Laravel Herd PRO reviews

Hey guys,

Recently, I just bought Herd PRO (a yearly subscription). I’ve been using the basic Herd since the first release.

So, my latest work required interaction with S3 storage, there are several ways to achieve that in the local env:

• Use Cloud (S3-compatible e.g. DigitalOcean, Vultr or use AWS’s S3 directly)

• MinIO: S3-compatible storage, offer a self-hosted version

  • I pick this

MinIO can be downloaded & run in several ways: Docker, Brew, etc.

I found out that Herd is supporting MinIO out-of-the-box (for the PRO version), that was the time I made the purchase decision).

So let’s check it out, to see the PRO features of Herd PRO.

Herd PRO features

Services

I love this, helps us to create and manage a lot of services/dependencies:

• Database: MySQL, PgSQL, MongoDB

• Cache: Redis

• Queue: Redis

• Broadcasting: Reverb

• Search: MeiliSearch, Typesense

• Storage: MinIO

For instance, I created a MinIO instance, Herd gave me the instructions & ENVs (all I needed to do was copy & paste)

Mail

There are plenty of ways to test email locally, but now it’s getting way easier with Herd.

Typically, I’d use Mailtrap, but now, I’ll stick with Herd’s Mail.

Dumps

Dumps is amazing, unlike ray , it requires us to install a dependency (or dev-dependency), dumps doesn’t require additional dependencies.

We can use either dump or dd function to write the logs. It also writes the DB queries & Application Logs (logger).

Debugger

If you like to debug using breakpoint, Herd PRO provides an easy integration, glued between PHPStorm and XDebug.

Honestly, I’m not a fan of this so I won’t give you guys any reviews here.

Overall Reviews

I really like Herd PRO, my overall local development has been optimized a bit:

• PHP (versions, update, etc) => Herd PRO

• Database => Herd PRO (goodbye DBNgin 🥲)

  • Optimized part here

• Cache => Herd PRO

• External services: Herd PRO

My overall source: 4.5/5.

To get 5/5, Herd PRO should be able to provide us these:

• Ability to install extra PHP extensions. At the moment, installing a specific extension is not so cool, way too much hassle.

  • If somehow brew bumps the extension’s version, we have to update the php.ini again, I don’t like this.

• Ability to run Laravel Queue Worker

• Ability to set up Sites with custom domains or ports.

Conclusion

Well, as a person who loves to keep my local environment as minimal as possible, I do really love Laravel Herd. I can set up everything under the same Herd application.

If your applications are going to use more than a normal database, I’d recommend using Herd PRO. If not, let’s just stick with Herd Basic & DBNgin (Free).

Thanks for reading!