Laravel Hosting: Deploy a Laravel App

Introduction

To develop and host a Laravel application on Square Cloud, it’s essential to follow a structured sequence of configurations and prerequisites. This technical guide will cover the entire process, from initial setup to production deployment.

Prerequisites

Square Cloud Account: Register through the signup page using your email.
Active plan: Ensures dedicated resources and optimized performance for your application. Check our available plans and choose the most suitable for your needs.

This guide runs on the PHP runtime.

Create the project

You need PHP and Composer on your machine. Install the Laravel installer with Composer:

composer global require laravel/installer

Then create a project and start the development server:

laravel new myapp
cd myapp
php artisan serve

The development server usually listens on http://localhost:8000. Here is a basic route in routes/web.php:

routes/web.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::get('/', function () {
    return 'Hello World from Laravel!';
});

Build for production

Square Cloud installs your PHP dependencies with composer install before every start, from composer.json and composer.lock. If your application uses Vite for its frontend assets (the default), run npm run build before creating your ZIP so the public/build folder is included.

Choose a production server

Without a START command, Square Cloud runs the PHP built-in server (php -S 0.0.0.0:80) with the project root as the document root. Laravel’s document root is the public/ folder, so your routes would return 404 errors and files such as .env could be exposed. Always set a START command that runs Laravel’s own server.

Port and host

php artisan serve needs both values on the command line: --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80. Without --host=0.0.0.0, it only listens on 127.0.0.1 and your site times out.

Configure Square Cloud

Create a squarecloud.app file at the root of your project:

squarecloud.app

MAIN=public/index.php
MEMORY=512
VERSION=recommended
DISPLAY_NAME=My Laravel app
SUBDOMAIN=mylaravelapp
START=php artisan migrate --force && php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80

On every start, after Square Cloud installs your dependencies in vendor/, this command:

php artisan migrate --force applies pending database migrations. --force is required to run migrations in production.
php artisan serve --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80 serves your application from the public/ folder through Laravel’s router, on port 80 and all network interfaces.

MAIN=public/index.php selects the PHP runtime. In the dashboard upload, set the same main file and start command.

Environment variables

Set these environment variables in your application, from the dashboard or with squarecloud app env set, instead of uploading your local .env file:

Variable	Value
`APP_KEY`	The output of `php artisan key:generate --show`
`APP_ENV`	`production`
`APP_DEBUG`	`false` (never `true` in production)
`APP_URL`	Your site’s address, for example `https://mylaravelapp.squareweb.app`
`DB_CONNECTION`, `DB_HOST`, `DB_PORT`, `DB_DATABASE`, `DB_USERNAME`, `DB_PASSWORD`	Your database connection. New Laravel projects use SQLite by default

Trusting the Square Cloud proxy

Square Cloud serves your site over HTTPS through a proxy. To make Laravel generate https:// links and asset URLs, trust the proxy in bootstrap/app.php:

bootstrap/app.php

->withMiddleware(function (Middleware $middleware): void {
    $middleware->trustProxies(at: '*');
})

Better performance with Swoole

php artisan serve handles one request at a time. For higher traffic, the PHP runtime already includes Swoole: run your application on it with Laravel Octane (composer require laravel/octane).

Swoole

Run PHP applications on Swoole on Square Cloud.

What goes in the ZIP

Your whole project: app/, bootstrap/, config/, database/, public/ (with public/build if you use Vite), resources/, routes/, storage/, artisan, composer.json and composer.lock.
squarecloud.app.

Leave out vendor/ and node_modules/ (Square Cloud installs vendor/ on the server) and your local .env file.

Deploy and verify

Via dashboard

Access the Upload Page

Access the upload page and upload your project zip file.

Configure Your Environment

After uploading your zip, you will need to configure the name, main file or runtime environment and other settings for your project.
If you are uploading a web project, make sure to select “Web Publication” and set a subdomain to your project.

Deploy Your Project

Finally, click on the “Deploy” button to host your project on Square Cloud.
After deployment, you can monitor your project’s status and logs from the dashboard.

Confirm Your App Is Live

Your first deploy usually takes less than a minute. In the dashboard, wait for your application status to show as running and check the logs for any startup errors.
If you deployed a website or API, open https://<your-subdomain>.squareweb.app in your browser: you should see your application responding. If you deployed a bot, send it a command to confirm it is online.

App not starting? See the Troubleshooting guide for the most common causes and fixes.

