Deployment Platforms

NutriFit can be deployed on various platforms, from managed Laravel hosting to traditional VPS servers. This guide covers recommended platforms and detailed deployment instructions for each.

Platform Overview

Laravel Forge

Best for: Most usersAutomated server management and deployment with one-click setup for Laravel applications.

Zero-downtime deployments
Automatic SSL certificates
Queue worker management
Scheduler configuration

Price: From $12/month + server costs

Laravel Vapor

Best for: Serverless & scalabilityServerless deployment platform on AWS Lambda with auto-scaling.

Auto-scaling
Pay-per-use pricing
Global CDN
Managed databases

Price: From $39/month + AWS costs

DigitalOcean

Best for: Balance of ease and controlCloud hosting with App Platform for easy deployment or Droplets for full control.

Simple setup
Predictable pricing
Managed databases
1-click apps

Price: From $6/month

Traditional VPS

Best for: Full control & customizationSelf-managed server on providers like Linode, Vultr, or Hetzner.

Complete control
Lower costs
Custom configurations
Learning experience

Price: From $5/month

Laravel Forge (Recommended)

Laravel Forge is the easiest way to deploy NutriFit. It handles server provisioning, deployment, SSL, queue workers, and more.

Prerequisites

Laravel Forge account (forge.laravel.com)
Cloud server provider account (DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr, AWS, etc.)
Domain name with DNS management access
Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket)

Deployment Steps

Create Server in Forge

Log into Laravel Forge
Click Create Server
Select your cloud provider
Choose server configuration:
- Server Type: App Server
- Size: At least 1GB RAM (2GB recommended)
- PHP Version: 8.2
- Database: MySQL 8.0
Name your server and click Create Server

Server provisioning takes 5-10 minutes.

Configure Domain

In Forge, go to your server
Click Sites → New Site
Enter your domain: yourdomain.com
Project Type: Laravel
Web Directory: /public

Update your domain’s DNS:

A Record: @ → [Your Server IP]
A Record: www → [Your Server IP]

Connect Git Repository

Go to your site in Forge
Click Apps → Git Repository
Select provider (GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket)
Enter repository: username/nutrifit
Branch: main or production
Click Install Repository

Configure Environment

Go to Environment

Update .env variables:

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_DATABASE=forge
DB_USERNAME=forge
DB_PASSWORD=[auto-generated]

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.postmarkapp.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=your_token
MAIL_PASSWORD=your_token

Click Save

Setup SSL Certificate

Go to SSL
Click LetsEncrypt
Enter domains: yourdomain.com,www.yourdomain.com
Click Obtain Certificate

SSL certificate is automatically renewed by Forge.

Configure Queue Worker

Go to Queue → Add Worker
Connection: database (or redis)
Queue: default
Max Tries: 3
Click Add Worker

Forge automatically manages the queue worker process.

Enable Scheduler

Go to Scheduler
Verify it’s enabled (should be by default)
This runs Laravel’s scheduler every minute

NutriFit uses this for appointment reminders.

Deploy Application

Go to Apps → Git Repository
Click Deploy Now

Or enable Quick Deploy for automatic deployments on git push.

Run Initial Setup

Go to Site → Terminal

Run migrations and seeder:

php artisan migrate --force
php artisan db:seed

Deploy Script

Customize Forge’s deploy script (optional):

cd /home/forge/yourdomain.com
git pull origin $FORGE_SITE_BRANCH

$FORGE_COMPOSER install --no-dev --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader

( flock -w 10 9 || exit 1
    echo 'Restarting FPM...'; sudo -S service $FORGE_PHP_FPM reload ) 9>/tmp/fpmlock

if [ -f artisan ]; then
    $FORGE_PHP artisan migrate --force
    $FORGE_PHP artisan config:cache
    $FORGE_PHP artisan route:cache
    $FORGE_PHP artisan view:cache
    $FORGE_PHP artisan queue:restart
fi

npm ci
npm run build

Enable Quick Deploy to automatically deploy when you push to your repository.

Laravel Vapor

Serverless deployment on AWS Lambda.

Prerequisites

Laravel Vapor account (vapor.laravel.com)
AWS account
Vapor CLI installed

Setup

Install Vapor CLI

composer require laravel/vapor-cli
php vendor/bin/vapor login

Initialize Vapor

php vendor/bin/vapor init

This creates vapor.yml configuration file.

Configure vapor.yml

id: 1
name: nutrifit
environments:
  production:
    memory: 1024
    timeout: 30
    build:
      - 'composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader'
      - 'npm ci && npm run build'
      - 'php artisan config:cache'
    deploy:
      - 'php artisan migrate --force'
    database: nutrifit-db
    cache: nutrifit-cache
    queue: redis

Deploy to Vapor

php vendor/bin/vapor deploy production

Vapor Considerations

Vapor has some limitations:

Read-only filesystem (except /tmp)
6MB request/response limit
Cold start latency
Higher complexity

Vapor is best for high-traffic applications needing auto-scaling. For most use cases, Forge is simpler.

