Hosting options

Cashify can be deployed to various hosting platforms. This guide covers popular options, from managed Laravel hosting to traditional VPS setups.

Hosting requirements

Cashify requires:

PHP 8.2+

Modern PHP version with required extensions

MySQL/PostgreSQL

Relational database (SQLite for development only)

Composer

PHP dependency manager

Node.js

For building frontend assets

PHP extensions required

# Required PHP extensions
php-cli
php-mysql (or php-pgsql for PostgreSQL)
php-mbstring
php-xml
php-bcmath
php-curl
php-zip
php-gd
php-redis (recommended)

Recommended hosting options

Laravel Forge (easiest)

Laravel Forge is the official Laravel server management platform.

Connect your server

Connect Forge to your VPS provider (DigitalOcean, AWS, Linode, etc.)

Provision server

Forge automatically installs PHP, Nginx, MySQL, Redis, and other dependencies.

Create site

Add a new site pointing to your Cashify repository:

Repository: yyordan0v/cashify
Branch: main
Root directory: /public

Configure environment

Set environment variables in Forge’s UI or upload your .env file.

Enable quick deploy

Enable automatic deployments on git push.

Forge handles SSL certificates, scheduled tasks, queue workers, and deployments automatically.

Pricing: $12/month + server costs

Laravel Vapor (serverless)

Laravel Vapor is a serverless deployment platform for Laravel on AWS. Benefits:

Auto-scaling based on traffic
Pay only for what you use
Managed databases and caches
Global CDN included

Setup:

composer require laravel/vapor-cli --dev
php vendor/bin/vapor init

Configure vapor.yml:

vapor.yml

id: 1
name: cashify
environments:
  production:
    memory: 1024
    database: cashify-db
    cache: cashify-cache
    domain: cashify.yourdomain.com
    build:
      - 'composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader'
      - 'npm ci && npm run build'
      - 'php artisan migrate --force'

Deploy:

php vendor/bin/vapor deploy production

Pricing: $39/month + AWS usage costs

DigitalOcean App Platform

DigitalOcean App Platform offers managed application hosting.

Create app

Connect your GitHub repository and select the cashify repo.

Configure build

Build command:

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader && npm ci && npm run build

Run command:

php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=$PORT

Add database

Add a managed MySQL database component.

Set environment variables

Configure all required .env variables in the App Platform UI.

Deploy

App Platform automatically builds and deploys on git push.

App Platform requires some configuration changes. You may need to modify bootstrap/app.php to handle the PORT environment variable.

Pricing: From $5/month + database costs

Traditional VPS (most control)

Deploy to any VPS provider (DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS EC2, etc.)

Ubuntu 22.04 setup

Update system

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install PHP 8.2

sudo apt install -y software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php8.2 php8.2-cli php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql \
  php8.2-mbstring php8.2-xml php8.2-bcmath php8.2-curl \
  php8.2-zip php8.2-gd php8.2-redis

Install Composer

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Install MySQL

sudo apt install -y mysql-server
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create database:

mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE cashify_production;
CREATE USER 'cashify'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cashify_production.* TO 'cashify'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Install Nginx

sudo apt install -y nginx

Configure site:

/etc/nginx/sites-available/cashify

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name your-domain.com;
    root /var/www/cashify/public;

    add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

    index index.php;

    charset utf-8;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { access_log off; log_not_found off; }
    location = /robots.txt  { access_log off; log_not_found off; }

    error_page 404 /index.php;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

Enable site:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/cashify /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Install Node.js

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install -y nodejs

Install Redis (optional)

sudo apt install -y redis-server
sudo systemctl enable redis-server
sudo systemctl start redis-server

Deploy application

cd /var/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/yyordan0v/cashify.git
cd cashify
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/cashify
sudo -u www-data composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
sudo -u www-data cp .env.example .env
sudo -u www-data nano .env  # Configure environment
sudo -u www-data php artisan key:generate
sudo -u www-data php artisan migrate --force
sudo -u www-data npm install --production
sudo -u www-data npm run build
sudo -u www-data php artisan config:cache
sudo -u www-data php artisan route:cache
sudo -u www-data php artisan view:cache

Install SSL certificate

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d your-domain.com

Pricing: From $5-10/month for basic VPS

Shared hosting

Cashify can run on shared hosting with PHP 8.2+ support, but with limitations.

