Flock 1.0: A Free, Native Herd Alternative for Laravel and PHP Local Development

Lukas Frey and the team at Guava, a software studio in the Czech Republic, have released Flock 1.0.0, a local development app for Laravel and other PHP projects. As reported by Laravel News on November 4, 2026, Flock runs PHP, Node.js, databases and the web server as native processes on macOS, Windows and Linux, without Docker or a virtual machine. It is free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, and no account is needed.

How it compares with Herd

Flock covers much of what Laravel Herd offers: .test domains with trusted HTTPS, a per-project PHP version, and a menu bar or tray app. The differences are in what's paid and where it runs:

• Herd needs a Pro license for databases, the mail catcher and the dump viewer. In Flock these are free.
• Flock runs on Linux; Herd does not.
• Herd supports PHP 7.4 up to the PHP 8.6 release candidate. Flock starts at PHP 8.1 and installs 8.1 through 8.5 side by side.
• Flock's README says it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Laravel. Herd is built by Beyond Code in partnership with Laravel.

Quick start

cd ~/Code
composer create-project laravel/laravel myapp
flock park                  # serve every folder in ~/Code at <folder>.test
flock secure myapp          # HTTPS for myapp.test
cd myapp
flock pin php 8.5           # per-project PHP version, saved in .flockrc
flock services install postgres
flock services create-db postgres myapp

The CLI also has a shorter alias, flk. Flock reads each project's Node.js version from .nvmrc or .node-version, and also serves Laravel Octane, FrankenPHP, Symfony, WordPress and Drupal projects.

Services, debugging and AI tooling

• Services: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Meilisearch, Valkey and RustFS on all three platforms, with multiple versions each. Redis is macOS-only (use Valkey elsewhere), and Typesense isn't available on Windows. PostgreSQL extensions such as PostGIS, pgvector and TimescaleDB can be installed per version.
• Mail and dumps: each app gets its own mail inbox, and dump()/dd() output goes to a Dumps window grouped by request alongside queries, logs, views and jobs, collected through an OpenTelemetry agent with no package required.
• Xdebug: off by default for speed; flock xdebug on enables trigger-based debugging and flock debug artisan migrate debugs a command.
• Worktrees and sharing: each git worktree gets its own .test host with dependencies installed and a fresh .env; flock share publishes a temporary URL through a Cloudflare tunnel, optionally restricted with --allow.
• MCP: a built-in MCP server lets AI agents read sites, caught mail, dumps and errors, and flock boost adds Flock's guidelines to Laravel Boost.

Requirements

macOS 15 Sequoia or newer on Apple silicon; Windows 10 (2004) or 11 on x64; Ubuntu 24.04+ or Fedora on x64 or arm64 with systemd-resolved (Arch users can use flockphp-bin from the AUR). Flock needs ports 80 and 443, so stop Herd, Valet or other local stacks first.

What it means for older codebases

The PHP 8.1 floor is worth noting: projects still on PHP 7.x or 8.0 can't be run in Flock, and those versions no longer get upstream security fixes, including for the recent PHP2Shell vulnerabilities. If a legacy application is what's keeping your team off modern tooling, RescuePHP can help plan and carry out the PHP upgrade, or backport security fixes while you migrate.