In the ever-evolving landscape of web development, speed to market is crucial. As a Founder or CTO, your primary goal is ensuring your product reaches users efficiently with minimal DevOps complexity. Laravel is your backend powerhouse, but what if you want to deploy it on Vercel – the platform known for fast frontend hosting?

In this guide, we will break the myth that Vercel is only for frontend frameworks like Next.js or Nuxt. We'll walk you through deploying your Laravel project on Vercel, discuss the challenges, and strategize the best production-ready approach. By the end, you’ll be ready to demo your SaaS MVP or full-stack app in minutes.

⚡ Why Vercel for Laravel?

At its core, Vercel is an edge-first platform, optimizing for static and serverless applications. While it’s tailored to frontend frameworks, deploying Laravel on Vercel is feasible with careful setup:

✅ Free tier suitable for MVP demos

✅ GitHub/GitLab integration for CI/CD

✅ Serverless approach – scales instantly

✅ Global CDN for frontend performance

However, Laravel being PHP-based requires a runtime environment not natively supported on Vercel’s Node.js serverless functions. This means direct deployment needs adaptation.

🚀 Realistic Deployment Options

Option 1: Deploying Laravel as API via Vercel Serverless (Experimental)

This approach uses Bref (AWS Lambda PHP runtime) within Vercel serverless functions. However, Vercel officially supports Node.js, Go, Python, and Ruby. Running PHP on Vercel is a hack and not recommended for production.

Option 2: Deploy Frontend on Vercel, Backend on Dedicated Server

This is the practical, scalable, and professional approach used by leading startups:

✅ Frontend (Next.js, Nuxt, or Inertia.js SSR) on Vercel

✅ Backend API (Laravel) on DigitalOcean, AWS, or Laravel Forge

Let’s implement Option 2 step by step.

💻 Project Scenario

Imagine you’re building “TaskStack”, a SaaS task management tool with:

1. Laravel backend (API)
2. Nuxt.js frontend

You want:

1. Laravel API deployed securely
2. Nuxt.js frontend deployed on Vercel
3. Seamless domain setup with HTTPS
4. Fast CI/CD deployments

🎯 Prerequisites

Before starting:

✅ A Laravel project ready (API routes configured)

✅ A Nuxt.js or Next.js frontend consuming the API

✅ Vercel account (free plan is enough initially)

✅ DigitalOcean, AWS, or Linode account for Laravel deployment

✅ GitHub repository for both projects

🔧 Step 1: Deploy Laravel API on DigitalOcean

1. Push Laravel project to GitHub

1. Provision a Droplet (DigitalOcean) or EC2 (AWS)

Use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Recommended specs:

1. 1 vCPU
2. 1GB RAM (for MVP, scale later)
3. SSH into server and install LAMP stack

1. Clone your Laravel repo

1. Configure .env with production database

Update DB_HOST, DB_DATABASE, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD accordingly.

1. Setup Apache virtual host

Add:

Enable site:

1. Point your DNS A record to the server IP via your domain registrar.
2. Setup SSL with Let’s Encrypt

✅ Your Laravel API is now live, secured, and ready to consume.

🔧 Step 2: Deploy Nuxt.js Frontend on Vercel

1. Push your Nuxt.js frontend to GitHub
2. Login to Vercel and click New Project.
3. Select your frontend repo.
4. Configure build settings:
5. Framework: Nuxt.js
6. Root directory: (if inside subfolder)
7. Build Command: npm run build
8. Output Directory: .output/public (Nuxt 3 with Nitro serverless)
9. Add environment variables if consuming from Laravel API:

1. Deploy

✅ Within minutes, your frontend is live with Vercel’s global CDN.

⚠️ Common Challenges & Solutions

1. CORS Errors

If your Laravel API returns:

Add CORS headers in Laravel:

Install CORS package:

Publish config and allow Vercel domain:

2. API Rate Limits

Vercel edge functions have limits. As we’re not using serverless PHP on Vercel, your API is safe on DigitalOcean. Monitor API performance via Laravel Telescope.

3. SSL for API

Ensure SSL is configured before connecting via frontend to avoid mixed-content issues.

📈 CI/CD for Continuous Delivery

Both Vercel and DigitalOcean can integrate GitHub Actions.

1. Vercel: Automatic deployment on every push to main branch.
2. Laravel API: Set up GitHub Actions to SSH and pull the latest code upon push. Example workflow:

🎯 Final Checklist Before Go Live

✅ API secured with HTTPS

✅ Frontend consuming correct production API URL

✅ Database backups configured

✅ Rate limiting and authentication on APIs

✅ Error monitoring via Sentry or Bugsnag

✅ Frontend deployed with SEO settings and production environment

💡 Conclusion for Founders & CTOs

Deploying Laravel directly on Vercel isn’t production-friendly due to PHP runtime limitations. However, combining Laravel as your powerful backend API with Vercel as your scalable frontend host is the best approach for:

1. SaaS applications
2. Marketplace platforms
3. Internal tools with public dashboards

This architecture ensures:

✅ Faster frontend deployments via Vercel

✅ Robust backend with full Laravel ecosystem

✅ Separation of concerns for scaling each component independently

📝 Final Thoughts

As a founder or CTO, your goal isn’t just “deploying” but deploying with clarity, scalability, and minimal DevOps friction. By following this guide, you are on track to:

1. Launch your product confidently
2. Demo to investors with professional hosting
3. Scale without re-architecting later

Your next step? Set up GitHub Actions today to automate these deployments and focus on your product growth instead of server management.