Laravel best practices

Tune Laravel for performance and stability on TurboStack - OPcache, Redis cache and queues, config/route caching, supervisor workers and the scheduler.

This page collects practical advice for running a fast, stable Laravel application on TurboStack. Laravel is a configuration-only application: the platform provisions PHP, the web server, MySQL and (optionally) Redis, while you bring and deploy your own code through Git deployment. Most performance work therefore happens in your repository, while the platform provides the runtime and services to support it.

What TurboStack configures for you

When you set an app's type to laravel, the platform applies an opinionated runtime so the framework works without manual web-server editing:

  • Nginx vhost with the document root pointing at the application's public directory (public_html) and the standard front-controller rewrite (try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string). This ensures clean URLs and route handling work without additional configuration.
  • PHP-FPM backend per application, with a generous FastCGI timeout for longer requests and dotfile protection (everything under /. except /.well-known is denied).
  • OPcache available in the PHP runtime to cache compiled bytecode.
  • MySQL as the relational database, and Redis when you enable it as a service for cache, sessions and queues.
  • Supervisor, available per system user, for keeping long-running processes such as queue workers alive.

Manage these building blocks from the host's Services and Applications tabs.

Combine Laravel's own production guidance with the platform features above.

  • Cache configuration and routes - run php artisan config:cache and php artisan route:cache in your deploy so framework bootstrapping is fast.
  • Cache views and events - add php artisan view:cache (and event:cache if used) to precompile Blade templates and listeners.
  • Use the optimize shortcut - php artisan optimize bundles the common production caches in one command.
  • Enable OPcache - keep OPcache on in your PHP runtime; tune it under Services > PHP advanced options.
  • Move cache and sessions to Redis - set CACHE_STORE=redis and SESSION_DRIVER=redis once Redis is enabled, to offload the database and the local filesystem.
  • Run queues on Redis - use QUEUE_CONNECTION=redis and process jobs with a worker rather than the sync driver for slow tasks (mail, exports, webhooks).
  • Keep workers alive - run php artisan queue:work under a supervisor so jobs process continuously and restart on failure. Use the per-user Supervisor, or run the worker as a user system service. To clear a backlog faster, run several workers in parallel - but keep the total within the host's processor budget (see Scale throughput with more instances).
  • Schedule with the scheduler - point a single cron entry at php artisan schedule:run every minute and define tasks in Laravel rather than many crontab lines.
  • Optimize the autoloader - deploy with composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader to drop dev dependencies and speed up class loading.
  • Optimize assets - build front-end assets ahead of deploy (e.g. npm run build with Vite) and serve them as static files; add a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for heavy media.

Sizing and scaling

TurboStack auto-tunes service memory from the host's resources, so the defaults suit most Laravel sites. Override the tuning variables only when you have measured evidence (slow queries, Redis evictions, OPcache restarts):

Variable Tune when
mysql_innodb_size The InnoDB buffer pool is too small for your working set.
redis_memory Redis is evicting keys you expect to persist (cache/queue churn).

Make one change at a time and re-measure. See Performance tuning for the full method, and scale PHP-FPM workers there too.

Stability

  • Back up before changes - confirm Backups cover the database and any user-uploaded files in storage/.
  • Watch Health - monitor CPU, memory and service status, especially after a deploy.
  • Keep versions current - track Laravel long-term support (LTS) and PHP releases, and bump the PHP runtime under Services on a supported version.
  • Test on a staging clone - validate upgrades, migrations and cache changes on a copy before publishing to production.
  • Run migrations deliberately - include php artisan migrate --force in your deploy step and review it for destructive changes first.

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