2025 UPDATE

We have updated this blog post to include the new features available up to 2025 since its original publication in 2020. We have also written some more articles related to Forge, such as Deploying a Filament project on DigitalOcean using Laravel Forge, Deploying a Statamic site on DigitalOcean using Laravel Forge and Connecting to remote MySQL database with Laravel Forge and TablePlus.

Managing servers can be tough for developers, especially when it comes to keeping production environments running smoothly. It takes a lot of time and can be really complex. That’s why many developers, including us at Lucky Media, use Laravel Forge for easier server management. Here’s why we believe that Laravel Forge is a great server management tool.

Simplifying server management with Laravel Forge

Laravel Forge turns the hard task of managing servers into something that’s easy and even fun. The Forge website says it well:

Server management doesn’t have to be a nightmare!

Many developers can relate to this statement, having fought many battles with the complexities of server management themselves. The process usually has many errors and typically demands a lot of attention.

Faster deployment with Laravel Forge

Laravel Forge makes it quick and easy to set up web apps on different servers. It works with cloud providers like DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, Amazon Web Services, and others. Forge connects with your account and takes care of the set up through its easy-to-use platform.

Set up is quick, often done in just a few minutes. This means developers can spend more time on important things like writing code and creating new apps, instead of dealing with server management.

The Forge dashboard is also really easy to use and has all the tools you need for good server management.

GitHub integration with Forge

As our previous post on static sites with Netlify highlighted, integration with version control systems like GitHub is important. Forge uses a similar approach, enabling developers to maintain their code repositories on GitHub.

With a simple push to the main (master) branch, Forge initiates the deployment process automatically. This integration removes the need for manual deployment efforts, allowing developers to focus on their development work while Forge handles the deployment.

Rich feature set for production environments

Forge is more than just simple server management and set up; it also has lots of features that are important for production environments.

When you set up Forge, it installs things like Nginx, PHP, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, and more. You’ll have all the latest versions and tools you need for your projects.

Forge also gives you free SSL Certificates, which makes your apps more secure without any extra cost or work.

Conclusion

Laravel Forge is a really helpful tool for developers. It makes server management easier and more user-friendly. With its quick set up, easy GitHub integration, and lots of features, it’s a top choice for our team at Lucky Media.

This article is part of our ongoing series, "Which technologies do we use and why?", where we explain the technologies that we use on a daily basis and the reasons behind our choices.

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Why do we use Laravel Forge?