Docker with Laravel Sail vs Herd - which do you prefer?

Nina Okafor Feb 19, 2026 Cloud & DevOps 506 views

I have been using Laravel Sail (Docker) for local development but recently switched to Laravel Herd on macOS and the difference is night and day. Sail (Docker): - Cross-platform consistent environments - Easy to add services like Redis, MySQL, Mailpit - Slower on macOS due to Docker file system mounting overhead - Uses more RAM and CPU Herd: - Lightning fast because it runs PHP natively, no containers - Zero config, automatic HTTPS with .test domains - Very low resource usage - macOS and Windows only I now use Herd for daily development and Docker only for CI and production-like testing. Curious what others prefer and why?

2 Replies

Daniel Kim 4 months ago

Team Herd all the way! The speed difference is dramatic. Sail on macOS was painfully slow because of the Docker file system layer. Herd runs PHP natively and serves .test domains with auto-SSL. The only time I use Docker now is for running MySQL and Redis via OrbStack, which is much lighter than Docker Desktop.

Carlos Mendez 4 months ago

I use Herd for daily development but Docker is still essential for team environments where everyone needs the exact same setup. You cannot expect all team members to be on macOS. My compromise: Herd locally for my own machine, Docker Compose file committed in the repo for Linux and Windows developers.

Docker with Laravel Sail vs Herd - which do you prefer?

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