Laravel on VPS: The Ultimate Deployment & Configuration Guide for Senior Developers

You're a Laravel expert.
You've mastered queues, events, service containers, and API resources.
Now it's time to step into the world of servers and production deployment.

Let’s walk through deploying Laravel on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) — from buying the server to running your app live like a pro.

🧠 Why Use a VPS Instead of Shared Hosting or Forge?

Let’s break it down:

VPS is your first real step into DevOps — and gives you total control, flexibility, and performance.

🛒 Step 1: Choose Your VPS Provider

Here are great options:

• 🧊 DigitalOcean – Popular, easy UI
• ☁️ Vultr – Affordable, global datacenters
• 🔥 Hetzner – Incredible price-performance
• 💡 Linode – Great documentation
• ☁️ AWS Lightsail – Simplified AWS for beginners

➡️ Choose Ubuntu 22.04 with at least 1GB RAM (2GB preferred).

🔐 Step 2: Connect to Your VPS

Once the server is ready, you'll get an IP like 157.230.55.123.

Open your terminal:

ssh root@157.230.55.123

💡 First-time login tip: Always change your root password and create a non-root user for security.

adduser ajay
usermod -aG sudo ajay

Then log in as your new user:

ssh ajay@your-server-ip

🧰 Step 3: Install the Server Stack

Install Nginx, PHP, MySQL, and necessary tools.

Update server

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install PHP 8.x and Extensions

sudo apt install php php-cli php-fpm php-mysql php-mbstring php-xml php-curl php-zip unzip curl git -y

Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx -y

Install MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Secure MySQL:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create Laravel DB:

CREATE DATABASE laravel_app;
CREATE USER 'laravel_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'securePassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON laravel_app.* TO 'laravel_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

🧱 Step 4: Upload Your Laravel Project

Use Git or upload manually (SFTP).

Clone via Git

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

Give permissions:

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

⚙️ Step 5: Set Up Laravel Environment

Create .env file and update:

cp .env.example .env

Update DB info:

DB_DATABASE=laravel_app
DB_USERNAME=laravel_user
DB_PASSWORD=securePassword

Install composer dependencies:

composer install
php artisan key:generate
php artisan migrate

🌐 Step 6: Configure Nginx for Laravel

Create a new config file:

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

Paste:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    root /var/www/laravel-app/public;

    index index.php index.html;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable site and reload Nginx:

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

🔐 Step 7: SSL with Let’s Encrypt

Install Certbot:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

Get SSL:

sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Auto-renew:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

🛡️ Step 8: Queue Worker & Scheduler

Install Supervisor

sudo apt install supervisor -y

Create a worker config:

sudo nano /etc/supervisor/conf.d/laravel-worker.conf

Paste:

[program:laravel-worker]
process_name=%(program_name)s_%(process_num)02d
command=php /var/www/laravel-app/artisan queue:work --sleep=3 --tries=3
autostart=true
autorestart=true
user=www-data
numprocs=1
redirect_stderr=true
stdout_logfile=/var/www/laravel-app/storage/logs/worker.log

Reload:

sudo supervisorctl reread
sudo supervisorctl update
sudo supervisorctl start laravel-worker:*

Add Cron Job

crontab -e

Add:

* * * * * cd /var/www/laravel-app && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

📦 Optional But Recommended

• 🔎 Install Fail2Ban for security
• 🔐 Use UFW firewall to allow only SSH, HTTP, HTTPS
• 🛡️ Set up daily DB backups with cron
• 📊 Use Monit or Netdata for health checks
• 🚀 Explore CI/CD to auto-deploy from GitHub (next blog!)

✅ Final Checklist

• Laravel project is cloned
• Environment variables are set
• PHP, MySQL, Nginx are running
• SSL is configured
• Queue worker and cron are running
• Everything runs on your domain — secure, stable, and scalable

🧠 Key Takeaways

• VPS gives you full control — performance, security, and flexibility
• It’s a learning curve, but one that makes you a full-stack Laravel operator
• You now understand what happens after the code is written

👨‍💻 You’re No Longer Just a Developer

You’re now managing infrastructure, thinking like a tech lead, and owning your deployment pipeline.

This is how SaaS builders, founders, and senior architects operate. You’re on the path now 🚀

📘 What’s Next?

Stay tuned for the next blog:

🔁 Laravel CI/CD with GitHub Actions: Auto Deploy Your App from Push to Production

Want a ready-made deployment bash script? Or a YouTube tutorial version of this blog?
Just let me know!

Happy shipping 🧑‍🚀✨