Deploying Laravel to Shared Hosting: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

Laravel is a powerful and popular PHP framework known for its elegant syntax and robust features. While it’s commonly used in conjunction with cloud-based or dedicated servers, many developers still rely on shared hosting for their projects. Deploying Laravel to shared hosting might seem challenging, but with the right approach and guidance, it’s entirely achievable. In this article, we’ll explore the step-by-step process of deploying a Laravel application to a shared hosting environment.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting is a web hosting service where multiple websites share the resources of a single server. It’s an affordable and user-friendly hosting solution, making it an attractive choice for individuals and small businesses. However, shared hosting environments typically come with certain limitations and security configurations, which can pose challenges when deploying more complex applications like Laravel.

Prerequisites

Before you start the deployment process, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

1. A Laravel Application: You should have a functional Laravel application ready for deployment.
2. Shared Hosting Account: You’ll need access to a shared hosting account with SSH (Secure Shell) access and the ability to configure your server settings.
3. SSH Client: Install an SSH client like PuTTY (Windows) or use the terminal on macOS or Linux.

Deployment Steps

1. SSH into Your Shared Hosting Account:
   Use your SSH client to connect to your shared hosting account. You’ll need to enter your credentials to access the server.
2. Prepare Your Hosting Environment:
   Laravel has specific requirements, including PHP and database configurations. You might need to modify the PHP version and enable extensions like OpenSSL, Mbstring, and PDO.
3. Create a Database:
   Set up a MySQL or PostgreSQL database for your Laravel application. You’ll need the database name, username, and password for your application’s .env file.
4. Upload Your Laravel Application:
   You can use FTP or SCP to upload your Laravel application to the server. Make sure to upload the entire project folder.
5. Configure .env File:
   Update your .env file with the database connection details, set the APP_KEY, and configure other settings as needed.
6. Install Composer Dependencies:
   Use SSH to navigate to your project directory and run composer install to install the required PHP packages.
7. Generate Application Key:
   Run php artisan key:generate to generate a new application key for your Laravel application.
8. Run Database Migrations:
   Use php artisan migrate to create the necessary database tables for your application.
9. Set Permissions:
   Adjust file and folder permissions to ensure Laravel can read and write where necessary. Typically, you’ll use chmod to modify permissions.
10. Configure Web Server:
    Update the server’s virtual host configuration to point to your Laravel application’s public folder. Make sure to specify the correct document root and other settings.
11. Test Your Application:
    Visit your website to check if your Laravel application is accessible. You should see your application’s homepage if everything is set up correctly.
12. Update .htaccess File:
    In case you’re using Apache, make sure your .htaccess file is correctly configured for URL rewriting.
13. Optimize for Production:
    Run php artisan config:cache and php artisan route:cache to optimize your application for production.

Conclusion

Deploying a Laravel application to shared hosting may require a few extra steps compared to more robust hosting options, but it’s certainly doable. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can successfully host your Laravel project on a shared hosting environment. Keep in mind that shared hosting has limitations, so it might not be the ideal choice for high-traffic or mission-critical applications, but it can be a cost-effective solution for smaller projects and testing environments.