How to install Laravel on macOS
Introduction to installing Laravel on macOS
So, you finally decided to give Laravel a try.
But how do you even get started? Well, first, you must have a working PHP environment (see how to install PHP on macOS). Then, you must create a new Laravel project using the official Laravel installer or Composer (the package manager every PHP developer uses to manage dependencies).
Feels overwhelming? Don’t worry. In this article, I’ll show you exactly how to do that.
How to install Laravel on macOS
Using Composer
To install Laravel on macOS, Linux, or WSL, you can create a new project using Composer like so (given you already have a working PHP environment):
composer create-project laravel/laravel example-app
Then, you can just cd into your project and start the development server:
php artisan serve
Finally, open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.
But installing Laravel using Composer is limited and I will show you a better way.
Using the official Laravel installer
Laravel offers a convenient installer that you can add to Composer’s global packages using the following command:
composer global require laravel/installer
Then, you can create a new project:
laravel new example-app
If this command doesn’t work, make sure you followed my guide correctly.
The Laravel installer even offers options to create a new initialized Git repository with a first commit without having to go through the various prompts:
laravel new example-app --git
Or even use Pest as a default test runner:
laravel new example-app --pest
And you can combine these:
laravel new example-app --git --pest
There are a ton of options and you can see them all by running laravel new --help:
Description:
Create a new Laravel application
Usage:
new [options] [--] <name>
Arguments:
name
Options:
--dev Installs the latest "development" release
--git Initialize a Git repository
--branch=BRANCH The branch that should be created for a new repository [default: "main"]
--github[=GITHUB] Create a new repository on GitHub [default: false]
--organization=ORGANIZATION The GitHub organization to create the new repository for
--stack[=STACK] The Breeze / Jetstream stack that should be installed
--breeze Installs the Laravel Breeze scaffolding
--jet Installs the Laravel Jetstream scaffolding
--dark Indicate whether Breeze or Jetstream should be scaffolded with dark mode support
--typescript Indicate whether Breeze should be scaffolded with TypeScript support (Experimental)
--ssr Indicate whether Breeze or Jetstream should be scaffolded with Inertia SSR support
--api Indicates whether Jetstream should be scaffolded with API support
--teams Indicates whether Jetstream should be scaffolded with team support
--verification Indicates whether Jetstream should be scaffolded with email verification support
--pest Installs the Pest testing framework
--phpunit Installs the PHPUnit testing framework
