laravel-backup is an MIT-licensed PHP package from Spatie that packages a Laravel application's files and its database dump into a single zip archive and stores that archive on any filesystem Laravel is configured to use, and it is aimed at Laravel developers and operations teams who want automated, verifiable, self-hosted backups without a separate backup service.

What it is

laravel-backup is a Composer package for the Laravel ecosystem, published under the name spatie/laravel-backup and installed into a Laravel application like any other dependency. It produces backups rather than storing them itself: the package assembles a zip file containing all files in the directories the application specifies, together with a dump of its database, and then hands that zip to Laravel's filesystem layer. Because the destination is a Laravel filesystem, the same package can write to local disk, S3-compatible object storage, or any other disk the application has configured, and it can write to several of them at once.

The concrete problem it solves is the routine of dumping a database and archiving application directories by hand. Instead of hand-rolled scripts that run mysqldump and then tar or copy files, the package provides a single Artisan command, php artisan backup:run, that produces one consistent zip containing both the file tree and the database dump. It also addresses the two operational gaps that hand-written backup scripts usually leave open: knowing whether backups actually succeeded, and preventing old archives from filling up the destination disk.

Key capabilities

• Creates a zip file containing all files in the directories you specify plus a dump of your database, triggered with php artisan backup:run.
• Stores backups on any filesystem configured in Laravel, and can write to multiple filesystems simultaneously for redundancy.
• Ships a backup monitor that checks the health of existing backups, exposed through the package's monitoring documentation.
• Sends notifications through several channels when a problem with a backup is detected.
• Cleans up old backups automatically to avoid consuming excessive disk space.
• Requires PHP 8.4 and Laravel 12.0 or higher for the current version, with older releases documented for versions 3 through 6.
• Includes a test suite run with composer test, and the repository shows 6,026 stars and 784 forks.

Who uses it and how

• Laravel application teams schedule php artisan backup:run so file and database backups are produced on a recurring basis without manual intervention.
• Teams that need redundancy point a single backup run at several configured filesystems at once, so one copy lands locally and another on remote object storage.
• Operations staff rely on the backup monitor and notification channels to learn about failing or missing backups rather than discovering the gap during a restore.
• Projects pinned to PHP below 8.4 or Laravel below 12.0 run versions 3 through 6, which receive bug fixes but no new features.
• Long-lived Laravel applications use the cleanup behaviour to keep disk usage bounded as the number of retained archives grows.

Getting started

Install the spatie/laravel-backup package through Composer in a Laravel application, then take a backup by running php artisan backup:run. Configuration, monitoring, notification and cleanup details live in the documentation at https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-backup.

How it compares

The facts provided do not list paid products that this package replaces, and they name no comparable backup tool. Within the material supplied here, laravel-backup stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must already operate a Laravel application with PHP 8.4 and Laravel 12.0 or higher, at least one configured filesystem to receive the archives, a scheduler to trigger runs, and whatever notification channels are wanted for alerts; database connectivity is obviously required for the dump step. It is the wrong choice for applications outside Laravel or PHP, and for teams unwilling to keep pace with the PHP and Laravel versions the current release demands, since versions 6 and below are frozen feature-wise and receive bug fixes only. The README itself is largely a pointer to external documentation at spatie.be, so anyone evaluating the package must read those pages before deciding.

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php artisan backup:run

composer test