If you’re developing Laravel on Windows, you’ve probably faced:
- Slow Composer installs
- Environment inconsistencies
- PHP extension issues
- XAMPP/WAMP headaches 😤
The solution? 🔥 Laravel + Docker + WSL2 🔥
🚀 Why Docker with WSL2? #
1️⃣ Better Performance #
WSL2 runs a real Linux kernel, giving Docker near-native performance.
2️⃣ Production-like Environment #
Same PHP version
Same database
Same extensions
No more “works on my machine”.
3️⃣ One-Time Setup #
Configure once, reuse everywhere.
🧱 Common Laravel Docker Stack #
- PHP-FPM
- Nginx
- MySQL / PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Node.js
All managed via docker-compose.
⚠️ Pro Tip #
Beginners 👉 Start with Laravel Sail
Advanced devs 👉 Build a custom Docker setup.
💡 Bottom line: Docker + WSL2 = speed, stability, and peace of mind.
