Migrating from Laravel Forge / Vapor

You’re using Forge to manage your servers — it provisions VPS instances, installs Nginx + PHP-FPM + MySQL, handles deployments, and manages SSL certificates. You pay $12/mo for Forge plus the cost of your VPS. Or you’re on Vapor ($399/mo+) for serverless Laravel on AWS Lambda.

ePHPm gives you the same deployment experience for free. One binary replaces everything Forge installs on your server.

What Forge Does vs. What ePHPm Does

What It Costs

Vapor is even more expensive — $399/mo base + per-request AWS Lambda costs. ePHPm gives you a persistent server with sub-millisecond response times instead of Lambda cold starts.

Step-by-Step Migration

1. Your Laravel Project Doesn’t Change

Your PHP code, routes, controllers, views, migrations — none of it changes. ePHPm runs the same Laravel application. The difference is what’s underneath.

2. Create ephpm.toml

Forge generates an Nginx config like this:

server {
    listen 80;
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name example.com;
    root /home/forge/example.com/current/public;

    ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com/...;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/ssl/example.com/...;

    index index.html index.php;

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

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock;
        ...
    }
}

ePHPm equivalent:

# /etc/ephpm/ephpm.toml

[server]
listen = "0.0.0.0:8080"
document_root = "/home/forge/example.com/current/public"
fallback = ["$uri", "$uri/", "/index.php?$query_string"]

[server.tls]
acme_domains = ["example.com"]
acme_email = "you@example.com"

[php]
memory_limit = "256M"
max_execution_time = 60
workers = 8

[db.sqlite]
path = "/home/forge/example.com/database/database.sqlite"

3. Update Your .env

Before (Forge-managed MySQL + Redis):

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=forge
DB_USERNAME=forge
DB_PASSWORD=secret

CACHE_DRIVER=redis
SESSION_DRIVER=redis
REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1

After (ePHPm embedded SQLite + KV):

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=forge
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

CACHE_DRIVER=file
SESSION_DRIVER=file

DB_CONNECTION=mysql stays — ePHPm’s litewire handles the translation. If you keep an external MySQL, just update the DB_HOST to point at your managed database.

4. Deploy Script

Forge’s deployment script typically runs:

cd /home/forge/example.com/current
git pull origin main
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
php artisan migrate --force
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache
php artisan queue:restart

This script doesn’t change. ePHPm runs the same PHP binary, the same Artisan commands, the same Composer. The deploy script is independent of the HTTP server.

You can trigger it via:

• A simple git push + webhook (switchboard handles this)
• Manual SSH + git pull
• GitHub Actions / CI pipeline

5. Queue Workers

Forge manages queue workers via Supervisor. ePHPm doesn’t replace this — queue workers are a separate concern. Keep Supervisor:

# /etc/supervisor/conf.d/laravel-worker.conf
[program:laravel-worker]
command=php /home/forge/example.com/current/artisan queue:work
autostart=true
autorestart=true
numprocs=2

Or use systemd:

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/php /home/forge/example.com/current/artisan queue:work
Restart=always

6. Scheduler

Forge manages the cron entry for Laravel’s scheduler. Keep it:

* * * * * cd /home/forge/example.com/current && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

This doesn’t change.

7. Switch Over

# Stop Forge-managed services
sudo systemctl stop nginx php8.2-fpm

# Install ePHPm as a system service (registers + starts it)
sudo ephpm install

# Disconnect the server from Forge (optional)
# Go to Forge dashboard → Server → Delete Server

You can keep the server connected to Forge while testing — just stop Nginx/FPM and let ePHPm serve.

Vapor Migration

If you’re on Vapor (serverless AWS):

1. Your code doesn’t change
2. Instead of deploying to Lambda, deploy to a VPS with ePHPm
3. No cold starts — ePHPm workers are always warm
4. No per-request billing — flat monthly VPS cost
5. No AWS complexity (API Gateway, Lambda, SQS, RDS, ElastiCache)

Vapor costs at scale:

What You Gain

• $12/mo saved on Forge subscription ($144/year)
• Simpler stack — one binary instead of Nginx + FPM + MySQL + Redis
• No vendor lock-in — Forge owns your server config. ePHPm config is yours.
• Better performance — no FastCGI overhead, no cold starts (vs Vapor)
• Built-in SQLite — no database server for small-medium apps
• Built-in KV — no Redis server for caching and sessions
• Built-in metrics — Prometheus endpoint without extra tooling

What You Lose

• Forge’s GUI — server management is via SSH + config files, not a web dashboard
• One-click PHP version switching — ePHPm ships with one PHP version per binary. Switch by downloading a different build.
• Forge’s database management UI — use Adminer, TablePlus, or php artisan tinker
• Forge’s team management — share SSH access directly or use GitHub team permissions
• Automatic security updates — Forge applies OS patches. You run apt upgrade yourself (or enable unattended upgrades).