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[Home](https://www.msaied.com/public) 2. / 3. [Articles](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles) 4. / 5. Laravel Reverb in Production: Scaling WebSockets, Auth Channels, and Presence at Load Laravel Reverb in Production: Scaling WebSockets, Auth Channels, and Presence at Load ====================================================================================== Reverb ships as Laravel's first-party WebSocket server. This guide covers production deployment, horizontal scaling with Redis, private/presence channel auth, and the subtle gotchas that only appear under real traffic. ![](https://cdn.msaied.com/01M22N44A70A5MC2S599JP0MPH.webp) [Mohamed Said](https://www.msaied.com/public#person) Published 20 Sep 2026 · Updated 20 Sep 2026 · 4 min read ShareCopy linkCopied ![Laravel Reverb in Production: Scaling WebSockets, Auth Channels, and Presence at Load](https://cdn.msaied.com/684/1c8fcd52449a6596e09ec043b245955f.png) On this page +1. [Why Reverb Changes the WebSocket Story for Laravel](#why-reverb-changes-the-websocket-story-for-laravel) 2. [Deployment Architecture](#deployment-architecture) 3. [Horizontal Scaling with Redis](#horizontal-scaling-with-redis) 4. [Private and Presence Channel Auth](#private-and-presence-channel-auth) 5. [Connection Limits and Tuning](#connection-limits-and-tuning) 6. [Key Takeaways](#key-takeaways) Why Reverb Changes the WebSocket Story for Laravel -------------------------------------------------- Before Reverb, running WebSockets in Laravel meant operating a separate Node.js process (Pusher-compatible servers like Soketi or Laravel Echo Server) alongside your PHP app. Reverb collapses that into a single PHP binary, shares your existing service container, and integrates natively with Laravel's broadcasting system. That simplicity is real — but production deployments surface a set of concerns that the getting-started docs gloss over. --- Deployment Architecture ----------------------- Reverb runs as a long-lived Ratchet/ReactPHP process. It is **not** a traditional PHP-FPM request; it is a persistent server. That changes how you deploy it. ```bash # Start Reverb (production) php artisan reverb:start --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080 --env=production ``` Manage it with Supervisor so it restarts on failure: ```ini [program:reverb] command=php /var/www/html/artisan reverb:start --host=0.0.0.0 --port=8080 autostart=true autorestart=true stopwaitsecs=10 user=www-data stdout_logfile=/var/log/reverb.log ``` Nginx proxies WebSocket upgrades to Reverb while your normal FPM traffic continues on port 80/443: ```nginx location /app { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade"; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_read_timeout 3600; } ``` --- Horizontal Scaling with Redis ----------------------------- A single Reverb process is bound to one machine. When you scale to multiple app servers, a client connected to server A won't receive events broadcast from server B. The fix is the Redis scaling driver, which uses Pub/Sub to fan out events across all Reverb nodes. ```php // config/reverb.php 'scaling' => [ 'driver' => 'redis', 'connection' => 'default', // your Redis connection from database.php ], ``` Each Reverb node subscribes to the same Redis channel. When your application fires a broadcast event, any node can pick it up and push it to the connected clients it owns. This requires **sticky sessions** at your load balancer (or a session-affinity cookie) so that the WebSocket handshake and subsequent frames always hit the same node. > **Gotcha:** If you skip sticky sessions, the HTTP-based channel auth endpoint (`/broadcasting/auth`) may be handled by a different server than the one holding the WebSocket connection. The auth will succeed, but Reverb on the other node won't have the subscription registered. Always pair Redis scaling with L4/L7 sticky routing. --- Private and Presence Channel Auth --------------------------------- Reverb reuses Laravel's existing `BroadcastServiceProvider` and channel definitions: ```php // routes/channels.php Broadcast::channel('orders.{orderId}', function (User $user, int $orderId) { return $user->can('view', Order::findOrFail($orderId)); }); Broadcast::channel('presence.team.{teamId}', function (User $user, int $teamId) { if ($user->belongsToTeam($teamId)) { return ['id' => $user->id, 'name' => $user->name]; } }); ``` Presence channels return an array on success; that payload becomes the member data visible to all subscribers. Returning `false` or `null` denies access. On the frontend with Echo: ```javascript window.Echo.join(`presence.team.