Originally published at devtoolpicks.com
You spun up a Hetzner VPS. Your Laravel app is ready. Now you need something to actually manage the server, handle deployments, configure Nginx, sort out SSL, and keep things running without you SSHing in every time something breaks.
Three tools come up in every Laravel developer discussion: Forge, Ploi, and Coolify. All three do roughly the same job on the surface. But they represent genuinely different philosophies about what "server management" should cost and how much control you should hand over.
I've used all three across different projects. Here's the honest breakdown.
Quick Verdict
| Tool | Best For | Price | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laravel Forge | Laravel-native workflow, official support, teams | $12-$39/mo | Low |
| Ploi | Cost-conscious solo devs, EU-based projects | Free - ~€8/mo+ | Low |
| Coolify | Zero tool budget, multi-app VPS, non-PHP stacks | Free (self-hosted) | Medium |
Bottom line: If you're building Laravel and want zero friction, Forge is the right answer despite the cost. If you're watching every euro and need multiple servers, Ploi at €8/month is the sweet spot. If you're running a mix of apps and genuinely want to spend nothing on tooling, Coolify on a Hetzner CX22 is a legitimately good setup - just accept there's a learning curve.
What These Tools Actually Do
All three are server management panels. You point them at a VPS, they install the stack (Nginx, PHP, MySQL/Postgres, Redis), configure your environment, and let you deploy from Git without touching the command line on every push.
What they don't do is provide the server itself. You still pay for your VPS separately. Forge, Ploi, and Coolify sit on top of whatever hosting you choose - Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, whatever.
The exception is Forge's own Laravel VPS, which launched in late 2025. That's Forge's own hosted VPS offering starting at $6/month, meaning you can provision and manage a server entirely through Forge without connecting a third-party cloud provider. It's a nice option, especially for getting started fast.
Laravel Forge
Price: Hobby $12/mo (1 external server), Growth $19/mo (unlimited servers), Business $39/mo (unlimited + backups + priority support). Annual plans save about 17%.
Forge is the official Laravel tool for server management. Built by the same team that built the framework. That matters more than it might seem.
When a new PHP version ships, Forge supports it immediately. When Laravel adds a new queue driver or changes how Horizon works, Forge knows about it. The deployment script templates are sane Laravel defaults, not generic PHP configurations that you have to adapt. The environment editor understands your .env file the way a Laravel developer expects it to.
Setup is genuinely fast. You connect your cloud provider via API key, click "Create Server," pick your specs, and Forge provisions a fully configured server in a few minutes. Nginx, PHP, MySQL or Postgres, Redis, all configured and ready. Point it at your GitHub repo, enable "Quick Deploy," and every push to main deploys automatically with zero-downtime deployments included even on the Hobby plan.
As a Laravel developer, here's what's actually good: The integration with Cashier, Horizon, and the rest of the Laravel ecosystem is seamless. Queue workers with Supervisor config handled through the UI. Scheduled tasks wired directly from your code. SSL certificates via Let's Encrypt automated. The Business plan includes automated database backups to S3 or DigitalOcean Spaces, which matters a lot when you're running a real product.
The support is also genuinely responsive. The Forge team is small but they know the product deeply, and community support on Discord and the forums is active.
The real cons: The Hobby plan's single external server limit is the main friction point for solo devs who want separate staging and production environments. You'd need to step up to Growth at $19/month for that, which is a meaningful extra cost when you're pre-revenue. Forge is also PHP and Laravel centric - if you need to run a Node.js side service or a Docker container alongside your app, it works but it's not the native use case. And at $39/month for the Business plan, you're spending real money on tooling before your SaaS earns anything.
Who should NOT use Forge: If you're managing more than 2-3 servers and every dollar counts, the per-month tool fee adds up without adding proportional value. Also not ideal if you're running non-PHP workloads heavily alongside your Laravel app.
Ploi
Price: Free plan (1 server, 1 site). Core plan free since August 2025. Paid plans start at approximately €8/month. EU-based company, prices in euros.
Ploi is the most underrated tool in this comparison. It's built by a small Dutch team, prices in euros, and has been iterating steadily for years. Most importantly: in August 2025 they made Ploi Core free, which means basic server management with unlimited sites is now no-cost. The paid plans add team management, more servers, and monitoring.
