How do you deploy Laravel with Docker?
Short answer
Run Laravel behind Nginx in a Docker Compose stack with separate services for Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL/PostgreSQL, Redis, and queue workers, with health checks and multi-stage builds.
A typical Laravel production deployment separates each concern into its own container: Nginx terminates SSL and proxies to PHP-FPM; PHP-FPM serves the Laravel app with OPcache enabled; MySQL or PostgreSQL holds data; Redis handles cache and the queue broker; and a Supervisor or Horizon worker processes queues.
Use Docker Compose so the whole stack starts with a single command. Add health checks so services start in the right order — the app waits for the database before accepting requests.
Environment variables keep configuration out of the image. Use multi-stage builds to keep images small, and volume mounts for persistent data so container restarts do not lose state.
The exact pattern I use in production is described in the restaurant SaaS case study, which runs Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL, Redis, and the Reverb WebSocket server as separate services.