I see a blank (white) page instead of the Laravel 'Welcome' page

Run "sudo chmod -R 777 storage bootstrap/cache" from the Laravel root directory.

I see "Welcome to nginx" instead of the Laravel App

Use http://127.0.0.1 instead of http://localhost in your browser.

I see an error containing "address already in use" or "port is already allocated"

Make sure the ports for the services you are running (22, 80, 443, 3306, etc.) are not already used by other programs on the host, such as a built-in apache/httpd service or other development tools.

I get MySQL connection refused

Set DB_HOST in your .env to the MySQL container name (the Laradock docker-compose file uses "mysql"), or to the IP of your Laravel container.

Does Laradock work with frameworks other than Laravel?

Yes. Laradock works with any PHP project, including Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, or plain PHP, and behaves the same on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Yes. Laradock is free and open-source under the MIT license, including all 100+ pre-configured services.

Is Laradock still maintained?

Yes. Laradock has been actively maintained since 2015, has 12k+ GitHub stars, and is used by thousands of developers.

Who created Laradock?

Laradock was created in 2015 by Mahmoud Zalt (https://zalt.me), who still maintains it today.

What is the difference between Laradock and Laravel Sail?

Laravel Sail is Laravel's official minimal Docker environment and works only with Laravel. Laradock is framework-agnostic and ships 100+ pre-configured services with full control over every Dockerfile. Side-by-side comparison: https://laradock.io/docs/laradock-vs-laravel-sail

What are the alternatives to Laradock?

Popular alternatives include DDEV, Laravel Sail, Laravel Herd, Lando, Homestead, XAMPP/MAMP, Dev Containers, and writing your own Docker Compose. The docs compare each honestly: https://laradock.io/docs/laradock-alternatives

Introduction

Name: Laradock
Author: Mahmoud Zalt

The easiest way to run PHP on Docker.

Laradock is a complete Docker environment for PHP. Clone it into any PHP project, run one command, and you have a complete local stack running.

It ships pre-configured containers for everything a PHP application needs: a web server (Nginx), the PHP runtime (PHP-FPM), a database (MySQL), caching (Redis), background jobs (PHP Worker), search (Elasticsearch), mail testing (Mailpit), and 100+ additional services, all ready to use with zero manual configuration.

Whether you're using the built-in Laradock CLI, no Docker knowledge required, or plain docker compose when you want full control, the same stack works with any PHP project, including Laravel, WordPress, Symfony, Drupal, Magento, 100+ other frameworks and applications, or plain PHP. Every developer gets the same environment on Linux, macOS, and Windows, eliminating setup differences and "works on my machine" problems.

Laradock doesn't stop at local development. Built-in production deployment with ./laradock ship packages your application and deploys it to Kubernetes, Google Cloud Run, AWS ECS, your own server, and many more, without switching tools or rebuilding your environment.

Trusted by 100K+ developers, it's free and open-source under the MIT license, and has been battle-tested in real-world PHP projects since 2015.

Already running an older version of Laradock?
Upgrade straight to the latest, with AI, in one go. It's safe, nothing you already run changes.

🤖 Upgrade with AI Upgrade Guide →

Use Docker first. Learn about it later.

laradock — bash

✓ Docker running · Compose v2.29

✓ Detected a PHP project → Laravel

Project›laravel

PHP version›8.4

Web server›nginx

Database›mysql

Cache›redis

✓ Saved .env · starting your stack…

✔ Container laradock-mysql-1 Started

✔ Container laradock-redis-1 Started

✔ Container laradock-nginx-1 Started

Laradock is up.

Apphttp://localhost

Let AI use it

Three ways to point your AI assistant at Laradock:

Run it for you - the repo ships agent instructions (AGENTS.md + rule files for Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Cline, and Windsurf). Open the repo in your agent and say "Set up Laradock for this project."
Ask about it, no clone - add the docs as an MCP server: https://gitmcp.io/laradock/laradock.
Read a walkthrough - browse the AI-generated overview on DeepWiki, starting with its architecture diagram.

Quick Start

Requires Docker with Compose v2.20+. Pick a tab, both reach the exact same result, and you can switch any time.

Laradock CLI
Docker Compose

1 - Clone Laradock inside your PHP project:

git clone https://github.com/Laradock/laradock.git

2 - Enter the laradock folder:

cd laradock

3 - Start your stack:

./laradock start

The first time, start runs a short setup wizard, then launches your stack. Full walkthrough and all options: Getting Started.

