Laravel Homestead (Udemy.com)
Learn to install and use Laravel Homestead
Created by: Edwin Diaz
Last updated July 2017
Our take
Based on the ratings of 2,371 students and a sample of their written reviews, the syllabus, the course as of July 2017. No course pays to be reviewed.
This is a short, free setup course rather than a Laravel course. In about two hours and 14 lectures, Edwin Diaz walks through installing Laravel Homestead, the Vagrant box that bundles PHP, Nginx, MySQL, Redis and the rest into a portable virtual machine. The syllabus is split cleanly into a Mac section (about an hour) and a Windows section (about 50 minutes), so most people will watch only half of it. The requirements say you should already know Laravel. It is aimed at developers who have outgrown XAMPP-style local setups and want a consistent environment they can hand to a teammate.
The live, unedited recordings divide reviewers. Diaz makes mistakes on camera and fixes them; one student says that taught them to resolve errors themselves, while two others wish the videos had been rehearsed or re-edited for beginners' sake. One reviewer says the course got Laravel and Vagrant running after many failed attempts with other tutorials. The complaints are consistent. The instructor jumps around, and lower-star reviews ask for a checklist of what to download and when. Vagrant itself is barely explained. One Windows user notes that commands only work in PowerShell, not Command Prompt. And since the last update was July 2017, reviewers have hit changed Homestead directories and newer Laravel versions that no longer match the video.
Value is easy to judge because it costs nothing. Next to the paid Laravel courses on this page, which build full projects, this is a narrow companion piece, not a competitor. Take it if you are already working through one of those and want a virtual environment set up without hunting through the docs. Just expect to pause, check the current Homestead documentation, and google a few errors along the way.
Pros
- Free, and short enough to finish in an evening: 14 lectures, about two hours.
- Separate Mac and Windows install sections, so you only watch the half that applies.
- Mistakes are made and fixed on camera, which one reviewer says taught them to troubleshoot.
- One student says it got Laravel and Vagrant running after other tutorials had failed them.
Cons
- Last updated July 2017; reviewers report Homestead paths and Laravel steps have changed since.
- Instructor jumps around; lower-star reviews want a checklist of what to install and when.
- Vagrant commands and virtualization are barely explained, so newcomers end up in the docs.
This course helped me run Laravel and Vagrant for the first time after so many unsuccessful attempts with other tutorials
Listed as beginner, but requirements say you need to know Laravel, and reviewers unfamiliar with Vagrant or the terminal struggled.
What you will learn
- At the end of the course students will be able to install and use Laravel Homestead
Course content
3 sections · 14 lectures · 2.1 hours of video 1 articles
- 1Introduction to the course 1 free preview3 lectures · 9 min
- 2Mac installation7 lectures · 1.1 hours
- 3Windows4 lectures · 50 min
Who it is for
The instructor says it suits
- Students looking to be more productive with Laravel should take this course
What you need before you start
- Students need to know Laravel
Quality Score
No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.
Overall Score : 94 / 100
Course Description
Welcome to this Laravel Homestead course!
Laravel is a very popular PHP framework that allows developers to create really cool applications, easily and fast. As you progress in your understanding of Laravel and your start creating more and more projects, you come to the realization that you need a little more power and flexibility; That's where Homestead comes in.
Laravel Homestead is a package or as some of us call it a "box" full of Laravel goodies inside. Right out of the box Laravel Homestead includes ....
- Ubuntu 16.04
- Git
- PHP 7.1
- Nginx
- MySQL
- MariaDB
- Sqlite3
- Postgres
- Composer
- Node (With Yarn, PM2, Bower, Grunt, and Gulp)
- Redis
- Memcached
- Beanstalkd
As you can see, here is everything you need to start creating projects right away. The great thing about this, is that your environment is totally portable. You can give your configuration file to a friend, co-worker and they can be up an running in minutes, exactly with the same tools you have in yours.
Another great advantage of having a virtual environment for our Laravel projects is that we don't have to install any of these softwares into our computer directly, this will prevent issues that can affect other development environments that we might have.
If you are ready to be more productive with Laravel then take this course, and I see you inside!