The workflow is nearly identical to Forge. Connect a provider (Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and more are all natively supported with API integration), provision a server, add a site, point it at your Git repo. Deployment scripts, environment variables, SSL, queue workers - all managed from the same clean interface.
Ploi has two things Forge doesn't in its base tier. First, Cloudflare DNS management built directly into the panel, which is genuinely useful if you're using Cloudflare for your domains. Second, a marketplace of one-click scripts for things like installing Docker or additional services. Small additions, but they matter.
As a solo dev, here's what's actually good: The value-to-cost ratio is the best of these three options. The free plan covers a legitimate use case - one server, one production app. The €8/month plan unlocks more servers and is cheaper than Forge's Growth plan by about $11/month. Ploi is EU-based and GDPR-compliant by default, which matters if your users are European and you care about data residency. The support via Discord is active and the team is genuinely responsive to feature requests.
The real cons: Ploi doesn't have the same depth of Laravel-specific integration that Forge does. It supports Laravel fully, but it's a more general PHP server manager. If you hit an edge case with Laravel Horizon or a specific queue configuration, Forge's documentation and support will save you more time. Zero-downtime deployments require manual configuration rather than being a first-class feature on all plans. And the documentation, while decent, isn't as comprehensive as Forge's.
Who should NOT use Ploi: If you need the kind of tight Laravel-team integration that Forge provides - multiple developers deploying, priority support, the official Laravel brand of confidence - Ploi won't quite fill that gap. Also worth noting: Ploi is a smaller team, so if the project ever lost momentum, you'd be more exposed than with Forge.
Coolify
Price: Self-hosted: completely free forever, all features included. Coolify Cloud: $5/month per server (they manage the Coolify instance, you still bring your own VPS).
Coolify is a different beast. It's open source, Docker-based, and designed as a self-hosted alternative to Heroku, Vercel, and Render. You install it on a VPS, and it becomes your own mini-PaaS that can deploy PHP apps, Node.js apps, static sites, databases, and hundreds of one-click services. It's not specifically a Laravel tool, but it works well with Laravel.
The install is one command. A Hetzner CX22 at roughly €4/month runs Coolify and several deployed applications simultaneously. Point it at your Git repo, let it detect the stack (Nixpacks handles this for common frameworks including Laravel), and deploy. SSL via Let's Encrypt is automatic. Environment variables have a clean UI. You can deploy databases and manage them through the same interface.
The real pitch for Coolify is the stack flexibility and the zero tool cost. If you're running a Laravel backend, a Node.js worker, a Postgres database, and an n8n instance on the same server, Coolify handles all of it from one dashboard. For a solo dev who builds multiple projects, this is a genuine advantage.
As a developer, here's what's actually good: The GitHub community around Coolify is 20,000+ members and very active. The project ships updates consistently. The Docker-under-the-hood architecture means you get proper container isolation without writing Dockerfiles for standard stacks. And the economics are hard to argue with - a €4/month Hetzner VPS plus free Coolify means your total server management cost is €4/month.
The real cons: Coolify is not a Laravel-native tool. The defaults work for most Laravel apps, but if you have anything non-standard - custom queue configurations, multiple workers with different settings, Horizon monitoring, specific PHP extension requirements - you're configuring more manually than you would with Forge or Ploi.
The recommended setup is two servers: one for Coolify itself and one (or more) for your apps. That means you're technically running $8-10/month in VPS costs before you deploy anything. In practice many solo devs run everything on one server for dev/staging, but for production this two-server setup matters.
Coolify also has a steeper learning curve for developers who haven't worked with Docker before. If you're comfortable with Docker Compose and understand container networking, it's straightforward. If containers are unfamiliar territory, expect an afternoon of reading before everything clicks.
Who should NOT use Coolify: Developers who want a truly zero-config Laravel deployment path. Also not the right choice if you want official support or guaranteed uptime on the management layer - you're responsible for keeping Coolify updated and running. If a Coolify update breaks something, you debug it yourself.
