Laravel is one of the most popular PHP frameworks for building modern web applications. Laravel 12 comes with improved features, better performance, and robust tools for developers. In this guide, we will walk through the installation process from scratch.
Prerequisites
Before installing Laravel 12
make sure your system has the following installed:
- PHP >= 8.2 Composer (PHP dependency manager)
- MySQL / MariaDB (or any database supported by Laravel)
- Node.js & NPM (for frontend assets, optional but recommended)
- Web Server (Apache, Nginx, or Laravel’s built-in server)
You can check PHP and Composer versions by running:
php -v composer -V
Step 1: Install Composer
Laravel uses Composer to manage dependencies. If you don’t have it installed:
- Go to https://getcomposer.org/download/
- Follow the installation instructions for your operating system.
- Verify installation:
composer -V
Step 2: Create a New Laravel 12 Project
Run the following command to create a new Laravel project:
composer create-project laravel/laravel:^12.0 my-laravel-app
Here, my-laravel-app is the name of your project folder. Composer will download all dependencies and set up Laravel for you.
Step 3: Set Up Environment Variables
Navigate into your project folder:
cd my-laravel-app
Laravel uses a .env file for configuration. Copy the default example file:
cp .env.example .env
Update the following values in .env according to your setup:
APP_NAME="MyLaravelApp" APP_URL=http://localhost DB_CONNECTION=mysql DB_HOST=127.0.0.1 DB_PORT=3306 DB_DATABASE=laravel_db DB_USERNAME=root DB_PASSWORD=
Make sure you create the database (laravel_db) in MySQL before running migrations.
Step 4: Generate Application Key
Laravel requires an application key for security. Generate it by running:
php artisan key:generate
You should see:
Application key set successfully.
This will update the APP_KEY in your .env file.
Step 5: Run Migrations
Laravel comes with built-in authentication and other tables. Run migrations to create them in your database:
php artisan migrate
If successful, your database now has the default tables like users, password_resets, etc.
Step 6: Start the Development Server
You can start Laravel’s built-in server to see your application in action:
php artisan serve
Visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser. You should see the Laravel welcome page!
Step 7: Optional – Install Node Dependencies
If you plan to use Laravel Mix or build frontend assets (CSS, JS), install Node dependencies:
npm install npm run dev