4 - Enter the Laradock Workspace (a dev shell with php, composer, node, and git inside):

./laradock workspace

Then open http://localhost. Done.

The CLI is optional, transparent sugar: it prints every docker compose command it runs, keeps no state, and writes nothing but your .env. Full reference: The Laradock CLI.

The same result, step by step, with you in charge of every detail:

1 - Clone Laradock inside your PHP project:

git clone https://github.com/Laradock/laradock.git

2 - Enter the laradock folder and rename .env.example to .env.

cp .env.example .env

3 - Run your containers:

docker compose up -d workspace nginx mysql redis

4 - Open your project's .env file and set the following:

DB_HOST=mysql
REDIS_HOST=redis
QUEUE_HOST=beanstalkd

5 - Open your browser and visit localhost: http://localhost.

Done.

Full Getting Started Guide See How It Works Usage and Commands

What's New (2026)

Battle-tested since 2015, and still growing. Recent highlights:

Deploy to production, ./laradock ship builds an image for any server or cloud.
A plain-English CLI, ./laradock start runs your whole stack, no Docker needed.
Local AI built in, run LLMs and vector databases on your own machine.
100+ services ready, plus every PHP version from 5.6 to 8.5.

See the release notes for the full history.

Already on an older version? Jumping straight to the latest is safe, nothing you run changes. See the Upgrade Guide for the one structural change to know about.

Features

Any PHP Version: Run any version from 5.6 to 8.5. Set PHP_VERSION in .env, rebuild, and you're on it.
100+ Ready-made Services: Databases, caches, queues, search engines, and more, pre-configured and waiting.
All-in-One Dev Shell: Run Artisan, Composer, Node, and any CLI inside the workspace container, nothing on host.
Deploy to Production: Turn your stack into a hardened image with ./laradock ship, then deploy anywhere.
Pick Your Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Redis, and many others, ready to switch on.
Framework-Agnostic: Works with Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, Magento, Drupal, or plain PHP.
Local AI, Built In: Run LLMs and vector search locally with Ollama, LiteLLM, pgvector, Qdrant, no cloud bills.
Toggle Services On Demand: Start only what a project needs with docker compose up, and stop them easily.
One Environment Everywhere: Identical setup on Linux, macOS, and Windows, so your team shares the stack.
A Container Per Service: Every service is isolated, so nothing conflicts and each piece is easy to manage.
Configure From One File: Every service ships pre-configured; override any setting with 1 line in .env, always wins.
Official Base Images: Every image builds on a trusted upstream source for reliability and security.
Web Server Ready: NGINX, Apache, and Caddy come pre-configured to serve your code out of the box.
One or Many Projects: Run a dedicated Laradock per project, or share a single setup across all of them.
Yours to Edit: Every Dockerfile and config is plain, readable, and open for you to change.

Supported PHP Projects

Laradock provides the PHP runtime, web server, databases, and background services your app needs, so it runs virtually any PHP framework, CMS, or e-commerce platform, right down to plain framework-free PHP.

New here? Jump straight to a step-by-step guide for the most popular platforms:

Laravel WordPress Symfony Drupal Magento WooCommerce Moodle CodeIgniter Nextcloud PrestaShop

Not listed? Pick from the full catalog of 100+ supported projects below.

Type	Projects
Frameworks	Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Yii, Laminas (Zend Framework), CakePHP, Phalcon, Slim, Lumen, FuelPHP, Spiral, Hyperf, API Platform, Mezzio, Flight, Fat-Free Framework (F3), ThinkPHP, Silex, Swoole, Workerman, Ubiquity, SilverStripe, Nette, Leaf PHP
CMS	WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, October CMS, Statamic, Craft CMS, TYPO3, Concrete CMS, Grav, Backdrop CMS, HTMLy, Kirby, ProcessWire, Pico, Bolt CMS, Contao, b2evolution, Serendipity, Nucleus, e107, Pligg, Sulu CMS, Pimcore, Winter CMS, Neos CMS, Textpattern, ExpressionEngine
E-commerce	Magento, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, OpenCart, Sylius, Bagisto, Aimeos, Avored, OroCommerce, Zen Cart, osCommerce, AbanteCart, CubeCart, Shopware, LiteCart, OpenMage
Apps	Moodle, MediaWiki, phpBB, Matomo, MyBB, FluxBB, PunBB, Flarum, bbPress, Simple Machines Forum (SMF), DokuWiki, BookStack, Roundcube, phpMyAdmin, Adminer, SuiteCRM, EspoCRM, Vtiger, Dolibarr, Aureus ERP, WebERP, FrontAccounting, Kanboard, Firefly III, Invoice Ninja, X2CRM, Nextcloud, ownCloud, Pydio, Mautic, Crater, Akaunting, Monica CRM, Leantime, Cachet, PHP Server Monitor, YOURLS, LinkAce, Koel, AzuraCast, Lychee, Vanilla Forums