Instructor Details
- 4.7 Rating
2,371 Reviews
Edwin Diaz
Edwin Diaz: A Leading Engineer, Life Coach, and Serial Entrepreneur
Transforming Lives Through Programming Courses
Edwin Diaz is not just a name in the world of software development and web technologies—he is a powerhouse of knowledge and experience, a life coach, and a successful serial entrepreneur. His journey is a testament to the incredible impact that one person can have through dedication, passion, and the desire to empower others. With expertise spanning numerous programming languages and frameworks, Edwin has become a beacon for those looking to break into the tech industry or enhance their existing skills.
A Multifaceted Professional: Combining Technology with Life Coaching
Edwin Diaz’s career is a perfect blend of technical expertise and a passion for teaching. As a software and web technologies engineer, he has mastered many programming languages, including PHP, JavaScript, and Python. His deep understanding of these languages enables him to teach complex concepts in a way that is accessible and engaging.
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Reviews
By Veloxnet Kft. Hungary 2364 Ócsa, Damjani on 5/18/2021
Very useful course, thank you for helping us Edwin! One thing tho: I think it would be better to spend more time explaining all these stuff for a better understanding. I mean explaining more how virtualization works, what exactly these softwares are we are using, what does vagrant provision / vagrant up do exactly...etc.
By Lawrence Wayne Austin on 1/26/2021
need to learn how to setup Laravel Homestead on both Windows & Mac... i would like to say to the creator to be a bit more streamlined when setting up software development platforms as I found that he described things by going from one point to the next and it was a little confusing or unhelpful at times but he was very clear which did make it easy to understand I guess so Thankyou for your work... Maybe write a script and follows that when recording so all instructions are clear, and to the point with no jumping around to clarify points.
By Luciano Daniel Duarte on 4/20/2020
It is hard to make a course about configuring machines, there is always particularities on each machine. Needed to install on my self the programs used to setup the vagrant working environment because my machine already have lots of things installed that interfere with the setup and ended up with some things different from the course.
By Basil Isaac Nzewure on 12/29/2019
Great experience. Master Edwin is really doing a great job. He has proven enough passion for teaching. I love the community too, very helpful indeed. I will really be glad if this platform can help me achieve my dream of building great applications.
By Priscila Ortiz flores on 6/16/2019
Well explained, I just found a web security policy for Chrome browser HSTS, when I was using this domain laravel-apps.app, Chrome browser forced use HTTPS secure protocol, so I had to change the domain extension to .test laraveltest.test and It worked for me.
By Tim Ferris on 7/23/2018
I felt this course was a great introduction to the world of virtual boxes, as well as an introduction to using command line tools like git's bash terminal. I would love to see more lessons on terminal commands, and possibly on command line programs. Overall I think this was a great course and just want to say keep up the great work Edwin!
By Sandesh Poudel on 5/7/2018
You want it i got it 5 Star. Thanks Edwin it really worked me though it take about 3 days to get started now i knew it well and all the credit goes to mr.Laravel by Edwin diazz :) just joking thanks man i can write 100 times thank you coz it really worked me out
By Viral Shah on 11/1/2017
The overall course was great. It would have been nice if some of the most common problems faced during installs were discussed. I got stuck when I tried to do "vagrant up" in the ssh connection timeout. I saw that a lot of people faced similar issues on the net. It would have been great if Edwin could address this and suggest a fix as a lot of hours were spent in trying to fix this issue (finally I gave up on solving the issue and installed laravel on a different machine and it worked on that)
By Duane van Twest on 9/24/2017
In the end the course helped me getting my homestead setup working. It also gave me a wider understanding of the environment and some of the problems that could be experience (some of which I did encounter). the course delivery is pretty manic and could be more concise with the process explained in a simpler manner - rather than spurious side issues.
By Wendy ter Horst on 8/11/2017
This course was thorough enough for me! Any complications I got while installing were explained and fixed. I'm following the PHP with Laravel for Beginners - Become a Master in Laravel and was recommended by Edwin to take this course alongside it. Thanks a lot for this thorough explanation!












