Installing and Setting Up Laravel (Local and Cloud Environments)

Before writing a single line of application logic, you need a working Laravel environment. Laravel can be installed locally for development or deployed to a cloud server for staging and production — and the setup process differs slightly for each.

Prerequisites

Laravel runs on PHP, so a few tools need to be in place before installation:

• PHP (a recent stable version, matching the Laravel release you plan to use)
• Composer, PHP's dependency manager
• A database system such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite
• A local web server or PHP's built-in development server

Setting Up Locally

The most common way to install Laravel locally is through Composer, which downloads the framework along with all of its dependencies in one step. Once installed, the built-in Artisan server lets you preview the application instantly, without configuring Apache or Nginx.

Setting Up in the Cloud

For staging or production, most teams either provision their own server and configure it manually, or use a managed platform that automates provisioning, SSL, and deployments. Managed options are especially useful for teams that want to focus on application code rather than server maintenance.

With Laravel installed and running somewhere you can access, the next step is understanding how the framework organizes your code — starting with the MVC architecture that shapes every Laravel application.