Supported Services

A service is one piece of software, a database, a web server, a cache, a queue, that Laradock runs for you in its own isolated container (a lightweight, self-contained box). Each one is already configured, so you just switch on the ones your project needs and leave the rest off. Because they're isolated, they never conflict with each other or with anything on your machine.

To start any service from the list below, use its name, which is the same as its folder name. For example, the "PHP FPM" service lives in the php-fpm folder, so you start it with php-fpm:

Laradock CLI
Docker Compose

./laradock start php-fpm

docker compose up -d php-fpm

Category	Services (Containers)
(Laradock Workspace)	PHP CLI, Composer, Git, Vim, xDebug, Linuxbrew, Node, V8JS, Gulp, SQLite, Laravel Envoy, Deployer, Yarn, SOAP, Drush, Wordpress CLI, dnsutils, Terraform, ImageMagick, Drupal Console, Protoc, JDK, Docker Client
Web Servers	NGINX, Apache2, Caddy, OpenResty, Tomcat, FrankenPHP
Load Balancers	HAProxy, Traefik
PHP Compilers	PHP FPM, RoadRunner
Database Management Systems	MySQL, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, pgvector, MariaDB, Percona, MSSQL, MongoDB, Neo4j, CouchDB, RethinkDB, Cassandra, ClickHouse, Tarantool
Database Management Tools	PhpMyAdmin, Adminer, PgAdmin, MongoDB Web UI, Tarantool Admin, pgbackups (PostgreSQL)
Cache Engines	Redis, Redis Web UI, Redis Cluster, Valkey, Dragonfly, Memcached, Aerospike, Varnish, SSDB
Message Brokers	RabbitMQ, RabbitMQ Admin Console, Beanstalkd, Beanstalkd Admin Console, Eclipse Mosquitto, Gearman, NATS, Apache Kafka, Kafka Manager
Log Management	GrayLog, Kibana, LogStash
Search Engines	ElasticSearch, OpenSearch, Apache Solr, Manticore Search, Typesense, Meilisearch, Dejavu
Vector Databases	pgvector, Qdrant, Weaviate, Chroma
Graph / Multi-model Databases	Neo4j, ArangoDB, SurrealDB
Time-series Databases	InfluxDB
AI / LLM	Ollama, vLLM, LocalAI, LiteLLM, Open WebUI, MCP
Agentic / Automation	n8n, Flowise, Langflow
PHP Extensions	Swoole, Blackfire, Phalcon, PHP Worker, Laravel Horizon
Mail Servers	Mailu, MailCatcher, Mailhog, MailDev, Mailpit
Real-time Communication	Laravel Echo, Laravel Reverb, Mercure, Soketi
Monitoring	Grafana, NetData, Prometheus
Coordination Services	Apache ZooKeeper
Container Management	Portainer, Docker Registry
CI/CD Tools	Jenkins, SonarQube, Gitlab, GitLab Runner, OneDev
Cloud Tools	AWS EB CLI, Amazon Simple Queue Service
Image Processing	Thumbor
Security & Identity Tools	Certbot, Keycloak
Object Storage	Minio
Testing	Selenium
IDEs	Theia
API Documentation	Swagger UI, Swagger Editor
Analytics / BI	Metabase
Collaboration	Confluence

You can choose which tools to install in your workspace container and other containers: browse the available flags in each container's defaults.env (e.g. workspace/defaults.env), then set the ones you want in your .env (your .env overrides all defaults).

If you modify a compose.yml, defaults.env, .env or any dockerfile file, you must re-build your containers, to see those effects in the running instance.

tip

If you can't find your Software in the list, build it yourself and submit it. Contributions are welcomed :)

Deploy Anywhere

Laradock follows your app to production. Build one image with ./laradock ship, then run that same image on any of these:

Where	Platforms
Managed clouds	Google Cloud Run · AWS ECS · AWS App Runner · Azure Container Apps · Fly.io · Render · Railway · DigitalOcean · Heroku
Your own infrastructure	Kubernetes · Kamal · A single server

Start here: Deploy to Production.

