---
title: "Deploy Laravel | PHP 8.4 on FrankenPHP with Postgres"
description: "Laravel 13 on FrankenPHP with Postgres and runtime config caching"
category: "Starters"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/laravel-or-php-84-on-frankenphp-with-pos
---

# Deploy Laravel | PHP 8.4 on FrankenPHP with Postgres

Laravel 13 on FrankenPHP with Postgres and runtime config caching

**[Deploy Laravel | PHP 8.4 on FrankenPHP with Postgres on Railway](https://railway.com/template/laravel-or-php-84-on-frankenphp-with-pos)**

- **Creator:** Pavel Volkov's Projects
- **Category:** Starters
- **Total deploys:** 3

## Template content

### Laravel

- **Source:** https://github.com/ak40u/laravel-railway-starter
- **Public domain:** Yes

### Postgres

- **Image:** ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:17

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Laravel on Railway

Laravel 13 on PHP 8.4, served by FrankenPHP in a single container, with Postgres.

## About Hosting Laravel

The Laravel template on Railway builds from a repository last updated in October 2024 - Laravel 11.9, when 13 is current - and about one deployment in eight does not come up.

This one is a current scaffold in a container that gets two things right. Both are easy to get wrong, and both fail in ways that are hard to read.

**Config caching happens at runtime, not during the build.** `php artisan config:cache` writes the *values* of environment variables into a PHP file. Railway injects variables at runtime, so a config cache built during the image build freezes in whatever existed then - nothing - and your database credentials are silently empty in production. The entrypoint caches after the environment is present.

**APP_KEY has no default and the container refuses to start without one.** Laravel uses it to encrypt sessions and cookies. A template that ships a fixed key hands the same one to every deployment made from it.

## Common Use Cases

- A Laravel application with a real database, migrations and queues ahead of it
- An admin or internal tool where Blade and Eloquent are most of the work
- A starting point that already handles caching, health checks and shutdown

## Dependencies for Laravel Hosting

- Postgres, included in this template, on a persistent volume
- Nothing else. Add Redis when you want queues or a cache store outside the database.

### Deployment Dependencies

- Laravel: https://laravel.com/docs
- FrankenPHP: https://frankenphp.dev/docs
- Source: https://github.com/ak40u/laravel-railway-starter

### Implementation Details

FrankenPHP replaces the nginx and php-fpm pair with one process - fewer moving parts, and no two config files to keep in sync.

| Variable | Why |
|---|---|
| APP_KEY | Generated per deployment; encrypts sessions and cookies |
| DB_* | Wired to the bundled Postgres over the private network |
| APP_URL | The public domain, used for generated links |
| SESSION_DRIVER, CACHE_STORE | database, so both survive a container being replaced |
| LOG_CHANNEL | stderr, so logs reach the platform rather than a file nobody reads |

Migrations run in the pre-deploy step - after the build, before the new version takes traffic. The build has no database to connect to.

The health check is /up, which is Laravel own health endpoint: it boots the framework, so a failing check means the application genuinely cannot start.

One build detail worth keeping if you fork this: bootstrap/cache/*.php is removed during the build. A scaffold created locally with dev dependencies leaves a package manifest listing providers a --no-dev install does not have, and every artisan command then dies on a missing class.

## Why Deploy Laravel on Railway?

A database, a domain and TLS from one deploy, migrations applied before each release takes traffic, and a container that starts warm rather than compiling config on the first request.

## Similar templates

- [open-excalidraw](https://railway.com/deploy/open-excalidraw) — Self-hostable collaborative drawing built on Excalidraw
- [caring-vibrancy](https://railway.com/deploy/caring-vibrancy) — Deploy and Host caring-vibrancy with Railway
- [Appsmith](https://railway.com/deploy/appsmith-1) — Low-code platform for internal tools, dashboards, and admin panels.

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