Forge is the canonical Laravel server panel. It's mature, battle-tested, and the right answer for thousands of developers. We're not trying to change that. If you want to set up a server and run it yourself, Forge is what you should pick. This page is for the developers who started with Forge, hit the maintenance treadmill, and started wondering whether someone else could just handle it.
Where Laravel Forge wins
We start here on purpose.
If we can't be honest about what Forge does better, you shouldn't trust the rest of the page.
Mature and battle-tested. Forge has been running production Laravel servers since 2014. The edge cases are caught. The integrations are deep. There is a Stack Overflow answer for every question.
Larger community. The Laravel community lives on Forge. Almost every Laravel developer has used it or knows someone who runs everything on it.
Cheaper from app 2 onward. Forge's flat-tier model means a $12/mo Hobby subscription covers unlimited apps on a single server. Past your first app, Forge is cheaper than strackt's per-app €5 rate. If raw cost is your primary axis, Forge wins almost everywhere — see the Total cost table below for the real numbers.
Broader stack support today. Forge handles PHP frameworks beyond Laravel, plus Node and static sites. strackt is Laravel-focused at launch — that gap closes over time, but it is real today.
A whole Laravel team behind it. Forge ships from Taylor Otwell's team — first-party Laravel integration and a full team's support capacity. strackt is a solo founder project; we say so on the company page, and we say so here. If team-backed support matters to your team, that gap is real and you should weigh it.
Where strackt fits
Forge sets up. strackt manages.
A dev lead at a 5–10 person company, running on Forge today. The setup works. They're not in crisis. But they're tired of the maintenance treadmill — the patches, the OS upgrades, the "did this server drift?" anxiety. They want to stop thinking about servers and start thinking about product.
Forge sets up. strackt manages. Forge provisions your server and deploys your app. After that, every patch, every OS update, every configuration drift, every recovery is on you. strackt manages the server continuously — security patches applied automatically, configuration enforced declaratively, recovery as a one-click action.
Configuration drift goes away. Your strackt server always matches its specification. If something has been changed manually, the next configuration cycle reverts it — or surfaces it for your review. There's no "what's actually running on this box?" anymore.
Disaster recovery shrinks from hours to seconds. On Forge, restoring from a broken state usually means a backup restore — minutes if you're lucky, hours if you're not. On strackt, every change creates a checkpoint. Roll back in seconds. Or rebuild from blueprint in minutes — same configuration, clean slate.
App-centric, not server-centric. On Forge you open a server to see what is on it. On strackt you open an application to see it running, and the server is a resource we placed it on. Different protagonist. Better for developers who think in apps, not in machines.
Side by side
Numbers as of April 2026; verify on the official sites linked next to every Laravel Forge cell.
| Laravel Forge | strackt | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary object | Server — open it to see what is on it |
Application — open it to see it running |
| What it does | Provisions and deploys |
Provisions, deploys, and manages continuously |
| After deployment | You maintain |
strackt maintains |
| Configuration drift | Your problem |
Enforced — server always matches its specification |
| Security updates | Manual or scheduled, your responsibility |
Automatic, applied within 24 hours |
| Disaster recovery | Backup restore (hours) |
Instant rollback (seconds) + rebuild (minutes) |
| Stack detection | Manual selection |
Automatic from your Git repository |
| Pricing | $12–39/mo flat (live) |
First app free; €5/app/mo after, plus your VPS |
| Stack support today | PHP / Laravel / Node / static |
Laravel-focused (more frameworks coming) |
| Team behind it | Taylor Otwell's Laravel team — full support capacity, first-party framework backing |
Solo founder project — async ticketing support only, smaller capacity |
Total cost — what you actually pay each month
Hetzner CX22 (€4.50/mo) is the VPS baseline for both columns. Forge tier names verified on forge.laravel.com/pricing as of April 2026. USD-to-EUR conversion approximate.
