Serverless Laravel: Deploying with AWS Lambda and Vapor

Laravel has long been a favorite among PHP developers for its elegant syntax, powerful features, and thriving ecosystem. But as application demands grow and infrastructure expectations shift, hosting Laravel in traditional server environments can feel like overkill—or, worse, a bottleneck.

Enter serverless Laravel, a path where you no longer worry about provisioning servers, scaling compute manually, or babysitting infrastructure. Instead, your application runs on-demand, automatically scaled, and billed per execution. And thanks to Laravel Vapor, this vision is not only possible—it’s practical.

Let’s explore what it means to run a Laravel serverlessly using AWS Lambda and Vapor, how to make it work, and why it matters more now than ever.

What Does Serverless Mean for Laravel?

Before diving in, let's clarify the concept. Serverless doesn’t mean there are no servers—it means you don’t have to manage them. With AWS Lambda, you upload your code and AWS takes care of running it in response to events (like HTTP requests), scaling it, and shutting it down when idle. You only pay for the time it runs.

Laravel wasn’t originally designed for this kind of runtime model. It’s traditionally been tied to long-running PHP-FPM processes and stateful environments. But that changed with the introduction of Laravel Vapor, a serverless deployment platform tailored specifically for Laravel and powered by AWS.

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Why Go Serverless with Laravel?

1. Automatic Scaling

Traditional hosting setups often require you to plan for peak traffic, even if you rarely hit it. Serverless flips that model. With Lambda, your Laravel app scales up instantly during spikes and scales down to zero when not in use. No over-provisioning, no waste.

2. Reduced Maintenance

No patching servers. No worrying about NGINX configs or PHP upgrades. AWS handles the infrastructure, while Vapor abstracts the DevOps away. This is especially appealing for companies that want to focus on shipping features rather than infrastructure upkeep.

3. Pay-As-You-Go

You’re charged only when the application is actually running. For apps with variable or low traffic, this can significantly reduce operational costs compared to always-on EC2 instances or VPS plans.

How Vapor Works with AWS Lambda

Laravel Vapor acts as the glue between your Laravel app and AWS services like Lambda, S3, RDS, CloudFront, and more. It configures and deploys your application in a way that conforms to the stateless, short-lived nature of Lambda functions, while preserving the Laravel experience developers love.

Here’s a simplified deployment flow:

1. You write and test your Laravel app locally.
2. You connect it to Vapor using the Vapor CLI.
3. When you deploy, Vapor packages your app, uploads it to AWS, and links it with services like Lambda, RDS, and SQS.
4. Your app becomes available behind an auto-scaling, globally distributed endpoint.

No Dockerfiles. No EC2 setup. Just your app, deployed and served from the cloud.

Realities to Consider Before Going Serverless

Despite its appeal, serverless Laravel isn’t plug-and-play. There are a few realities worth understanding.

Statelessness

Each Lambda function execution is independent. That means no local sessions or file storage. Laravel handles this gracefully with integrations like S3 for file uploads and DynamoDB or Redis for sessions, but you’ll need to adapt parts of your app that assume stateful execution.

Cold Starts

Lambda functions can take a second or two to spin up when idle. Vapor mitigates this with provisioned concurrency, but it’s a tradeoff—provisioning increases cost. For some high-traffic apps, this might make traditional hosting more predictable.

Limited Execution Time

Lambda functions have a max runtime (15 minutes at the time of writing). That’s more than enough for most web requests, but background tasks or long processes need to be managed differently, typically via queues or AWS Step Functions.

If you’re unsure whether your current architecture fits these constraints, it may help to consult a Laravel web development services provider that has experience with Vapor and AWS.

Who Should Consider Serverless Laravel?

• Startups building MVPs that don’t want to over-invest in infrastructure.
• Agencies managing multiple Laravel apps that need simple, isolated deployments.
• Enterprises looking to modernize legacy apps without hiring a dedicated DevOps team.

For businesses exploring this route, it’s not uncommon to hire Laravel developers with Vapor experience to assist in migration, optimize cold starts, or fine-tune application structure for serverless best practices.

And if you’re looking for end-to-end guidance—from app planning to AWS setup—partnering with the best Laravel development company can offer a smoother transition with fewer surprises.

Getting Started: Basic Steps to Deploy Laravel with Vapor

Create a Laravel Project

If you haven’t already, start with a fresh Laravel app using Composer:

composer create-project laravel/laravel my-app

Install Vapor CLI

You’ll need a Vapor account, then install the CLI globally:

composer global require laravel/vapor-cli

Initialize Vapor in Your Project

From your project root:

vapor init

This sets up the vapor.yml configuration file, where you define environment settings, regions, databases, and more.

Deploy

Vapor deploy production

Vapor packages and pushes your app to AWS. You get a production-ready URL, SSL by default, and tools for environment management.

Post-Deployment Adjustments

• Configure queues to use SQS
• Store files in S3
• Use Redis (via ElastiCache) for caching and sessions
• Connect RDS for database needs

These services are managed within the AWS ecosystem, but abstracted through Vapor to reduce complexity.

Final Thoughts

Laravel’s strength has always been developer experience. And now, with Vapor and AWS Lambda, that experience extends into a world where infrastructure becomes nearly invisible. It’s not the right solution for every app, but for many, it’s the right next step.

Going serverless with Laravel requires a shift in mindset—but not a rewrite of everything you know. Laravel still gives you the same expressive syntax, same powerful tools—just now, they run in a smarter, leaner environment.

If you’re planning a new Laravel project or want to explore what serverless could mean for your existing app, it may be time to rethink what “hosting” really needs to look like. And that journey starts with the right questions—and sometimes, the right people beside you.

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