Laravel Forge vs SpinupWP (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, SpinupWP grades higher than Laravel Forge: 2.2 against 1.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
SpinupWP grades higher on the free plan. They get the same grade on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Laravel Forge
Server management and deploys for Laravel, PHP and Node apps
SpinupWP
WordPress server management for servers you rent yourself
Which one is for you
Pick Laravel Forge if
- Fits if you run Laravel apps and want flat-rate server management
- Works for solo developers with many apps on their own cloud accounts
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan or trial
- Watch out: servers are billed separately
- Tight if you use other clouds: Hobby has 1 external server
- Pricey if you want shared-server discounts, as Laravel VPS discounts start at Growth ($19)
- Watch out: only monthly prices could be read
Pick SpinupWP if
- Fits if you rent servers for WordPress and don't want to set up Nginx by hand
- Works for agencies running many servers, since extra servers get cheaper
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a free plan, as there's a 7-day trial only
- Watch out: servers are billed by your provider
- Watch out: support is 2am to 6pm Eastern, Monday to Friday, with no malware cleanup or custom server configs
- Tight if you want more than 1 snapshot a day, as that's Advanced
- Watch out: migrations from $300 a site
How we grade them
| 1.8GPALaravel ForgeWeak | 2.2GPASpinupWPFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$12 a month on Hobby, about the category middle ($11), with servers billed separately by your provider or Laravel VPS. Growth is $19 and Business $39. | C$12 a month for 1 server and 1 user on Essentials, $19 on Advanced, around the category middle ($11), with server rental extra. Extra servers are $8 each on Essentials. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan or trial on the pricing page. | CA 7-day trial with no card, then you pick a plan to keep the dashboard. |
| Features | CServer setup, zero-downtime deploys, queues, databases, SSL and an API. It does the server-management job fully, but that's a smaller job than hosting, and Hobby limits you to 1 external server. | CTuned server setup, snapshots, staging, Git deploys, an API and a CLI. A WordPress-only job done fully, and monitoring is a $1 a site add-on. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You connect a cloud account and set up servers and sites. | CNo store rating on record. You connect a provider and build servers before sites. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with DigitalOcean, AWS, Hetzner and a documented REST API. | BWeb only, with Vultr, Akamai/Linode, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2 and Cloudflare DNS. |
| Best for | managing Laravel and PHP servers | WordPress servers you rent yourself |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Laravel Forge and SpinupWP. How we grade
Price against what you get
Laravel Forge starts at $12 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. SpinupWP starts at $12 a month and scores 2.3.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score for the same starting price. Of the other web hosts on the chart, 3 score higher than Laravel Forge for less, and 3 score higher than SpinupWP for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Laravel Forge also covers workflow automation.
- SpinupWP also covers page speed.
At a glance
| Laravel Forge | SpinupWP | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free trial |
| Starts at | $12 per month (Hobby, monthly billing) | $12 per month (Essentials, 1 server) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial, no credit card required. |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Laravel | SpinupWP |
| Price read from | laravel.com | spinupwp.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Laravel Forge
- Forge is a paid service with no free plan or trial listed on its pricing page.
- You also pay your cloud provider, or Laravel VPS charges, for the servers themselves.
- Hobby includes only 1 external server; unlimited external servers start with Growth at $19 a month.
- The pricing page has a Monthly and an Annual toggle; the annual figures could not be read, so only monthly prices are listed.
SpinupWP
- The server itself is billed separately by your provider; SpinupWP charges only for the panel.
- Extra servers cost $8 each a month on Essentials and $10 on Advanced for servers 2 to 3, falling to $1 beyond 60.
- After the trial ends you must pick a plan to keep access to the dashboard.
- Support hours are 2am to 6pm Eastern Time, Monday to Friday, and the vendor says it will not do malware cleanup or customize server configs.
Key features
Laravel Forge
- Laravel VPS
- A one-click server option that Forge says is set up in under 10 seconds, with Nginx, PHP, MySQL or Postgres and Redis installed, and a shared web terminal.
- Zero-downtime deploys
- Deploys can be scripted, queued and stacked, and zero-downtime deployments are included for a single server.
- Bring your own cloud
- Servers can also be created at providers such as DigitalOcean, AWS and Hetzner, though on Hobby only one external server is included.
- Databases and queues
- Forge can provision, back up and monitor database clusters, and supervises queue workers without manual Supervisor setup.
- SSL and hosted domains
- Free automated SSL is included, along with on-forge.com hosted domains for launching an app before domain setup.
- API
- A documented REST API covers servers, deployments, databases, firewall rules, backups, monitors and other resources.
SpinupWP
- WordPress-tuned server setup
- Servers are configured with full page caching, Redis object caching, security hardening and a correctly set up WordPress cron.
- Scheduled backups
- Site snapshots can be sent to Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage or Akamai/Linode Object Storage.
- Staging sites
- Sites can be cloned to the same or another server and refreshed from live, on both plans.
- Developer tools
- Git deploys with git push, a REST API and a command line tool are listed, along with Composer, Roots Bedrock and multiple PHP versions.
- Site monitoring
- Site monitoring is a paid add-on on the Advanced plan, at $1 a month per monitored site.
- Migration service
- A paid migration service starts at $300 per site, with the vendor setting up the site for you to test before the domain is pointed.
Plans
Laravel Forge
Hobby$12
per month, monthly billing
Unlimited Laravel VPS servers, 1 external server, unlimited sites and deployments, managed databases and community support.
Growth$19
per month, monthly billing
Unlimited servers, 5% discount on Laravel VPS and standard support, plus the other features of Hobby.
Business$39
per month, monthly billing
Unlimited servers, 15% discount on Laravel VPS and advanced support.
SpinupWP
Essentials$12
per month for 1 server and 1 user
Unlimited sites, 1 daily backup snapshot per site, unlimited staging sites and standard email support.
Advanced$19
per month for 1 server and 1 user
Adds up to 4 daily, 4 weekly and 4 monthly snapshots, priority support, external MySQL and extra users at $2 a month each.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Laravel Forge or SpinupWP?
As of Nov 12, 2026, they start at the same price. Laravel Forge starts at $12 per month (Hobby, monthly billing), and SpinupWP starts at $12 per month (Essentials, 1 server).
Which has a free plan, Laravel Forge or SpinupWP?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Laravel Forge nor SpinupWP has a free plan. SpinupWP has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.