Migrate from Heroku to Laravel Cloud

Heroku to Laravel Cloud: Migration steps

Set up Laravel Cloud account

Create your account at cloud.laravel.com and set up your organization. Have questions? Check our Laravel Cloud Quickstart documentation.

Create your new application

• From your Laravel Cloud dashboard, click + New application.
• Connect your Git provider (GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket).
• Select your repository and branch.
• Configure your environment settings:
  • Choose PHP version from the list of supported versions.
  • Set environment variables (copy from Heroku or .env).
  • Add any secrets your application needs.

Provision your new infrastructure

Create the resources your application needs:

Postgres database

• In your environment's infrastructure canvas, add a Database.
• Choose Postgres (Heroku uses Postgres).
• Select compute size based on your needs.
• Enable public endpoint for migration (you can disable after).
• Laravel Cloud automatically configures Laravel environment variables.

KV store for cache/session storage

• Add a KV Store resource to your infrastructure canvas.
• Choose Redis or Valkey
• Laravel Cloud automatically configures Laravel environment variables.

Object storage (S3-compatible)

• Add Object storage if you use file uploads.
• Update your filesystems.php configuration to use the Laravel Object Storage.

You've now set up a new Laravel Cloud account and provisioned all necessary infrastructure. You can now migrate your Heroku application to Laravel Cloud.

Prepare to migrate

• Log into your Heroku account.
• Get your Heroku database credentials:
  • Check Heroku dashboard → Datastores → Credentials

Migrate your database

With your new Laravel Cloud database provisioned and public endpoint enabled:

Finding your Laravel Cloud database credentials:

• Application dashboard → Environment → Database → Connection Details
• Credentials are also injected as environment variables

Export from Heroku

# From your local machine
pg_dump \
  -Fc \
  -f "dump-file.bak" \
  "postgresql://heroku-db-username:heroku-db-password@heroku-db-host:heroku-db-port/heroku-db-database"

Import to Laravel Cloud

# From your local machine
pg_restore \
  --clean \
  --no-owner \
  --no-acl \
  --if-exists \
  --dbname="postgresql://cloud-db-username:cloud-db-password@cloud-db-host:cloud-db-port/cloud-db-database" \
  "dump-file.bak"

At this point, you are ready to deploy your application to Laravel Cloud by hitting the "Deploy" button. Follow the next steps to test if everything is working correctly.

Test your Laravel Cloud deployment

Before switching DNS:

• Deploy your application: Click the Deploy button in Laravel Cloud.
• Verify deployment: Check the deployment logs for any errors.
• Test using Laravel Cloud URL: Every environment gets a .laravel.cloud URL.
• Run smoke tests: Verify critical functionality works.
• Check background jobs: Ensure queues are processing correctly.

Switch DNS to Laravel Cloud

Once verified, point your domain to Laravel Cloud:

• In the Laravel Cloud dashboard, go to Domains and add your custom domain.
• Laravel Cloud will provide DNS records (A/CNAME).
• Update your DNS provider with the new records.
• SSL certificates are automatically provisioned and renewed.

Disable public database endpoint (optional)

After migration is complete and stable:

• Disable the public endpoint on your Laravel Cloud database for security.
• Your application will continue to access it via private network.

End your Heroku subscription

Once you've successfully deployed and tested your application, don't forget to cancel your Heroku add-ons and dynos. You can remove the Heroku app or keep it for reference until you're confident in Laravel Cloud.