${teamId}`) .here(members => console.log('Online:', members)) .joining(member => console.log('Joined:', member.name)) .leaving(member => console.log('Left:', member.name)); ``` --- Connection Limits and Tuning ---------------------------- Reverb exposes connection limits per application in `config/reverb.php`. Under load, the bottleneck is usually open file descriptors, not CPU. Raise the OS limit: ```bash # /etc/security/limits.conf www-data soft nofile 65535 www-data hard nofile 65535 ``` Also tune the `max_connections` and `max_request_size` settings: ```php 'apps' => [[ 'id' => env('REVERB_APP_ID'), 'key' => env('REVERB_APP_KEY'), 'secret' => env('REVERB_APP_SECRET'), 'options' => [ 'host' => env('REVERB_HOST', '0.0.0.0'), 'port' => env('REVERB_PORT', 8080), 'max_message_size' => 10_000, // bytes ], ]], ``` --- Key Takeaways ------------- - Reverb is a persistent PHP process — manage it with Supervisor, not FPM. - Use the Redis scaling driver for multi-node deployments; pair it with sticky sessions at the load balancer. - Channel auth runs through your normal Laravel HTTP stack — policies and gates work as expected. - Presence channel member data is the array returned from the channel callback, not a separate API call. - Raise OS file descriptor limits before you hit connection ceilings in production. - `max_message_size` is your first line of defense against oversized payloads crashing the event loop. - [laravel](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles?search=laravel) - [websockets](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles?search=websockets) - [reverb](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles?search=reverb) - [broadcasting](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles?search=broadcasting) - [scaling](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles?search=scaling) Frequently asked questions --------------------------- Can Reverb replace Pusher entirely, including the client-side SDK?Yes. Reverb implements the Pusher protocol, so Laravel Echo works unchanged. You only update the broadcaster config to point at your Reverb host instead of Pusher's servers. No client-side code changes are required. Does Reverb support SSL termination directly?The recommended approach is to terminate TLS at Nginx or a load balancer and proxy plain WebSocket traffic to Reverb on a local port. Reverb can handle TLS natively via its `tls` options, but offloading to a reverse proxy is simpler to certificate-manage in production. What happens to connected clients during a Reverb restart or deployment?Existing WebSocket connections are dropped when the process restarts. Echo's reconnection logic will re-establish them automatically within a few seconds. For zero-downtime deployments, run two Reverb processes behind the load balancer and drain one before restarting it. ![Mohamed Said](https://cdn.msaied.com/01M22N44A70A5MC2S599JP0MPH.webp)About the author ---------------- [Mohamed Said](https://www.msaied.com/public#person)Senior Backend Engineer specializing in Laravel, scalable SaaS platforms, APIs, and cloud infrastructure. I build secure, high-performance web applications that help businesses grow. [About](https://www.msaied.com/public#about) [GitHub ↗](https://github.com/EG-Mohamed) [LinkedIn ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/msaiedm/) [WhatsApp ↗](https://wa.me/201094619204) [Email Address ↗](mailto:hello@msaied.com) [My CV ↗](https://drive.google.com/file/u/0/d/1MF20IPRJyzfy32mhEutjL5EpSls0w2Q8/view) [Previous articleFilament v4 Render Hooks: Injecting UI Into Any Panel Layer Without Hacks](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles/filament-v4-render-hooks-injecting-ui-into-any-panel-layer-without-hacks) [Next articleFilament v4.13.3 Released: Bug Fixes, MFA Improvements, and New Translations](https://www.msaied.com/public/articles/filament-v4133-released-bug-fixes-mfa-improvements-and-new-translations) On this page ------------- 1. [Why Reverb Changes the WebSocket Story for Laravel](#why-reverb-changes-the-websocket-story-for-laravel) 2. [Deployment Architecture](#deployment-architecture) 3. [Horizontal Scaling with Redis](#horizontal-scaling-with-redis) 4. [Private and Presence Channel Auth](#private-and-presence-channel-auth) 5. [Connection Limits and Tuning](#connection-limits-and-tuning) 6. [Key Takeaways](#key-takeaways) ### Have a technical challenge? Tell me what you’re building. I reply within two working days. 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