Laravel 12: Sail vs. Valet – The Key Differences & When to Use Each

With the release of Laravel 12, choosing a local development environment remains a crucial factor in a developer’s productivity. Two of the most popular and officially supported options by Laravel are Sail and Valet. Although they both serve the same fundamental purpose, they operate in drastically different ways, each with its own advantages and ideal use cases.

The core distinction lies in the approach: Sail uses Docker containers to create an isolated and consistent development environment, while Valet directly configures your macOS to run Nginx and DnsMasq in the background, offering a minimalist, high-speed solution.

Laravel Sail: The Consistent and Portable Docker Environment

Laravel Sail is a lightweight command-line interface for interacting with Laravel’s default Docker development environment. Essentially, each project gets its own isolated environment defined in a docker-compose.yml file. This means services like PHP, MySQL, and Redis run in their own containers, without interfering with other projects or software installed on your local machine.

Sail’s Key Features:

• Complete Isolation: Each project has its own dependencies and configurations, eliminating conflicts between different versions of PHP or other tools.
• Environment Consistency: It ensures that all team members and the production environment are as similar as possible, reducing surprises at deployment time.
• Cross-Platform: Works consistently across macOS, Windows (via WSL2), and Linux.
• Customizable: You can easily customize the docker-compose.yml file to add or remove services as your project requires.

When should you use Laravel Sail?

• Team Collaboration: It’s ideal for ensuring all developers work with the exact same environment and software versions.
• Projects with Complex Dependencies: Perfect for when a project requires specific PHP versions, extensions, or other services that might conflict with other projects.
• Windows or Linux Users: It is the official and most robust solution for these operating systems.
• Production Parity: If your production environment is also container-based, Sail offers a more aligned development workflow.

Laravel Valet: Speed and Simplicity on macOS

Laravel Valet is a minimalist development environment exclusively for macOS. It configures your Mac to run Nginx and DnsMasq in the background, allowing you to serve your sites with incredible speed. After installation, you simply “park” a directory (valet park), and every Laravel project within that directory becomes automatically available in your browser under a .test domain.

Valet’s Key Features:

• Extremely Fast: With no Docker overhead, Valet is noticeably faster when loading pages.
• Minimal Resource Consumption: It uses a very small amount of RAM.
• Zero Configuration Per Project: Once installed, there’s no need to start or configure anything for new projects.
• macOS Integration: It works seamlessly, starting its services automatically when you boot your system.

When should you use Laravel Valet?

• Solo Developers on macOS: It’s an incredibly simple and fast solution for anyone working alone on a Mac.
• Simple Projects: Ideal for projects that don’t have highly specific or conflicting software requirements.
• Focus on Speed: If local development performance is your top priority.
• Multiple Small Projects: The ease of just creating a folder and having a site ready to go is a major advantage.

Comparison Chart: Sail vs. Valet

Feature	Laravel Sail	Laravel Valet
Core Technology	Docker	Nginx, DnsMasq
Operating System	macOS, Windows (WSL2), Linux	macOS only
Isolation	Complete (per-project)	Shared (services run on host machine)
Performance	Good, but with Docker overhead	Excellent, very fast
Resource Usage	Higher (RAM & CPU)	Minimal
Per-Project Setup	Requires starting containers (sail up)	None
Team Consistency	High	Low (depends on each user’s machine)
Best For	Teams, complex projects, Windows/Linux users	Solo Mac developers, simple projects

The Rise of Laravel Herd

It’s important to note that with Laravel 12, the official documentation now prominently features Laravel Herd. Herd is a blazing-fast, native development environment for both macOS and Windows that comes with everything you need, including PHP and Nginx. It builds on the foundation of Valet but provides a graphical user interface and removes the need for dependencies like Homebrew. For new projects on macOS and Windows, Herd is quickly becoming the top recommendation from the Laravel team, serving as a modern and even simpler alternative to Valet.