I see a blank (white) page instead of the Laravel 'Welcome' page

Run "sudo chmod -R 777 storage bootstrap/cache" from the Laravel root directory.

I see "Welcome to nginx" instead of the Laravel App

Use http://127.0.0.1 instead of http://localhost in your browser.

I see an error containing "address already in use" or "port is already allocated"

Make sure the ports for the services you are running (22, 80, 443, 3306, etc.) are not already used by other programs on the host, such as a built-in apache/httpd service or other development tools.

I get MySQL connection refused

Set DB_HOST in your .env to the MySQL container name (the Laradock docker-compose file uses "mysql"), or to the IP of your Laravel container.

Does Laradock work with frameworks other than Laravel?

Yes. Laradock works with any PHP project, including Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, or plain PHP, and behaves the same on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Yes. Laradock is free and open-source under the MIT license, including all 100+ pre-configured services.

Is Laradock still maintained?

Yes. Laradock has been actively maintained since 2015, has 12k+ GitHub stars, and is used by thousands of developers.

Who created Laradock?

Laradock was created in 2015 by Mahmoud Zalt (https://zalt.me), who still maintains it today.

What is the difference between Laradock and Laravel Sail?

Laravel Sail is Laravel's official minimal Docker environment and works only with Laravel. Laradock is framework-agnostic and ships 100+ pre-configured services with full control over every Dockerfile. Side-by-side comparison: https://laradock.io/docs/laradock-vs-laravel-sail

What are the alternatives to Laradock?

Popular alternatives include DDEV, Laravel Sail, Laravel Herd, Lando, Homestead, XAMPP/MAMP, Dev Containers, and writing your own Docker Compose. The docs compare each honestly: https://laradock.io/docs/laradock-alternatives

GitLab

Name: Laradock
Author: Mahmoud Zalt

What is GitLab?

GitLab is a self-hosted Git server with built-in issue tracking, code review, and CI/CD pipelines. Laradock runs the Omnibus image as its own container, wired to the postgres and redis services that are already part of the stack.

Start GitLab

docker compose up -d gitlab

GitLab depends on redis and postgres (declared in gitlab/compose.yml), Compose starts both automatically. First boot takes a while, GitLab is a large application; watch progress with docker compose logs -f gitlab.

Stop GitLab

docker compose stop gitlab

This stops the container without deleting its data. GitLab's config, repositories, and logs live under DATA_PATH_HOST and GITLAB_HOST_LOG_PATH on your host.

Configuration

All settings live in gitlab/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env (your .env always wins):

Variable	Default	What it does
`GITLAB_HOST_HTTP_PORT`	`8989`	Host-side port for the GitLab web UI (HTTP).
`GITLAB_HOST_HTTPS_PORT`	`9898`	Host-side port for the GitLab web UI (HTTPS).
`GITLAB_HOST_SSH_PORT`	`2289`	Host-side port for Git-over-SSH.
`GITLAB_DOMAIN_NAME`	`http://localhost`	External URL GitLab advertises itself as; set this to your real domain in production.
`GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD`	`laradock`	Initial password for the `root` user.
`GITLAB_HOST_LOG_PATH`	`./logs/gitlab`	Host folder mounted to `/var/log/gitlab`.
`GITLAB_POSTGRES_HOST`	`postgres`	Hostname of the Postgres container GitLab connects to.

GitLab also needs GITLAB_POSTGRES_USER, GITLAB_POSTGRES_PASSWORD, and GITLAB_POSTGRES_DB to create its database in Postgres. These aren't in gitlab/defaults.env, they ship as top-level defaults in .env.example (laradock_gitlab for all three). The postgres service also needs GITLAB_POSTGRES_INIT=true (set by default in postgres/defaults.env) to auto-create that database and user on its first boot.

Set your domain

GITLAB_DOMAIN_NAME=http://localhost

Change this to your real domain (or https:// URL) before exposing GitLab beyond local dev, GitLab uses it to generate links, clone URLs, and webhooks.

Common issues

First page load times out or 502s. GitLab's Omnibus stack takes several minutes to fully initialize on first boot. Check docker compose logs -f gitlab until it reports it's ready.
Can't log in as root. Use GITLAB_ROOT_PASSWORD (default laradock). If you changed it after the data volume was already initialized, the change won't retroactively apply, reset the password from inside the container instead.
Database connection errors on first boot. Confirm postgres is running and that GITLAB_POSTGRES_INIT=true in postgres/defaults.env so the laradock_gitlab database and user get created automatically.
Wrong clone URLs or broken webhooks. GITLAB_DOMAIN_NAME is still http://localhost or doesn't match how you actually access GitLab; update it and restart the container.
Port already in use on your host. Change GITLAB_HOST_HTTP_PORT, GITLAB_HOST_HTTPS_PORT, or GITLAB_HOST_SSH_PORT in .env and restart: docker compose up -d gitlab.

Need CI runners to execute your .gitlab-ci.yml pipelines? See GitLab Runner. New to Laradock? Start at Getting Started.

What is GitLab?​

Start GitLab​

Stop GitLab​

Configuration​

Set your domain​

Common issues​