Laravel Cloud - agency perspective

As someone who has been in the web development agency business for over 15 years, I've seen how hosting and deployment evolved. I want to share my thoughts on Laravel Cloud and what it means for agencies.

The evolution of hosting complexity

Laravel is known for being developer-friendly and relatively easy to deploy. But what we consider "easy" today is quite different from what it was a few years ago. Modern applications need scheduled tasks, queues, caching layers, and various background processes. Setting this up takes time. Maintaining it takes even more time.

The good news is that Laravel now has standard solutions with first-party support. But even small configuration issues can still ruin a developer's day and cause headaches for DevOps teams.

The agency challenge

For agencies, standardizing projects is crucial. When we get hired to build software, it's hard to explain to clients why deployment and hosting setup requires significant effort. They often see it as something that "should just work."

Many agencies developed their own tools and processes to standardize deployment. But keeping up with industry changes while maintaining these custom solutions is challenging and expensive.

Learning from Drupal's hosting evolution

My first realization about the true cost of DIY hosting came from working with Drupal. While it was possible to handle hosting internally, the emergence of specialized hosting providers like Acquia and Pantheon changed everything.

Yes, these platforms were more expensive than DIY solutions. But when we counted all the engineering hours spent on server maintenance - hours that clients didn't want to pay for - the specialized hosting started to make more sense.

Why Laravel Cloud makes sense

Laravel has evolved from being just a framework to becoming more of a product. This evolution naturally leads to needing a standardized way of deploying and hosting. Think about Shopify - nobody questions where to host their Shopify store. It's just taken care of.

For agencies, Laravel Cloud removes a huge responsibility. One thing I particularly appreciated about Drupal hosting solutions was that clients had direct agreements with hosting providers. This removed us from being responsible for server uptime - a significant relief for any agency.

The business impact

Some agencies might worry about losing the lock-in effect of managing hosting. But with open source products, lock-in actually contradicts Laravel's philosophy. It's better to retain clients through performance and quality of work rather than technical dependencies.

Laravel Cloud's referral fee system is interesting. Agencies that bring clients to Laravel Cloud can earn ongoing revenue. This passive income might actually exceed what they'd make from managing hosting themselves.

Pricing that makes sense

Unlike some enterprise-focused hosting providers, Laravel Cloud works for both smaller projects and enterprise-level applications. This is crucial because most agencies serve small and medium-sized businesses. The traditional enterprise pricing model of $25,000 minimum contracts doesn't work for the majority of agency clients.

The bigger picture

Laravel Inc.'s recent investment and launch of Laravel Cloud signals a shift in their business strategy. While they previously focused on developers and solo entrepreneurs, they're now positioned to serve a broader market.

This reminds me of Drupal's evolution. When Acquia started selling Drupal to pharmaceutical companies and governments, it benefited the entire ecosystem. At Agiledrop, we grew from 4 to 80 people largely because Drupal projects became larger, more complex endeavors requiring teams to work for 6-18 months.

What this means for your agency

If you're running an agency, Laravel Cloud presents an opportunity to:

• Reduce operational overhead
• Standardize deployment across projects
• Focus more on building software
• Create new revenue streams through referrals
• Scale projects more efficiently

The future looks promising. As Laravel Cloud matures, we'll likely see more enterprise-grade features and integrations. This will open up new opportunities for agencies to take on larger, more complex projects while maintaining efficiency in their operations.

The trade-off between managed services and control will always exist. But for most agencies, the benefits of a specialized platform like Laravel Cloud outweigh the costs of maintaining custom hosting solutions.

Are you looking to build or migrate your Laravel app on Laravel Cloud? Reach out if you need some help.