The Laravel team officially launched the newly redesigned Forge platform on October 1, simultaneously introducing the Laravel VPS service. This major update not only enhances the PHP application deployment experience but also extends support to modern frontend frameworks like Nuxt and Next.js, providing a more comprehensive solution for full-stack developers.
Laravel VPS Instant Provisioning Service
The core feature of the new generation Forge is the integration of Laravel VPS, a virtual hosting service optimized for PHP and other technology stacks. Laravel VPS provides instant provisioning capabilities, allowing developers to complete server creation and configuration within minutes.
According to official documentation, Laravel VPS comes with built-in zero-downtime deployment mechanisms, automated SSL certificate management, and a modernly designed user interface. These features significantly simplify the complexity of traditional server management, enabling developers to focus on application development rather than infrastructure maintenance.
Support for Nuxt and Next.js Frameworks
The most noteworthy aspect of this update is Forge’s first-class support for Nuxt and Next.js. These two frameworks are the most popular full-stack frameworks in the Vue.js and React ecosystems, respectively, widely used in modern web application development.
Forge provides simplified installation and deployment processes for these frameworks, supporting both server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) modes. Developers can easily deploy Nuxt or Next.js applications on the Forge platform and enjoy the same level of automated deployment experience as Laravel applications.
This feature is particularly valuable for teams adopting decoupled frontend-backend architecture. Developers can manage Laravel API backends and Nuxt/Next.js frontends under the same Forge account, achieving unified deployment and monitoring workflows.
Global Health Check Mechanism
The new Forge introduces health check functionality, an automated application monitoring system. After each deployment, Forge conducts health checks on applications from three global nodes: London, New York, and Singapore.
This feature can immediately detect post-deployment issues, ensuring applications operate normally across different regions worldwide. For applications serving global users, multi-region health checks can identify regional network or server issues early.
Heartbeat Monitoring for Scheduled Tasks
Another important new feature is heartbeat monitoring. This functionality is specifically designed to monitor the execution status of scheduled jobs, sending immediate alerts when critical tasks fail to complete on time.
Heartbeat monitoring is crucial for applications that depend on background tasks. For example, data backups, periodic data processing, or report generation—if these tasks fail without detection, serious consequences may result. Forge’s heartbeat mechanism ensures all critical tasks are operating normally by expecting ping signals when tasks complete.
Other Important Announcements from Laracon US 2025
At the Laracon US 2025 conference, the Laravel team also announced other important tools and services:
Laravel MCP (Model Context Protocol)
The Laravel MCP library enables developers to easily build model context protocols, allowing applications to integrate into AI conversation systems. This technology enables Laravel applications to be directly operated by users within AI assistant conversations, demonstrating Laravel’s active embrace of AI-era application scenarios.
Laravel Boost
Laravel Boost is a Composer package specifically designed to accelerate AI-assisted Laravel development. It provides AI tools with necessary context and structural information, enabling AI to generate high-quality code that adheres to Laravel conventions.
This tool reflects the increasingly important role of AI programming assistants in software development. By providing framework-specific knowledge to AI, Boost can improve the accuracy and usability of AI-generated code.
Laravel Cloud Feature Enhancements
Laravel Cloud service also received major updates, adding preview environments and production-grade MySQL database functionality. Preview environments allow developers to automatically create independent testing environments for each pull request, while MySQL service provides complete backup and restoration capabilities.
Impact on the Laravel Ecosystem
Forge’s complete redesign demonstrates the Laravel ecosystem’s continued ability to evolve. From initially focusing on PHP application deployment to now supporting multiple modern frontend frameworks, Forge is becoming a more universal web application deployment platform.
This evolution strategy aligns with modern web development trends. An increasing number of projects adopt decoupled frontend-backend architecture, with backends using Laravel to provide APIs while frontends choose Vue, React, or other modern frameworks. Forge’s expanded support makes deploying such architectures more convenient.
Comparison with Competitors
In the server management and deployment space, Forge’s main competitors include Ploi, ServerPilot, and cloud platform native deployment tools (such as Vercel, Netlify).
Forge’s advantage lies in its deep integration with the Laravel ecosystem and professional support for PHP applications. The addition of Nuxt/Next.js support allows Forge to compete with frontend-focused platforms like Vercel while maintaining its backend deployment expertise.
The introduction of Laravel VPS is also an important strategic move. Compared to requiring users to prepare their own DigitalOcean or AWS servers, an integrated VPS service lowers the barrier to entry, making it more friendly for small teams and individual developers.
Pricing and Availability
According to Laravel official information, the new Forge went live on October 1, and existing users can upgrade directly to the new interface. Laravel VPS uses a pay-as-you-go model, with specific pricing information available on the Forge official website.
For teams already using Forge, the upgrade process should be seamless, with existing servers and deployment configurations automatically migrating to the new system. New features like health checks and heartbeat monitoring may require additional configuration to enable.
Future Development Direction
This update shows that the Laravel team is building Forge into a more comprehensive web application deployment solution. Future iterations may see support for more frameworks and technology stacks, along with deeper monitoring and analytics capabilities.
With the launch of AI tools like Laravel MCP and Boost, the Laravel ecosystem is actively embracing the AI era. It can be expected that future Forge versions may integrate more AI-assisted features, further simplifying application development and deployment workflows.
The complete redesign of Forge marks Laravel’s continued leadership position in the modern web development tools space, with its influence extending beyond the PHP community into the entire full-stack development ecosystem.
