How FrankenPHP Can Replace Nginx + PHP‑FPM for Faster Laravel Development

Environment Preparation

Use Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS with PHP 8.4.7, Nginx 1.24.0, Laravel 12.20.0, and FrankenPHP v1.8.0 (PHP 8.4.10, Caddy v2.10.0).

# Install FrankenPHP
curl https://frankenphp.dev/install.sh | sh
mv frankenphp /usr/local/bin/
# Serve the public/ directory
frankenphp php-server -r public/
# Run a CLI script
frankenphp php-cli script.php

Or use Docker:

# Serve the public/ directory
docker run -v $PWD:/app/public -p 443:443/tcp -p 443:443/udp dunglas/frankenphp
# Run a CLI script
docker run -v $PWD:/app dunglas/frankenphp php script.php

Laravel Installation and Octane Integration

composer global require laravel/installer
laravel new franken-demo
composer require laravel/octane
php artisan octane:install

During Octane installation, select FrankenPHP as the server driver.

Start the application:

/usr/bin/php8.4 artisan octane:start --server=frankenphp --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8008

FrankenPHP Quick Start

Check the version: /usr/local/bin/frankenphp version Start a web server with a single command (default directory is the current one): /usr/local/bin/frankenphp php-server Or specify a directory:

/usr/local/bin/frankenphp php-server -r ./public/

Run a PHP script directly:

/usr/local/bin/frankenphp php-cli ./public/info.php

Configuration for Laravel Projects

Create a Caddyfile in the Laravel root:

{
    frankenphp
    # Disable default ports to avoid conflict with local Nginx
    auto_https off
    http_port 8880
    https_port 8443
}

http://franken.demo:8006 {
    # Set the webroot to the public/ directory
    root public/
    encode zstd br gzip
    php_server {
        try_files {path} index.php
    }
}

Start FrankenPHP from the project root:

/usr/local/bin/frankenphp run

Performance Benchmarking

Traditional Nginx + PHP‑FPM test (1000 requests, 20 concurrency): ab -n 1000 -c 20 http://franken.demo/hello Result: ~100 requests/sec, 199 ms average latency.

FrankenPHP classic mode (no memory resident):

/usr/local/bin/frankenphp run
ab -n 1000 -c 20 http://franken.demo:8006/hello

Result: ~116 requests/sec, 172 ms average latency.

FrankenPHP worker mode with Laravel Octane:

/usr/bin/php8.4 artisan octane:start --server=frankenphp --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8008
ab -n 1000 -c 20 http://franken.demo:8008/hello

Result: ~209 requests/sec, 96 ms average latency.

The benchmarks clearly show that FrankenPHP, especially when combined with Laravel Octane, delivers a substantial performance boost over the classic Nginx + PHP‑FPM stack.

Conclusion

FrankenPHP simplifies PHP deployment by merging PHP, Caddy, and a high‑performance server into a single binary, reducing configuration complexity and improving request handling speed. For Laravel developers, integrating FrankenPHP via Octane offers a compelling path to faster local development and testing.