How to Deploy a Laravel Application to a VPS: Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Deploying your Laravel application to a VPS gives you full control over your environment, performance, and security. In this guide, you'll learn how to deploy Laravel from GitHub to a VPS using the LEMP stack (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP).

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Step 1: Connect to Your VPS and Update the System

Start by connecting to your VPS via SSH. Once connected, update your package list and upgrade the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

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Step 2: Install PHP and Required Extensions

Install PHP along with the extensions required by Laravel:

sudo apt install php php-cli php-common php-mbstring php-xml php-bcmath php-curl php-mysql unzip curl php-zip php-tokenizer php-fileinfo php-fpm -y

Check the installed PHP version:

php -v

Expected output: PHP 8.3 (or newer)

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Step 3: Install MySQL and Create a Database

Install MySQL Server:

sudo apt install mysql-server -y

Access the MySQL shell:

sudo mysql

Create a database and a user for your Laravel app:

CREATE DATABASE laravel_db;
CREATE USER 'laravel_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_secure_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON laravel_db.* TO 'laravel_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

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Step 4: Set Up SSH Key to Pull From GitHub

To pull your Laravel project from GitHub, add your VPS SSH key to GitHub:

1. Generate SSH key (if not yet):

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"
   

2. Copy the key:

   cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
   

3. Paste it into GitHub → Settings → SSH and GPG keys

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Step 5: Clone the Laravel Project and Configure

Clone the repository into your web directory:

git clone git@github.com:yourusername/your-laravel-project.git

Navigate to the project folder:

cd your-laravel-project

Install dependencies and configure the app:

composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

Update the .env file with your database credentials:

DB_DATABASE=laravel_db
DB_USERNAME=laravel_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_secure_password

Run Laravel migrations:

php artisan migrate

If your project uses frontend assets:

npm install && npm run build

Set permissions for the storage and bootstrap directories:

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data .
sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

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Step 6: Configure Nginx

Create a new server block for Laravel:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/your-laravel-project

Paste the following configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/your-laravel-project/public;

    index index.php index.html index.htm;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

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

Enable the site and restart Nginx:

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

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Step 7: Access Your Laravel Application

Once everything is configured, visit your server's public IP or domain to view the Laravel dashboard.

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Conclusion

Congratulations! You've successfully deployed your Laravel application to a VPS. This setup gives you complete control over the environment and scales better for production. You can now secure your server with SSL and configure auto-deployment for better CI/CD.