Stop Waiting! Speed Up Your Laravel App with Queues (Even on Shared Hosting)

✋ Real Talk: Why Is My Laravel App So Slow?

You built your first Laravel app. 🎉
It works! Users can register, reset passwords, maybe even get a confirmation email.

But then... it feels slow. 😩

After submitting a form, it hangs for 2–3 seconds.
You stare at the loading spinner and think, “Something’s not right.”

Let’s be honest: nobody wants to wait for an email to send before the page reloads.

💡 Here's the Secret

You don’t need a faster server.
You don’t need Redis or Horizon (yet).

✅ You just need Laravel Queues.

And the best part?
You can set it up in 10 minutes — even on shared hosting.

Let’s go! 👇

🧠 What Are Laravel Queues (and Why Should I Care)?

Imagine this: You walk into a restaurant. You order 3 biryanis. 🍛

Now, should the cashier:

• Make all 3 biryanis before serving the next customer? ❌
• OR just take your order, and pass it to the kitchen, so the next customer can order too? ✅

Laravel queues are that kitchen. 🧑‍🍳

Instead of processing time-heavy tasks right now (like sending emails), Laravel queues them for later — so your app responds instantly, and heavy work happens in the background.

🎯 Common Use Cases for Queues

• Sending emails 📧
• Pushing notifications 🔔
• Generating invoices 🧾
• Uploading files to S3 🗂
• Calling third-party APIs 🌐
• Processing videos, images, or PDFs 🖼

🛠️ How to Set Up Laravel Queues (Without Horizon or Supervisor)

You don’t need to run a daemon or install Redis.

You just need:

• Laravel 10 or 11
• A database queue driver
• A working cron job
• A little Laravel magic 🪄

✅ Step-by-Step Guide to Laravel Queues on Shared Hosting

1️⃣ Set the Queue Driver to Database

Edit your .env:

QUEUE_CONNECTION=database

Then run this:

php artisan queue:table
php artisan migrate

Now your jobs will go into a jobs table.

2️⃣ Create Your First Job

php artisan make:job SendWelcomeEmail

Edit the handle() method inside:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;

public function handle()
{
    Mail::to($this->user->email)->send(new WelcomeMail($this->user));
}

3️⃣ Dispatch the Job

Anywhere in your app (like a controller):

SendWelcomeEmail::dispatch($user);

✅ Done! It’s in the queue now — ready to be processed.

4️⃣ Schedule queue:work in routes/console.php

In Laravel 11+:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;

Schedule::command('queue:work --stop-when-empty')
    ->everyMinute()
    ->withoutOverlapping()
    ->before(function () {
        Log::info('Queue started at ' . now());
    })
    ->after(function () {
        Log::info('Queue finished at ' . now());
    });

5️⃣ Set Up Cron in CWP

Command:

cd /home/your-user/public_html && /usr/local/bin/php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

Frequency: Every minute (or every 5, if needed)

That’s it — every minute, your app will check the queue and process jobs!

🧪 Real Example: Speed Up Signup Emails

Before using queues:

• User registers
• Laravel sends welcome email
• Page takes 3–5 seconds to reload 😕

After using queues:

• User registers
• Laravel responds in 200ms 🚀
• Email is sent in the background

🔥 Your app feels 10x faster.
And you didn't change servers or buy anything fancy.

⚡ Bonus Tips

✅ Use php artisan schedule:list to see upcoming tasks
✅ Use Log::info() to debug job runs
✅ Use php artisan queue:failed to see failed jobs
✅ Retry with php artisan queue:retry all

🧠 Recap: You Now Know How To...

• Explain what Laravel queues are
• Set them up using the database driver
• Dispatch background jobs
• Automate them using Laravel’s scheduler
• Use CWP cron to run everything without Supervisor!

And best of all: You did it without needing to install anything. 🙌

🚀 Ready to Take Action?

Try adding a background email or image resize job to your app right now.

Let Laravel do the heavy lifting — and give your users a snappy, smooth experience they’ll love. 💚

💬 Let’s Discuss

What's the first task you'd like to push into the background using Laravel queues?

👇 Drop it in the comments — let’s build faster apps together!

❓ FAQ: Laravel Queues Made Simple

Q1: Can I use queues without Redis?

Absolutely! Use QUEUE_CONNECTION=database and you're good to go.

Q2: Will the jobs retry automatically if they fail?

Yes — Laravel has retry features built-in. You can customize retry delay, attempt counts, etc.

Q3: Is this safe for production apps?

✅ Yes! Many Laravel apps on shared hosting use this exact method. Just make sure you test your jobs before going live.