How to Set Up Laravel on cPanel Hosting

Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks, and it runs great on dotCanada's cPanel hosting. Here's how to get a Laravel application up and running on your account.

Step 1: Upload or Clone Your Project

Upload your Laravel project files to your server (e.g., /home/username/laravel-app) using FTP, the cPanel File Manager, or Git. The project should sit outside your public_html directory.

Step 2: Install Dependencies with Composer

Connect via SSH and navigate to your project:

Step 3: Configure the .env File

Copy the example environment file and configure your settings:

Edit .env to set your database credentials, app URL, and any other required values.

Step 4: Set the Document Root to /public

Laravel's web-accessible files live in the /public subdirectory. To point your domain to it:

1. In cPanel, go to Domains.
2. Find your domain and click Manage.
3. Change the Document Root to /home/username/laravel-app/public.
4. Save the change.

Step 5: Set Permissions

Make sure Laravel's storage and cache directories are writable:

Final Checks

• Confirm your PHP version supports your Laravel version via cPanel's MultiPHP Manager.
• Check storage/logs/laravel.log if anything isn't working.

If you hit a snag during your Laravel setup, contact our support team and we'll help you get it running.