DigitalOcean

Option 1: App Platform (Easiest)

Create App

Log into DigitalOcean
Go to Apps → Create App
Connect your Git repository
Select branch: main

Configure Build

Build Command:

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
npm ci && npm run build
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

Run Command:

php artisan migrate --force && php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080

Add Database

Click Add Resource → Database
Choose MySQL
Select plan (Basic recommended)
Database is automatically connected

Configure Environment Variables

Add in App Platform settings:

APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_KEY=${APP_KEY}
QUEUE_CONNECTION=database
# Database variables auto-populated

Add Worker Component

For queue processing:

Add Worker component
Run Command:
```
php artisan queue:work --tries=3
```

Option 2: Droplet (More Control)

Create Droplet

Create Droplet with Ubuntu 22.04
Size: At least 1GB RAM ($6/month)
Enable monitoring

Initial Server Setup

# Update system
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

# Install required packages
sudo apt install -y nginx mysql-server php8.2 php8.2-fpm \
  php8.2-mysql php8.2-mbstring php8.2-xml php8.2-bcmath \
  php8.2-curl php8.2-zip unzip git

Install Composer

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

Setup Database

sudo mysql

CREATE DATABASE nutrifit;
CREATE USER 'nutrifit'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secure_password';
GRANT ALL ON nutrifit.* TO 'nutrifit'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Clone and Setup Application

cd /var/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/Rubenpro19/NutriFit.git nutrifit
cd nutrifit

# Install dependencies
composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev
npm install && npm run build

# Setup environment
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# Configure .env with database credentials
nano .env

# Run migrations
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan db:seed

# Set permissions
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/nutrifit
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/nutrifit/storage

Configure Nginx

Create site configuration:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/nutrifit

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/nutrifit/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/nutrifit /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Setup SSL with Certbot

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Setup Queue Worker & Scheduler

See Queue Workers guide for detailed instructions.

Traditional VPS

Similar to DigitalOcean Droplet setup, but with different providers:

Linode
Vultr
Hetzner

Create Linode (Nanode 1GB: $5/month)
Follow Ubuntu server setup steps above
Configure Linode firewall

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is NOT recommended for NutriFit due to queue worker and scheduler requirements.

If shared hosting is your only option:

Ensure PHP 8.2+ is available
Database access (MySQL)
Composer available
SSH access (required)
Ability to run cron jobs

Limitations:

Queue workers may not work properly
Performance will be limited
Limited control over PHP configuration

Comparison Table

Feature	Forge	Vapor	DigitalOcean	VPS
Ease of Setup	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐
Cost	$12 + server	$39 + AWS	$6-12	$5-10
Auto-Scaling	❌	✅	Limited	❌
Queue Workers	✅ Auto	✅ Auto	Manual	Manual
SSL Management	✅ Auto	✅ Auto	✅ Auto	Manual
Zero-Downtime	✅	✅	✅	Manual
Learning Curve	Low	Medium	Medium	High
Control Level	Medium	Low	High	Full

Post-Deployment Verification

After deploying to any platform:

Test Application

Check Queue Worker

# SSH into server
ps aux | grep queue:work

# Check queue table
php artisan queue:monitor

Verify Scheduler

php artisan schedule:list
php artisan schedule:test

Test Performance

Check page load times
Verify assets load correctly
Test under expected load
Monitor error logs

Next Steps

Queue Workers

Configure background job processing

Monitoring

Set up application monitoring

Backup Strategy

Configure automated backups

Performance

Optimize application performance

Production

Maintenance

Deployment Platforms

Platform Overview

Laravel Forge

Laravel Vapor

DigitalOcean

Traditional VPS

Laravel Forge (Recommended)

Prerequisites

Deployment Steps

Deploy Script

Laravel Vapor

Prerequisites

Setup

Vapor Considerations

DigitalOcean

Option 1: App Platform (Easiest)

Option 2: Droplet (More Control)

Traditional VPS

Shared Hosting

Comparison Table

Post-Deployment Verification

Next Steps

Queue Workers

Monitoring

Backup Strategy

Performance

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Production

Maintenance

​Platform Overview

Laravel Forge

Laravel Vapor

DigitalOcean

Traditional VPS

​Laravel Forge (Recommended)

​Prerequisites

​Deployment Steps

​Deploy Script

​Laravel Vapor

​Prerequisites

​Setup

​Vapor Considerations

​DigitalOcean

​Option 1: App Platform (Easiest)

​Option 2: Droplet (More Control)

​Traditional VPS

​Shared Hosting

​Comparison Table

​Post-Deployment Verification

​Next Steps

Queue Workers

Monitoring

Backup Strategy

Performance

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Platform Overview

Laravel Forge (Recommended)

Prerequisites

Deployment Steps

Deploy Script

Laravel Vapor

Prerequisites

Setup

Vapor Considerations

DigitalOcean

Option 1: App Platform (Easiest)

Option 2: Droplet (More Control)

Traditional VPS

Shared Hosting

Comparison Table

Post-Deployment Verification

Next Steps