How to Set Up a Laravel Project with Docker in 2025?

Setting up a Laravel project using Docker has become an increasingly popular approach to streamline development processes and ensure consistent environment setups. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to set up a Laravel project with Docker in 2025, ensuring an efficient and smooth development experience.

Why Use Docker for Laravel?

Docker provides a standardized environment for your Laravel applications, eliminating the "it works on my machine" problem. By using Docker, you can define your development and production environments with consistent configurations, making deployments more reliable and repeatable. Let's dive into the setup process!

Step 1: Prerequisites

Before creating a Dockerized Laravel environment, ensure you have the following installed on your development machine:

• Docker: Download and install Docker Desktop
• Docker Compose: Included with Docker Desktop
• Laravel Installer or Composer: To create a new Laravel project

Step 2: Create a Laravel Project

If you haven't created a Laravel project yet, create one using Composer:

composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel my-laravel-app

Navigate into your project directory:

cd my-laravel-app

Step 3: Create a Dockerfile

In your project root, create a file named Dockerfile and add the following content:

FROM php:8.1-fpm


WORKDIR /var/www


RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    git \
    curl \
    libpng-dev \
    libjpeg-dev \
    libfreetype6-dev \
    zip \
    unzip


RUN docker-php-ext-configure gd --with-freetype --with-jpeg \
    && docker-php-ext-install gd \
    && docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql


COPY --from=composer:latest /usr/bin/composer /usr/bin/composer


COPY . /var/www


RUN composer install


RUN chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www \
    && chmod -R 755 /var/www


EXPOSE 9000


CMD ["php-fpm"]

Step 4: Configure Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml file in the root of your project:

version: '3.8'
services:
  app:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: laravel_app
    ports:
      - "9000:9000"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www
    environment:
      SERVICE_NAME: app
      SERVICE_TAGS: dev
  mysql:
    image: mysql:8.0
    container_name: laravel_mysql
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3306:3306"
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret
      MYSQL_DATABASE: laravel
      MYSQL_USER: homestead
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: secret

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    container_name: laravel_nginx
    ports:
      - "80:80"
    volumes:
      - .:/var/www
      - ./docker/nginx/conf.d:/etc/nginx/conf.d
    depends_on:
      - app

Step 5: Configure Nginx

Create a directory named docker/nginx/conf.d and within it, create a file named default.conf:

server {
    listen 80;
    index index.php index.html;
    server_name localhost;
    root /var/www/public;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_pass app:9000;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}

Step 6: Spin Up Your Docker Containers

With everything configured, it's time to build and run your Docker containers:

docker-compose up -d

Your Laravel application should now be running in a Dockerized environment, accessible at http://localhost.

Additional Resources

• Learn more about Laravel's powerful features from this Laravel tutorial.
• Want to explore database interactions? Check out this guide on Laravel database fields.
• If you're dealing with Excel files, here's how to validate multiple sheets in Laravel Excel.
• If you are still learning PHP & Laravel: 8 Best Laravel Books.

Setting up a Laravel project with Docker can significantly optimize your development workflow. With this setup, you can focus more on development rather than environment configuration, paving the way for efficient, productive Laravel application development.