Via CLI

To use this method, your project needs a configuration file named squarecloud.app at its root. It tells Square Cloud how to run your application.

Configuration file guide

Learn how to create the squarecloud.app configuration file that defines your application’s environment.

Install the CLI

Install the Square Cloud CLI. If you already have it, run the same command to update it:

curl -fsSL https://cli.squarecloud.app/install | bash

npm install -g @squarecloud/cli@latest

Run the command below. It opens your browser: approve the login there and the CLI is ready. There is no API key to copy. For scripts and CI, see CLI authentication.

squarecloud auth login

Upload Your Project

From your project folder, run the command below. The CLI zips the current folder, leaving out what squarecloud.ignore lists, and uploads it:

squarecloud upload

To upload a zip you created yourself, pass it with --file:

squarecloud upload --file <path/to/zip>

Confirm Your App Is Live

Your first deploy usually takes less than a minute. Check your application status and logs directly from the terminal:

squarecloud app status
squarecloud app logs

If you deployed a website or API, open https://<your-subdomain>.squareweb.app in your browser: you should see your application responding. If you deployed a bot, send it a command to confirm it is online.

App not starting? See the Troubleshooting guide for the most common causes and fixes.

Common errors

Custom Domain

To use a custom domain (e.g., mysite.com) instead of the default URL mysite.squareweb.app, you need the Standard plan or higher. The default URL comes from the SUBDOMAIN field in the configuration file. To connect your domain, follow how to set up your own domain.

Minimum RAM Requirements

Minimum: 512MB RAM for websites and APIs, enough for a static build on the static runtime. For apps that render pages on a server (Next.js, Nuxt, Angular SSR and similar), we recommend at least 1GB RAM. For larger applications, allocate more RAM to prevent the application from running out of memory and crashing.

Could not find this site.

Check if the subdomain/domain matches what’s configured in the SUBDOMAIN field or in the custom domain settings. If you just uploaded the site, wait up to 60 seconds for Square to enable first access.

Site took too long to respond…

Your server must listen on port 80 and host 0.0.0.0. Square Cloud sets the PORT (80) and HOST (0.0.0.0) environment variables in your application: read them in your code instead of hardcoding other values. A server that listens only on localhost or 127.0.0.1 never receives requests.

No application encryption key has been specified

APP_KEY is missing. Generate one with php artisan key:generate --show, set it as an environment variable, then restart the application.

Next steps

Environment variables

Keep secrets and settings out of your code and read them at runtime.

Custom domain

Serve your app on your own domain, on the Standard plan and above.

Troubleshooting

Fix an app that does not start or a site that does not respond.

For more about Laravel, see the official Laravel documentation.

Contact us

If you continue facing technical difficulties, our specialized support team is available to assist you. Contact us and we’ll be happy to help you resolve any issue: support quality is a big part of why developers rate Square Cloud 4.9/5 across 402 reviews on Google and Trustpilot.

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Laravel Hosting: Deploy a Laravel App

Introduction

Prerequisites

Create the project

Build for production

Choose a production server

Port and host

Configure Square Cloud

Environment variables

Trusting the Square Cloud proxy

Better performance with Swoole

Swoole

What goes in the ZIP

Deploy and verify

Via dashboard

Via CLI

Configuration file guide

Common errors

Custom Domain

Minimum RAM Requirements

Could not find this site.

Site took too long to respond…

No application encryption key has been specified

Next steps

Environment variables

Custom domain

Troubleshooting

Contact us

​Introduction

​Prerequisites

​Create the project

​Build for production

​Choose a production server

​Port and host

​Configure Square Cloud

​Environment variables

​Trusting the Square Cloud proxy

​Better performance with Swoole

Swoole

​What goes in the ZIP

​Deploy and verify

​Via dashboard

​Via CLI

Configuration file guide

​Common errors

​Custom Domain

​Minimum RAM Requirements

​Could not find this site.

​Site took too long to respond…

​No application encryption key has been specified

​Next steps

Environment variables

Custom domain

Troubleshooting

​Contact us

Introduction

Prerequisites

Create the project

Build for production

Choose a production server

Port and host

Configure Square Cloud

Environment variables

Trusting the Square Cloud proxy

Better performance with Swoole

What goes in the ZIP

Deploy and verify

Via dashboard

Via CLI

Common errors

Custom Domain

Minimum RAM Requirements

Could not find this site.

Site took too long to respond…

No application encryption key has been specified

Next steps

Contact us