Laravel Installation Guide - Step-by-Step for Beginners

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework built for developing scalable and secure web applications. It follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern and provides built-in features like routing, authentication, ORM (Eloquent), middleware, and more.

Laravel simplifies complex tasks and speeds up development.

Laravel System Requirements

Before installing Laravel, make sure your system meets these requirements:

  • PHP 8.1 or later
  • Composer installed
  • MySQL / PostgreSQL / SQLite
  • OpenSSL
  • Mbstring
  • XML
  • Ctype
  • JSON
  • Tokenizer
  • PDO extension

Step 1: Install Composer

Composer is required to install Laravel because it manages project dependencies.

Install Composer on Windows

  1. Download Composer from the official website.
  2. Run the installer.
  3. Make sure it’s added to your system PATH.
  4. Restart your terminal.

Step 2: Create a New Laravel Project

Once Composer is ready, run:

composer create-project laravel/laravel myproject

This command will

  • Download Laravel
  • Install dependencies
  • Create the project structure

Move into your project directory

cd myproject

Step 3: Configure Environment File

Laravel stores configuration inside the .env file.

Open .env and update database credentials:

DB_DATABASE=your_database
DB_USERNAME=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_password

Generate the application key

php artisan key:generate

This step is required for session and encryption security.

Step 4: Run Laravel Development Server

Start the built-in server

php artisan serve

You will see something like

Starting Laravel development server: http://127.0.0.1:8000

Open your browser and visit:

http://127.0.0.1:8000

If everything works, the Laravel welcome page will appear.

Alternative Method: Install Laravel Using Laravel Installer

1) Instead of using create-project, you can install the Laravel installer globally

composer global require laravel/installer

2) Then create a new project

laravel new myproject

This method is faster if you frequently create new Laravel projects.

Installing Laravel with XAMPP

If you're using XAMPP:

  1. Install and start Apache & MySQL.
  2. Create a database via phpMyAdmin.
  3. Place your Laravel project inside htdocs.
  4. Update .env database settings.
  5. Run php artisan serve or configure a virtual host.

Common Laravel Installation Errors & Solutions

1. Composer Not Recognized

  • Restart terminal
  • Reinstall Composer
  • Ensure PATH variable is configured

2. PHP Version Too Low

  • Upgrade PHP to 8.1+
  • Check PATH settings

3. Permission Errors (Linux/macOS)

sudo chmod -R 775 storage bootstrap/cache

4. Verify Laravel Installation

php artisan --version

You should see the installed Laravel version number.

Conclusion

Installing Laravel is simple when you follow the proper steps. With PHP and Composer installed, you can set up a new Laravel project in minutes.

Now that your Laravel installation is complete, you can start learning about:

  • Routing
  • Controllers
  • Blade templating
  • Database migrations
  • REST APIs

Laravel provides everything you need to build professional web applications efficiently.

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