Deploying Laravel E-commerce: Lessons from the Field

Real-world lessons from deploying a Laravel e-commerce app to VPS—covering pitfalls, trade-offs, and practical decisions beyond local development.

This document outlines the development process for a single-vendor e-commerce website using a Laravel backend, MySQL database, and Vue.js for the frontend. Initially, three potential tech stacks were considered: Medusa.js, Saleor, and Laravel + Vue.js 3.

The initial local development phase involved:

• Installing Laragon and setting up the project in C:\laragon\www\sonusweb.

• Creating a MySQL database named sonusweb.

The .env configuration during local setup:

APP_NAME="sonusweb"
APP_URL="http://localhost"
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_TIMEZONE="Asia/Jakarta"

ASSET_URL="http://localhost"

DEMO_MODE="Off"

LOG_CHANNEL=stack

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=sonusweb
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

Challenges encountered during local setup included:

• Issues with the PHP zip extension not being enabled.

• Deciding not to enable Redis locally, leading to .env modifications: CACHE_DRIVER=file SESSION_DRIVER=file QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync

• An error related to a missing 'settings' table, which required adjusting helper configurations to conditionally access the database only if the table exists.

  

  

• Further errors prompted disabling Redis service providers in app.php (Illuminate\Redis\RedisServiceProvider::class) and commenting out Redis cache configurations in cache.php.

Due to persistent local development issues, the strategy shifted to duplicating an existing Laravel source code from a VPS:

• Duplicating the MySQL database to a new one using an Aapanel VPS.

• Configuring a new DNS for the new domain with PHP version 8.3.

• Copying project files to a new directory.

• Updating the .env file with production settings for the new deployment:

APP_NAME="NEW_APP"
APP_URL="NEW_URL"
APP_ENV=production
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_TIMEZONE="Asia/Jakarta"

ASSET_URL="NEW_URL"

DEMO_MODE="Off"

LOG_CHANNEL=stack

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST="localhost"
DB_PORT="3306"
DB_DATABASE="NEW_DB_NAME"
DB_USERNAME="NEW_DB_USER"
DB_PASSWORD=

• Finally, running php artisan config:clear and php artisan cache:clear successfully launched the website.

What I’d Do Differently Next Time

Looking back, I wouldn’t spend too much time fixing local environment issues.

For Laravel projects with real deployment targets, it’s often faster to:

• validate directly on a clean VPS,

• align PHP extensions with production from day one,

• and avoid local-only optimizations that won’t ship.

Local dev is still important, but only when it mirrors production closely.

Why I Finally Chose Laravel Over Medusa & Saleor

• Medusa: great architecture, but ecosystem still evolving

• Saleor: solid GraphQL core, heavier infra footprint

• Laravel: fastest path to production with full control

For this project, speed-to-production mattered more than architectural purity.

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Need help with Laravel e-commerce or VPS deployment?

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