a job:

SendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user);  

Check if it worked:

php artisan queue:failed # 👀 Any errors?  

🔥 Alternative: Use a "Poor Man’s Queue"

If cron isn’t reliable, try "queue on page load":

// In a high-traffic route (e.g., homepage)  
if (rand(1, 10) === 1) { // Randomly run jobs 10% of the time  
    Artisan::call('queue:work --once');  
}  

⚠️ Warning: This is not ideal, but works in a pinch!

� Key Takeaways

✅ Queues prevent slow tasks from blocking users.
✅ Use database driver on shared hosting.
✅ Cron jobs can run queue:work --once every minute.
✅ Test with queue:failed to debug issues.

🚀 Next Steps

• Monitor queues (log failures).
• Upgrade to a VPS if traffic grows (for real-time queues).