Your All-in-One Dev Workspace

Laradock ships a Workspace: a ready-to-use Linux command line with PHP, Composer, Node, Git, and dozens of dev tools already installed. You run every command your project needs inside it, so nothing gets installed on your own machine.

Enter it and work from there:

Laradock CLI
Docker Compose

./laradock workspace

docker compose exec workspace bash

artisan, composer, phpunit, npm, and git all just work, with nothing installed on your host: no PHP, no Composer, no Node, no version conflicts. Stop the project and zero traces are left on your device.

Why it's a big deal:

Start in seconds. Every tool is already installed and configured, so there's nothing to set up; clone a project and get to work.
Keep your machine spotless. Run everything inside the container; your host never gets PHP, Composer, Node, or any CLI, and nothing is left behind when you're done.
Isolate every project. Each one runs on its own PHP and database versions with no conflicts between them.
Revive old projects. Run legacy apps on older PHP (5.6, 7.x) without touching your system's PHP version.

The full journey, from local dev to production

Laradock doesn't stop at your laptop. When your app is ready, ./laradock ship turns this exact stack into a hardened image you can deploy anywhere, a single server, Kubernetes (EKS/GKE/AKS), or a managed cloud like AWS ECS, Cloud Run, or Fly. Read more: Deploy to Production.

How it's organized

One folder per service; each holds that service's compose.yml (container definition), defaults.env (pre-filled settings), and Dockerfile. Change any setting by adding one line to your .env, it always wins. Full map in Getting Started. Going deeper? Customizing Images covers changing what's inside a container, and Data & Volumes covers where your data lives.

The Story: Laravel + Docker = Laradock

Laradock started in 2015 as exactly what the name says: Laravel + Docker, back when Laravel had no official Docker answer of its own. Then developers wanted more: more databases, caches, queues, search engines, and projects that were never Laravel at all (Symfony, WordPress, Magento, plain PHP). So Laradock grew with them, from one Laravel stack into 100+ pre-configured services for any PHP project, and now all the way to production with ./laradock ship. Laravel later shipped its own Sail, deliberately small and Laravel-only; Laradock covers the ground it doesn't.

How Laradock Compares

Every other option either installs software on your machine (XAMPP, MAMP, Herd) or puts a tool between you and Docker (DDEV, Lando, Sail). Laradock does neither: it is raw Docker with the wiring already done. Nothing to install, no new commands to learn, nothing generated or hidden; you use docker compose directly on plain, readable files you fully own. That makes it the lightest option to adopt and the easiest one to inspect, debug, and bend to your will.

And today it goes further than any of them combine: you pick the services you want and they come wired together, no setup of your own, with a workspace shell that already has every PHP tool in it; ./laradock ship carries this exact environment to production; a local AI stack (Ollama, LiteLLM, Qdrant) is one command away; and an AI agent can set it up for you (AGENTS.md + llms.txt). Each rival wins on a single axis (Herd on native speed, DDEV on automatic HTTPS); Laradock wins on the combination.

See the full honest breakdown, including when the other tools are the better choice: Laradock vs Others (DDEV, Sail, Herd, Lando, XAMPP, and more).

Community

Gitter's done. Our community of 2,000+ active members has a new home on GitHub Discussions.

None of this happens on its own. Behind every container, every fix, and every new service added is someone who cared enough to give their time. Meet the people who make Laradock possible.

Awesome People

Laradock is an MIT-licensed open source project with its ongoing development made possible entirely by the support of you and all these awesome people. 💜

Project Maintainers

Mahmoud Zalt @mahmoudz	Yu-Lung Shao (Allen) @bestlong	Winfried van Loon @winfried-van-loon	Bo-Yi Wu @appleboy	Valentino Lauciani @vlauciani
Arian Acosta @arianacosta	Erik @erikn69	Dwi Fahni Denni @zeroc0d3	Dawid Makowski @makowskid	Luciano Jr @iamlucianojr
Pavel Savushkin @PavelSavushkinMix	Philippe Trépanier @philtrep	Ahkui @ahkui	Mike Erickson @mikeerickson	Lan Phan @lanphan
zhushaolong @zhushaolong	Frank Yuan @kideny	xiagw @xiagw	Abdelrahman Omran @Omranic	TJ Miller @sixlive
Thor Erik @thorerik	Milan Urukalo @urukalo	Vince Chu @vwchu	Huadong Zuo @zuohuadong	< Join Us > @laradock