Docker Compose for Laravel + MariaDB
Laravel is the most popular PHP framework for web development, known for its elegant syntax and rich ecosystem. It is the framework of choice for SaaS products, REST APIs, and rapid application development with Eloquent ORM and first-class queue support.
MariaDB 11 is a high-performance, MySQL-compatible database developed by the original MySQL authors. It offers additional storage engines and an improved query optimizer, and is a popular drop-in replacement in European production environments.
When should you use this stack?
Laravel with MariaDB is a solid default for local development when your production environment matches it. If you're evaluating alternatives, the related configurations below swap one piece at a time — same framework with a different database, or the same data layer under a different framework — so you can compare without starting from scratch.
docker compose up -d
http://localhost:8080
compose.yml
services:
nginx:
image: nginx:latest
ports:
- "${WEB_PORT-8080}:80"
volumes:
- .:/var/www/html
- ./docker/nginx/default.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf:ro
depends_on:
- php
php:
image: php:8.5-fpm
volumes:
- .:/var/www/html
mariadb:
image: mariadb:11
environment:
MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD-root}
MARIADB_DATABASE: ${MARIADB_DATABASE-app}
MARIADB_USER: ${MARIADB_USER-app}
MARIADB_PASSWORD: ${MARIADB_PASSWORD-secret}
ports:
- "${MARIADB_PORT-3306}:3306"
volumes:
- mariadb_data:/var/lib/mysql
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD", "mariadb-admin", "ping", "-h", "localhost"]
interval: 10s
timeout: 5s
retries: 5
volumes:
mariadb_data:
docker/nginx/default.conf
Run mkdir -p docker/nginx first
server {
listen 80;
server_name localhost;
root /var/www/html/public;
index index.php index.html;
location / {
try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass php:9000;
fastcgi_index index.php;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
.env.example
Optional — Compose uses ${VAR-default} fallbacks
WEB_PORT=8080 MARIADB_PORT=3306 MARIADB_DATABASE=app MARIADB_USER=app MARIADB_PASSWORD=secret