Requirements

PHP 8.2+ with required extensions
SSH access (recommended)
Database access
Composer support

Setup on shared hosting

Upload files

Upload all files except .git directory via FTP/SFTP.

Point domain to public directory

Configure your domain to point to the public directory (not the root).

Install dependencies

If SSH is available:

composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
npm run build

If no SSH, use a deployment tool or install locally and upload the vendor and public/build directories.

Configure .env

Create .env file with shared hosting database credentials.

Run migrations

php artisan migrate --force

Shared hosting may not support all features (Redis, queue workers, scheduled tasks). Performance will be limited.

Pricing: From $3-15/month

Docker deployment

Deploy using Docker and Docker Compose.

Using Laravel Sail

Cashify includes Laravel Sail for Docker-based development:

docker-compose.yml

services:
  laravel:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: ./vendor/laravel/sail/runtimes/8.3/Dockerfile
    ports:
      - '80:80'
    environment:
      APP_ENV: production
      APP_DEBUG: false
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - mysql
      - redis

  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: cashify
      MYSQL_USER: cashify
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
    volumes:
      - mysql-data:/var/lib/mysql

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine
    volumes:
      - redis-data:/data

volumes:
  mysql-data:
  redis-data:

Deploy:

docker-compose up -d
docker-compose exec laravel php artisan migrate --force

Comparison table

Hosting Option	Ease of Use	Control	Scalability	Price Range
Laravel Forge	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	$$$
Laravel Vapor	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	$$$$
DO App Platform	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	$$
VPS	⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	$
Shared Hosting	⭐⭐⭐	⭐	⭐	$
Docker	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	$

Choosing the right option

Best for beginners

Laravel Forge - Handles everything automatically while giving you control.

Best for scaling

Laravel Vapor - Serverless architecture scales automatically with traffic.

Best for budget

VPS with manual setup - Most cost-effective for small to medium traffic.

Best for control

VPS or Docker - Full control over the entire stack.

Next steps

Production deployment

Learn about production optimization and security

Environment configuration

Configure environment variables

Get Started

Core Features

Configuration

Development

Deployment

Hosting options

Hosting requirements

PHP 8.2+

MySQL/PostgreSQL

Composer

Node.js

PHP extensions required

Recommended hosting options

Laravel Forge (easiest)

Laravel Vapor (serverless)

DigitalOcean App Platform

Traditional VPS (most control)

Ubuntu 22.04 setup

Shared hosting

Requirements

Setup on shared hosting

Docker deployment

Using Laravel Sail

Comparison table

Choosing the right option

Best for beginners

Best for scaling

Best for budget

Best for control

Next steps

Production deployment

Environment configuration

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Core Features

Configuration

Development

Deployment

​Hosting requirements

PHP 8.2+

MySQL/PostgreSQL

Composer

Node.js

​PHP extensions required

​Recommended hosting options

​Laravel Forge (easiest)

​Laravel Vapor (serverless)

​DigitalOcean App Platform

​Traditional VPS (most control)

​Ubuntu 22.04 setup

​Shared hosting

​Requirements

​Setup on shared hosting

​Docker deployment

​Using Laravel Sail

​Comparison table

​Choosing the right option

Best for beginners

Best for scaling

Best for budget

Best for control

​Next steps

Production deployment

Environment configuration

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Hosting requirements

PHP extensions required

Recommended hosting options

Laravel Forge (easiest)

Laravel Vapor (serverless)

DigitalOcean App Platform

Traditional VPS (most control)

Ubuntu 22.04 setup

Shared hosting

Requirements

Setup on shared hosting

Docker deployment

Using Laravel Sail

Comparison table

Choosing the right option

Next steps