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For freelancers

Laravel Hosting for freelancers

A freelancer running Laravel needs three things: a real free database tier, container hosting under €5/month, and a custom domain that does not cost extra. Hostim has all three. PostgreSQL, MySQL and Redis on a free tier; Laravel container at €2.5/month; custom domain with HTTPS included on every plan.

Try Laravel on HostimAll Laravel docs
# docker-compose.yml
services:
  web:
    image: my-laravel-app
    environment:
      - APP_ENV=production
      - DB_CONNECTION=mysql
  db:
    image: mysql:8
850+apps deployed
320+developers building
200+services running now
Oct 2025in production since

Why Laravel on Hostim for freelancers

Most platforms gate solo developers out of useful features: free tiers expire, custom domains require an upgrade, the cheapest plan does not include backups. Hostim is structured the opposite way: managed databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis) and persistent volumes have a real free tier — not a 30-day trial. Apps start at €2.5/month with a custom domain on every plan. A trial project lets you test the full stack before paying. Laravel runs as a normal Dockerfile (PHP-FPM + Nginx, or FrankenPHP) — no platform-specific buildpack to learn.

What freelancers need from a host

Solo developers running a portfolio site, a side project or a small client app, paying out of their own pocket.

  • A real free tier for the database side (not a 30-day trial)
  • Cheap container hosting starting under €5/month
  • No credit card required to test
  • Docker or Git deploy — no special platform format to learn
  • Custom domain on every plan, including the cheapest

Hostim has a free tier for managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis and volumes. App containers start at €2.5/month. Custom domains are included on every plan. A trial project lets you test the full stack before paying.

How Hostim runs Laravel

Laravel hosting was traditionally shared LAMP with FTP uploads. Modern Laravel deploys are container-based: PHP-FPM plus Nginx in one image, MySQL or PostgreSQL on a separate service, and a queue worker as a second container. Hostim runs this layout natively.

Deploy model

Push your Dockerfile. We run php artisan migrate on deploy, attach managed MySQL, and start a separate queue worker container that shares the same image. Storage is on a persistent volume — uploads survive deploys.

Common pitfalls

Two things often break: queue workers running as the same container as the web server (they should be separate), and the storage symlink not surviving a rebuild. Hostim solves both with explicit worker apps and persistent volumes.

Typical env vars

APP_KEY, APP_ENV, DB_CONNECTION, DB_HOST, QUEUE_CONNECTION

Questions

FAQ

Is the free tier really free, or 30-day trial?

Real free tier for managed databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis) and persistent volumes — within published quotas. Apps start at €2.5/month; a trial project lets you exercise app + DB + volume before you pay anything.

Do I need a credit card to test?

No. Sign up and start a trial project without a card. Add a payment method only when you are ready to keep things running past the trial.

Can I bring my own domain on the cheapest plan?

Yes. Custom domains with HTTPS are included on every plan, including the trial.

What if I outgrow the free database tier?

Database resources scale per GB and per CPU/RAM. The pricing page shows exact figures. Most freelancer apps stay on the free tier for the database side for a long time.

Related pages

Ready to deploy Laravel?

Spin up an app in minutes. Managed database on the free tier, custom domain included.

Deploy your Laravel appSee pricing

The numbers behind this

Platform figures from the published price list, docs and our own benchmark.

€2.50/month

Hostim entry app plan

Plan sa-1-1: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM. Flat price, billed hourly, no usage meter.

€0

Managed database free tier

PostgreSQL 256 MB, MySQL 256 MB, Redis 128 MB, volume 1 GB. No cap on how many free instances you create.

Included on every plan

Database high availability

PostgreSQL and MySQL run as a primary plus hot standby with automatic failover, shared plans included.

2,708 TPS

Managed PostgreSQL write throughput

pgbench, 4 clients, 300 s, plan drp-50 (2 vCPU / 4 GB). AWS RDS db.t4g.medium scored 1,080 TPS on the same test.

€0/GB

Traffic charges

No ingress fees and no per-GB egress line on app plans.

1 today (Falkenstein, Germany)

Regions

Bare metal, EU only, with more regions planned. No AWS, GCP or Azure underneath.

“Managed PostgreSQL runs as a replicated cluster with automatic failover on every plan, shared and dedicated alike.”

— Hostim.dev docs, managed PostgreSQL

Sources

  1. Hostim.dev price list — Hostim.dev (checked 2026-08-06)
  2. Pricing model — plan-based billing, no metering — Hostim.dev docs (checked 2026-08-06)
  3. Managed PostgreSQL — high availability and failover — Hostim.dev docs (checked 2026-08-06)
  4. PostgreSQL benchmark: AWS RDS vs Hostim vs self-hosted on Hetzner — Hostim.dev blog, July 2026 (checked 2026-08-06)