From Laravel Sail to Serversideup + Traefik: A Smarter Local Development Setup

Laravel Sail is a fantastic starting point for developers who want a quick, official way to run Laravel in Docker. It’s simple, consistent, and great for single-project environments.

But as your workflow matures — maybe you’re managing multiple apps, microservices, or need more control over routing and environments — Sail can start to feel a bit limited.

That’s where Serversideup/PHP and Traefik come in. Together, they offer a cleaner, more scalable approach to local development while staying 100% Docker-native.

🐋 Why Consider Moving Beyond Sail?

Sail is opinionated — which is both its biggest strength and its main constraint. It’s designed to “just work,” but it’s not built for everything.

Developers often outgrow Sail when they need:

⚙️ Customizable service configurations (e.g. specialized PHP extensions, tuned Nginx configs)
🌐 Centralized routing and domain-based access instead of random localhost ports
🔄 Easier multi-project orchestration under a shared reverse proxy (Traefik)
💼 A more production-like environment that mirrors your deployment setup

Sail’s simplicity is perfect for getting started, but the Serversideup + Traefik combo gives you the flexibility to design your local environment exactly how you want it.

🧱 Enter Serversideup/PHP + Traefik

Your new setup uses two key components:

Serversideup/PHP — a robust PHP-FPM + Nginx image that’s production-ready out of the box.
Traefik — a modern reverse proxy and load balancer that automatically routes traffic to your containers based on domain names.

This lets you access your local services like:

myapp.localhost  
adminer.myapp.localhost  
meilisearch.myapp.localhost

All clean, organized, and without the port juggling.

⚙️ How It Works

Your Docker Compose defines two main networks:

networks:
  app:
    driver: bridge
  proxy:
    external: true

The app network connects your app containers internally (Postgres, Redis, etc.).
The proxy network is shared across all projects — this is where Traefik listens for routes.

Each container you want publicly available has a few Traefik labels, such as:

labels:
  - traefik.enable=true
  - traefik.http.routers.${STACK_NAME}-web.rule=Host(`${APP_DOMAIN}`)
  - traefik.docker.network=proxy

These tell Traefik how to handle requests — for example, when someone visits myapp.localhost, the traffic automatically routes to your Laravel app.

🧠 The Benefits

🌐 1. Centralized Routing with Traefik

No more managing random ports or editing /etc/hosts. Each app can have its own local domain, and Traefik handles everything automatically — even HTTPS if you want.

🧰 2. Greater Customization

With Serversideup/PHP, you can easily tweak PHP settings, install extensions, or modify Nginx configs — all without touching Laravel Sail’s internals.

🧩 3. Production-Like Environments

This stack mirrors real-world production setups. What runs locally will behave the same way when deployed to staging or production.

🔀 4. Seamless Multi-App Development

Running multiple projects side-by-side? No problem. Traefik isolates routes by domain, so your apps never interfere with each other.

🧠 5. Cleaner Organization

Using domain-based routing keeps things intuitive — adminer.myapp.localhost, meilisearch.myapp.localhost, etc. Each service feels like part of the same ecosystem.

🧰 Example Stack Overview

Service	Purpose
web	Runs your Laravel app using Serversideup’s PHP image
postgres	PostgreSQL for your main database
redis	Caching and queues
adminer	Web database interface at `adminer.app.localhost`
meilisearch	Full-text search engine at `meilisearch.app.localhost`
traefik	Reverse proxy that routes all local traffic

All connected via:

app: internal network
proxy: shared external network

🏁 Wrapping Up

Switching from Laravel Sail to Serversideup/PHP + Traefik isn’t about replacing something broken — it’s about upgrading to a setup that grows with your needs.

You’ll keep the Docker-based workflow you already love, while gaining:

Centralized domain routing
Flexible PHP customization
Production-ready configuration
Smooth multi-app workflows

If you’re ready to take your local environment from “works fine” to “works beautifully,” this is the next logical step. 🚀