The Real Monthly Cost Comparison
Here's what each option actually costs with Hetzner as the VPS provider, for a solo dev running one production app and one staging environment:
Laravel Forge Growth + Hetzner CX22 x2:
$19 (Forge) + ~€9 (two CX22s at ~€4.50 each) = roughly $29/month
Ploi paid plan + Hetzner CX22 x2:
~€8 (Ploi) + ~€9 (two CX22s) = roughly €17/month (~$18/month)
Coolify self-hosted + Hetzner CX22 x2:
Free (Coolify) + ~€9 (two CX22s) = roughly €9/month (~$10/month)
Over a year, the gap is real. Coolify saves you roughly $230/year versus Forge. That's not nothing when you're pre-revenue. But Forge saves you hours of configuration time and gives you Laravel-specific support when something goes wrong at 2am with a production deployment.
Head-to-Head: Who Should Use What
Solo dev, first SaaS, just want to ship: Ploi free plan to start, upgrade to paid when you have revenue. The workflow is clean, it's free for a single server, and you're not locked in.
Laravel developer who values time over money: Forge Hobby plan at $12/month. It's the most frictionless Laravel deployment experience available and the Hobby plan covers a single production server cleanly.
Developer running multiple projects across different stacks: Coolify on Hetzner. The Docker-based approach handles PHP, Node, static sites, and databases in one place. Once you're comfortable with the Docker layer, it's the most flexible setup.
EU-based developer with GDPR concerns: Ploi. Dutch company, EU-based infrastructure, Cloudflare DNS management built in. It's the most natural choice for European solo founders.
Team of 2+ developers: Forge Business at $39/month. The team management, priority support, and automated backups are worth it once other people are deploying to your servers.
Final Recommendation
Don't spend three weeks evaluating this. The time you spend comparing tools is time you're not shipping.
Start with Ploi's free plan if you want zero upfront cost and a clean workflow. It will handle your first production app without you paying anything for tooling. When you have revenue and want more than one server, the paid plan at €8/month is still the best value in this comparison.
Use Forge if you're an experienced Laravel developer who wants the official tooling, the deepest framework integration, and support from people who actually built the framework. The $12/month Hobby plan is not expensive once you're shipping.
Choose Coolify if you have multiple projects across different stacks, you're comfortable with Docker, and you want to optimize infrastructure cost down to the VPS bill only. It's a genuinely capable tool and the open-source community around it is strong.
Whatever you pick, pair it with a Hetzner VPS. The CX22 at roughly €4.50/month gives you 2 vCPUs, 4GB RAM, and 40GB disk, which comfortably runs a Laravel SaaS with MySQL and Redis at early-stage traffic levels.
FAQ
Can I switch between these tools without rebuilding my server?
Forge and Ploi both manage your server configuration via Nginx and system-level tools. Switching means provisioning a new server and migrating your apps, which takes a few hours. It's not catastrophic but it's not trivial either. Coolify's Docker-based approach makes migrations slightly more portable, but you're still re-deploying to a new instance.
Does Laravel Cashier work with all three?
Yes. Cashier is your application-level billing library and doesn't care about the server management layer. All three tools deploy your app in a way that Cashier works correctly.
Is Coolify production-ready in 2026?
Yes, with caveats. It's actively maintained, has a large community, and handles production workloads. The caveat is that you're responsible for keeping it updated and debugging any issues yourself. Teams at funded startups typically prefer Forge or a managed option. Solo devs running personal projects and smaller SaaS products use Coolify in production regularly.
Does Forge support Hetzner directly?
Yes. Forge added native Hetzner support, which means you can provision Hetzner servers directly from the Forge dashboard using an API key, just like DigitalOcean. You don't have to create the server manually and then connect it.
What about the new Forge Laravel VPS option?
Laravel VPS is Forge's own hosted VPS, starting at $6/month. It gives you instant provisioning through Forge's dashboard without connecting a third-party provider. It's a clean option if you want everything in one place. The pricing is competitive with Hetzner, though Hetzner is still cheaper for raw compute if you're managing the connection yourself.
Conclusion
Forge, Ploi, and Coolify all solve the same problem. The difference is in the defaults, the cost, and how much you want the tool to do versus how much you configure yourself.
For a solo Laravel developer shipping a SaaS in 2026, Ploi's free plan to start and Forge when revenue justifies it is the most pragmatic path. Coolify is the right answer when you're running multiple stacks and want to optimize infrastructure costs to the minimum.
Pick one. Deploy. You can always migrate later, but you can't get back the weeks you spend evaluating.
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