Laravel Hosting: What You Need to Know
To ensure your Laravel or Statamic project runs securely and can be easily extended, the right web hosting must be chosen. Only then can all features and capabilities of modern web projects be fully utilized. In this article, we cover what to look out for.
Be cautious with shared hosting. Limitations such as missing SSH access, no control over PHP modules, and restricted configuration options can severely impair the development and performance capabilities of Laravel applications.
The drawbacks of shared hosting typically cannot be justified by the cost advantage. Providers like Hetzner or DigitalOcean offer small servers for under 10 euros per month.
Requirements for Good Laravel Hosting
To ensure your Laravel or Statamic application runs securely and can be easily extended, these three fundamentals should be in place:
Console access allows your application to be updated and maintained. SSH is often used to set up efficient and automated deployments. For Laravel developers, this is indispensable.
Websites without SSL are flagged as insecure by browsers. Secure certificates are available for free through Let's Encrypt — an absolute must-have.
When things go wrong, easily reachable customer service is worth its weight in gold. We have had excellent experiences with Hetzner's hosting and customer support.
Application and Database Backups
It's not just business-critical applications that should be backed up regularly. While the source code exists in the repository alongside the server installation, other parts of the application need to be secured separately through backups.
Store regular, automated database backups on separate storage. All major hosting providers offer affordable storage plans. Additionally, backups can be synchronized across multiple servers.
The storage directory contains uploads and processed files. It is typically not checked into the repository and therefore must be backed up separately.
When Statamic is used as a flat-file CMS without a database, the content directories should also be backed up — by default, this is the content/ directory.
Hosting as Reselling?
In the agency world, hosting reselling is a widespread approach that promises healthy margins with minimal effort. For clients, however, this model carries some risks: when the agency handles both development and hosting, the client enters a dependency relationship. In the event of disputes, the agency could deny access to the server.
We believe that a strong business relationship works without artificial dependencies. Our clients book their own hosting and engage us for administration — full control paired with external expertise.