| Laravel Forge | strackt | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 app (side project) | ~€15.50 (Forge Hobby $12 + €4.50 VPS) |
€4.50 (free + VPS) |
| 3 apps (small SaaS) | ~€15.50 (Forge Hobby covers unlimited sites on 1 server) |
€14.50 (€10 + VPS) |
| 8 apps (growing) | ~€22 (Forge Growth $19 + €4.50 VPS — unlimited servers) |
€39.50 (€35 + VPS) |
| 20 apps (agency) | ~€40.50 (Forge Business $39 + €4.50 VPS — adds priority support) |
€99.50 (€95 + VPS) |
Honest read. Forge wins on raw price at every scale shown except the very first app (where strackt's free first app makes us the cheap option). Forge's tier model — flat per-account fee, unlimited sites — is genuinely cheaper than strackt's per-app €5 from app 2 onward. We're not the cheap option. The strackt price isn't a discount — it's a different model that includes continuous management Forge doesn't (automatic patching, configuration enforcement, instant rollback, distribution upgrades, fundamental service version upgrades). If your team has the bandwidth for ongoing maintenance and budget is the primary axis, Forge is the right pick. If you'd rather buy back the hours your team would spend reconciling servers, strackt's higher per-app price is paying for the management, not for cheaper hosting.
When Laravel Forge is the right pick
We mean this.
You want full control of the server day to day, and you enjoy that work.
Cost matters more than continuous management — Forge's flat-tier model is cheaper than strackt's per-app rate from app 2 onward.
You need framework / stack support strackt does not ship today (non-Laravel PHP frameworks, Node-only services, static-only deployments).
You're already on Forge, the setup works, and you don't want to migrate.
Any of those — pick Forge. We're not trying to change your mind.
When strackt is the right pick
You started with Forge. The maintenance is starting to add up.
You started with Forge, the maintenance is eating into product time, and you're looking for the next step.
You want someone else to handle patches, drift, and recovery — without giving up your VPS or your provider relationship.
Configuration enforcement matters: your servers should always match their specification.
A €5-VPS-plus-flat-rate-management bill is more predictable than a usage-based platform.
You'd rather ship features than reconcile infrastructure.
- How does moving from Laravel Forge to strackt actually work?
We can't promise zero downtime — strackt doesn't control your Forge server, its DNS, or its routing. The path is honest and predictable: you keep your provider relationship, strackt provisions a new VPS at that provider, and we deploy your existing applications onto it. You verify everything on the new machine, then cut DNS over when you're ready. The cutover is in your hands. Your old Forge box stays exactly as it was until you decide to retire it.
- Does strackt support non-Laravel applications?
Not at launch. Today we're Laravel-focused — that's where the platform is most polished, and where our auto-detection is most accurate. Other PHP frameworks and Node are on the roadmap; we'll say so explicitly when they ship.
- What happens to my server if I leave strackt?
Your server keeps running. You own it, your provider relationship is yours, and the configuration that ran on it is yours too. Take it elsewhere or run it yourself. Nothing locks you to strackt except the experience.
- Can I still SSH into my server?
Yes — full SSH with sudo. Change anything you like. The honest part: strackt enforces the server's specification continuously. If you change something that conflicts with what we manage, the next configuration cycle puts it back. This is the feature, not a limitation — it's how we keep the server from drifting into a broken state. SSH stays open for inspection, debugging, and one-off ops; the source of truth for configuration is the spec, not whatever you typed at 2am.
- What does "manage continuously" actually mean?
Short term: security patches applied within 24 hours. Configuration enforced — your server always matches its specification, no drift. Proactive monitoring with developer-language alerts. Instant rollback and blueprint rebuild as first-class operations. Long term: distribution upgrades (Ubuntu LTS to LTS), fundamental service upgrades (PHP minor versions, MySQL major versions), and the slow-burning maintenance work that normally piles up over years on a Forge server. We do that work continuously so you never inherit a five-year-old box you are afraid to upgrade.
- Who's behind strackt, and what's your support capacity?
Honest answer: strackt is a solo founder project today. One developer (Jan Peter), pre-launch, building toward the first cohort. Support is async ticketing — developer-to-developer, no 24/7 phone lines. Forge ships from a full team at Laravel; that team has more capacity than we do, and if support volume or response-time guarantees are a hard requirement for your business, that gap is real. We tell you upfront. Early access is invite-based and small on purpose so the support load stays manageable while we grow into it.
Your Laravel apps. Less of your time.
If Forge has gotten you this far and the maintenance is starting to add up, strackt is the next step. Same provider, same SSH access — but a new VPS, provisioned by strackt and ready for us to deploy your existing applications onto. You keep your provider relationship; we take care of everything that comes next.
Early access opens mid-2026. Invite-based, small cohort, hands-on onboarding.