The Laravel SaaS Stack
A batteries-included PHP path for shipping a SaaS without assembling a dozen JavaScript services. Auth, queues, ORM, and billing ship with the framework, and one developer can hold the whole app in their head.
- 01LABackend FrameworksFramework
Laravel
Auth scaffolding, queues, the Eloquent ORM, and Cashier for billing all ship in the box. One person can cover the entire application.
- 02PODatabasesDatabase
PostgreSQL
Mature relational database that Eloquent targets cleanly. Predictable and well understood for a transactional, subscription-based SaaS.
- 03PAPaymentsPayments
Paddle
Merchant of record that remits global tax, and Laravel Cashier has first-class Paddle support, so subscriptions wire up in a few classes.
- 04ALFrontend FrameworksFrontend interactivity
Alpine.js
Lightweight JS for the interactive sprinkles Blade templates need, without adding a single-page-app build step. The A in the TALL stack.
- 05REHostingHosting
Render
Managed deploys for PHP apps with a database and background workers in one place. Far less setup than configuring your own server.
Why this combo
This is for developers who never left PHP and are tired of being told the only way to ship a SaaS is JavaScript everywhere. Laravel is genuinely batteries-included: auth, queues, the Eloquent ORM, and Cashier for subscriptions all ship together, so a single developer holds the entire app rather than gluing services. Cashier's first-class Paddle integration turns billing and global tax compliance into a few classes instead of a separate project. Alpine handles the interactive bits inside Blade without dragging in a front-end build pipeline, and Render deploys the whole thing, database and workers included, without server administration.
This stack exists because the JavaScript-everywhere narrative leaves a large, productive audience out. Laravel has spent a decade making the common SaaS needs into framework features, and this combination leans on that fully rather than reaching for separate services.
What this costs to start
Laravel and Alpine are free and open source, so the only fixed costs are hosting and the database, both of which start small on Render. Paddle takes a percentage per transaction in exchange for acting as merchant of record, which means it files and remits VAT and sales tax for you. For a solo founder selling globally, that fee is almost always cheaper than the accountant you would otherwise need to handle cross-border tax.
What to swap when you scale
- Background work: Laravel’s queue system already abstracts the driver, so moving from a database queue to Redis or a managed worker is a config change.
- Frontend depth: if the UI outgrows Alpine, Livewire or Inertia slot into the same Laravel app without rebuilding the back end.
- Hosting: Render is the convenient default; a larger team can move to dedicated infrastructure since nothing here is tied to a proprietary platform API.
Where it is not the right call
If your team is JavaScript-native or the product is front-end heavy with complex client state, fighting upstream against the framework’s grain costs more than it saves. This stack pays off when PHP is already your language and you want to ship features instead of wiring infrastructure.