Server Requirements

3 min read Last updated Mar 24, 2026 2 views

Overview

Before installing Larapen, make sure your server meets the following requirements. These apply to all hosting environments: shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers.

Server requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
PHP	8.3	8.3 or 8.4
MySQL	8.0	8.0+
Node.js	18	18+ (for Vite asset builds)
Composer	2.0	2.0+
Web Server	Apache 2.4 or Nginx 1.18	Apache 2.4+ or Nginx 1.22+
Disk Space	200 MB (app only)	1 GB+ (with media uploads)
RAM	512 MB	1 GB+

Note: Laravel is included with Larapen: you do not need to install it separately.

Required PHP extensions

The following PHP extensions must be enabled on your server:

Extension	Purpose
`BCMath`	Arbitrary precision mathematics
`Ctype`	Character type checking
`cURL`	HTTP requests (API calls, GeoIP, etc.)
`DOM`	XML/HTML parsing
`Fileinfo`	File MIME type detection
`GD` or `Imagick`	Image processing (thumbnails, resizing)
`JSON`	JSON encoding/decoding
`Mbstring`	Multi-byte string handling (UTF-8)
`OpenSSL`	Encryption and secure connections
`PDO`	Database access abstraction
`PDO_MySQL`	MySQL database driver
`Tokenizer`	PHP tokenization (Blade templates)
`XML`	XML parsing
`Zip`	ZIP archive handling

Optional PHP extensions

Extension	Purpose
`Intl`	Internationalization support (recommended for multi-language)
`Redis`	Redis cache driver (better performance)
`Exif`	Image metadata reading (photo orientation)

PHP configuration

Ensure these PHP settings meet the minimum values in your php.ini:

Setting	Minimum value
`memory_limit`	`256M`
`upload_max_filesize`	`64M`
`post_max_size`	`64M`
`max_execution_time`	`300`
`max_input_vars`	`5000`

Tip: On shared hosting, you can usually adjust PHP settings through your hosting panel (cPanel → MultiPHP INI Editor, or Plesk → PHP Settings). If in doubt, contact your hosting provider.

Directory permissions

The web server process needs write access to the following directories:

storage/: Application logs, cache, sessions, and file storage
bootstrap/cache/: Framework bootstrap cache
public/: Public assets (symlinks for media and themes)

Recommended permissions:

Directories: 755
Files: 644
storage/ and bootstrap/cache/: 775 (writable by web server)

Database requirements

MySQL 8.0+ is required (MariaDB 10.6+ is also supported).
Character set: utf8mb4
Collation: utf8mb4_unicode_ci
The database user must have full privileges (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, DROP, INDEX) on the database.

Web server configuration

Apache

Larapen ships with a .htaccess file in the public/ directory. Ensure that:

mod_rewrite is enabled.
AllowOverride All is set for your document root.

Nginx

Set the document root to the public directory and add the following to your site's Nginx configuration:

root "/path/to/www/public";

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

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

SSL certificate

An SSL certificate (HTTPS) is highly recommended and required for:

Payment processing (Stripe and other gateways)
Secure admin panel access
Better SEO rankings
Browser security warnings prevention

Most hosting providers offer free SSL via Let's Encrypt.

Verify your server

After installation, you can verify that all requirements are met from the admin panel at Settings → System Info, which shows your PHP version, loaded extensions, and directory permissions.