Audience
Web developers who build Laravel or PHP applications and want a fast, simplified local development environment with integrated tools and server configuration
About Laravel Herd
Laravel Herd for Windows is a native development environment designed to simplify local PHP and Laravel application development by providing a complete stack in a single installable tool. It includes essential components such as PHP, Nginx, Node.js, and command-line utilities like Composer, the Laravel installer, and Expose, allowing developers to start building applications immediately after installation without configuring multiple dependencies. Herd runs using native binaries rather than containers, virtual machines, or complex virtualization layers, which helps deliver faster performance and a lighter system footprint compared to many traditional development environments. Once installed, it automatically configures the local system so that projects can be served through .test domains, routing requests from the browser directly to sites hosted on the developer’s machine.