DevOps & Cloud
Dockerizing a Laravel Application: Complete Guide with Copy-Paste Config
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Containerizing a Laravel application makes your setup portable and consistent — the same environment runs on your machine, your teammate's machine, and production. Here's a complete, working setup: a Dockerfile for PHP-FPM, an nginx config to serve it, and a docker-compose file tying it together with MySQL and Redis.
The Dockerfile
Create this as Dockerfile in your project root:
# Dockerfile
FROMphp:8.3-fpm
WORKDIR/var/www
# System dependencies
RUNapt-get update && apt-get install -y \
git curl libpng-dev libonig-dev libxml2-dev zip unzip libzip-dev \
&& docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql mbstring exif pcntl bcmath gd zip
# Composer
COPY--from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer
COPY. .
RUNcomposer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader \
&& chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/storage /var/www/bootstrap/cache
EXPOSE9000
CMD["php-fpm"]
FROMphp:8.3-fpm
WORKDIR/var/www
# System dependencies
RUNapt-get update && apt-get install -y \
git curl libpng-dev libonig-dev libxml2-dev zip unzip libzip-dev \
&& docker-php-ext-install pdo_mysql mbstring exif pcntl bcmath gd zip
# Composer
COPY--from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer
COPY. .
RUNcomposer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader \
&& chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/storage /var/www/bootstrap/cache
EXPOSE9000
CMD["php-fpm"]
The nginx config
Create docker/nginx/default.conf:
server{
listen80;
indexindex.php index.html;
root/var/www/public;
location/ {
try_files$uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_passapp:9000;
fastcgi_indexindex.php;
includefastcgi_params;
fastcgi_paramSCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
listen80;
indexindex.php index.html;
root/var/www/public;
location/ {
try_files$uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}
location~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_passapp:9000;
fastcgi_indexindex.php;
includefastcgi_params;
fastcgi_paramSCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
docker-compose.yml
Ties app, nginx, MySQL and Redis together:
services:
app:
build:.
volumes:
- .:/var/www
environment:
DB_HOST: mysql
REDIS_HOST: redis
nginx:
image:nginx:alpine
ports:
- "8000:80"
volumes:
- .:/var/www
- ./docker/nginx:/etc/nginx/conf.d
depends_on:
- app
mysql:
image:mysql:8.0
environment:
MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
volumes:
- mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
redis:
image:redis:alpine
volumes:
mysql_data:
app:
build:.
volumes:
- .:/var/www
environment:
DB_HOST: mysql
REDIS_HOST: redis
nginx:
image:nginx:alpine
ports:
- "8000:80"
volumes:
- .:/var/www
- ./docker/nginx:/etc/nginx/conf.d
depends_on:
- app
mysql:
image:mysql:8.0
environment:
MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
volumes:
- mysql_data:/var/lib/mysql
redis:
image:redis:alpine
volumes:
mysql_data:
.dockerignore
Keep the build context small — create .dockerignore:
.git
.env
node_modules
vendor
storage/logs/*
docker
.env
node_modules
vendor
storage/logs/*
docker
Build and run
dockercompose up -d --build
dockercompose exec app php artisan key:generate
dockercompose exec app php artisan migrate
dockercompose exec app php artisan key:generate
dockercompose exec app php artisan migrate
Your app is now live at http://localhost:8000, running across four containers that mirror a real production topology.
Need help containerizing a real production app, or setting up CI/CD around a setup like this? This is exactly the kind of work I do as part of DevOps services engagements.
Common questions
Do I need Docker for local Laravel development?
Not strictly — tools like Laravel Herd or Valet work fine for solo local development. Docker earns its place when you need your team's environments to match exactly, when you're deploying to a containerized production environment, or when your app depends on specific versions of PHP, MySQL, or Redis that you don't want installed directly on your machine.
Should I use the same Dockerfile for development and production?
Generally no. Development benefits from bind-mounted volumes for live code reloading and relaxed settings like Xdebug. Production wants an optimized, immutable image with code baked in, opcache enabled, and no dev dependencies. Multi-stage Dockerfiles or separate compose files for each environment handle this cleanly.
Why use PHP-FPM with a separate nginx container instead of Apache in one container?
Separating PHP-FPM and nginx into distinct containers follows Docker's one-process-per-container principle, making each easier to scale, monitor, and replace independently. It also matches how most production Laravel deployments are actually architected, so your local setup mirrors reality.
How do I run artisan commands inside the Docker container?
Use docker compose exec app php artisan <command>, replacing app with whatever your PHP service is named in docker-compose.yml. This runs the command inside the running container rather than on your host machine, where PHP may not even be installed.
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