phpMyAdmin

What is phpMyAdmin?

phpMyAdmin is a web-based admin GUI for MySQL and MariaDB, browse tables, run queries, manage users, and import/export data without touching a command line. There's nothing to "install", Laradock builds it as its own container from the official phpmyadmin image and points it at whichever database container you're already running.

Start phpMyAdmin

Start it alongside the database it should manage:

# with MySQL
docker compose up -d mysql phpmyadmin

# with MariaDB
docker compose up -d mariadb phpmyadmin

Stop phpMyAdmin

docker compose stop phpmyadmin

Configuration

All settings live in phpmyadmin/defaults.env and can be overridden by adding the same line to your own .env:

Variable	Default	What it does
PMA_DB_ENGINE	mysql	Which service phpMyAdmin depends on and connects to by default: mysql or mariadb.
PMA_USER	default	Username phpMyAdmin logs in with.
PMA_PASSWORD	secret	Password for PMA_USER.
PMA_ROOT_PASSWORD	secret	Root password passed through to the container.
PMA_PORT	8081	Host-side port for the web UI (container port 80).
PMA_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME	600	PHP max_execution_time, in seconds, for long-running queries/imports.
PMA_MEMORY_LIMIT	256M	PHP memory_limit for the container.
PMA_UPLOAD_LIMIT	2G	Max upload size, for importing large SQL/CSV files.

Log in

Open http://localhost:8081. For the default MySQL setup, use server mysql, user default, password secret (or your own PMA_USER/PMA_PASSWORD).

Switch to MariaDB

1. In .env, set PMA_DB_ENGINE=mariadb.
2. Start mariadb instead of mysql: docker compose up -d mariadb phpmyadmin.
3. Log in with server mariadb.

Common issues

• "mysqli::real_connect(): (HY000/2002)" or similar connection error. phpMyAdmin depends_on: ${PMA_DB_ENGINE}, meaning it starts alongside whichever engine PMA_DB_ENGINE names, but if that container isn't actually up (or you changed PMA_DB_ENGINE without restarting), the login form has nothing to connect to. Confirm the matching database container is running: docker compose ps.
• Login rejected. Double-check PMA_USER/PMA_PASSWORD match the actual credentials on the target database (MYSQL_USER/MYSQL_PASSWORD or MARIADB_USER/MARIADB_PASSWORD), they're independent variables and can drift out of sync if you change one without the other.
• Large import fails partway through. Raise PMA_UPLOAD_LIMIT and PMA_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME in .env, then restart: docker compose up -d phpmyadmin.
• Port already in use on your host. Change PMA_PORT in .env and restart.

---

Prefer a lighter GUI, or need Postgres/SQLite too? See Adminer. Back to the Getting Started guide.