How does Laravel Reverb work?
Short answer
Laravel Reverb is a first-party WebSocket server for Laravel. It keeps a persistent connection with browsers, and the Laravel app broadcasts events over Redis channels that Reverb relays to subscribed clients in real time.
When a user performs an action in your app, Laravel fires an event. That event is broadcast to a channel in Redis. The Reverb WebSocket server subscribes to Redis and relays the event to every connected client subscribed to that channel — the browser receives it instantly, with no polling.
In the restaurant SaaS, for example, placing an order broadcasts an OrderCreated event to a kitchen channel. The kitchen display client, connected over WebSocket, renders the order within milliseconds.
Client libraries use Laravel Echo, which handles subscriptions, reconnections, and missed-event sync. You can also configure Reverb for horizontal scaling by scaling out the Redis layer.
Reverb replaces third-party services and lets Laravel apps ship real-time features with the native ecosystem.