Laravel Vapor

Overview

Laravel Vapor is a serverless deployment service for Laravel applications on AWS Lambda. It is best suited to teams already building with Laravel that want deployment, infrastructure and performance reporting in one place. Its breadth is useful, but AWS account dependence and separate cloud charges make it a poor fit for teams seeking a provider-independent or all-inclusive deployment bill.

Key features

Laravel-tuned autoscaling covers web and queue infrastructure, while zero-downtime deployments and rollbacks give teams useful controls over releases. Vapor also manages environment variables and secrets, reducing the need to handle deployment configuration separately.

The platform manages databases, Redis caches, SQS queues, networks and CloudFront CDN, and supports custom domains and DNS management with certificate issuance and renewal. That range suits Laravel applications using several of these services; it does not eliminate AWS administration entirely, since projects and resources require an active AWS account.

Application, database and cache metrics, with alerts when performance is poor, help teams track key parts of an application’s operation. Vapor documentation also describes Slack notifications and Sentry integration. Teams can invite collaborators and assign permissions, including restrictions on deleting databases or caches, which is useful when infrastructure changes should be limited to particular members.

Vapor requires applications compatible with PHP 7.3+ and Laravel 6.0+. It supports PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5, queue workers, managed databases and staging environments. Backup retention is 3 days, a short window for teams that need longer recovery history.

Pricing

The Sandbox plan has no listed price and allows 1 project and 10 deployments. Its limits suit evaluation or a small, bounded project, but the deployment cap makes it a poor long-term fit for frequent releases. Sandbox projects also cannot use API Gateway versions, load balancers, firewalls or custom domains.

Unlimited Monthly costs $39 a month, billed $39 /month, for unlimited projects and deployments. Unlimited Annual costs $399 a year, billed $399 /year, with the same project and deployment allowances. Annual billing is the lower subscription cost for a team prepared to commit for a year; monthly billing avoids that commitment. Neither plan includes AWS cloud costs, so the subscription is only part of the infrastructure expense.

Platforms

Vapor is listed for API and web use, and deployment is handled through CI/CD. Its scope is Laravel application deployment rather than a general-purpose platform for applications built with other frameworks.

Who it's for

Vapor makes most sense for Laravel teams deploying on AWS that want scaling, release controls, managed services and monitoring coordinated around their application. It is less suitable for projects that cannot link an active AWS account, depend on Sandbox-excluded infrastructure features, or need backup retention beyond 3 days.

Pros and cons

Pros: Laravel-specific autoscaling and deployment controls combine with management for databases, queues, caches, networks and CDN, reducing the number of separate infrastructure workflows a team must coordinate.

Pros: Metrics, performance alerts and configurable collaborator permissions provide operational visibility and a way to limit risky infrastructure actions.

Cons: AWS cloud costs sit outside the subscription, so the monthly or annual price does not represent the full hosting cost.

Cons: Sandbox is capped at 1 project and 10 deployments and excludes several infrastructure options; its 3-day backup retention may also be too short for recovery needs.

Alternatives

For a broader look at this category, browse Web Frameworks.

Buffalo, Express, Play Framework, Echo and Koa are free alternatives; choose among them when a free framework is a better fit than a paid Laravel deployment service. Nuxt is a free web alternative for readers looking beyond Laravel. SmartClient offers a free LGPL core edition and a commercial Pro edition with additional enterprise capabilities, so it is worth considering when those framework editions better suit the project. WebSharper has a free-forever Community plan for solo developers, making it an option for an individual seeking a free web framework.

Verdict

Choose Laravel Vapor if your team is committed to Laravel and AWS and values integrated scaling, deployment controls and managed infrastructure more than an all-in-one hosting price. Look elsewhere if AWS dependence, additional cloud charges, Sandbox restrictions or short backup retention conflict with your requirements.