pulse
Laravel Pulse is a real-time performance monitoring dashboard built for Laravel applications. It provides visibility into application metrics and health without requiring external services.
Key facts
Objective fields from the source. Values we can't verify are shown as “Unknown” rather than guessed.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | laravel/pulse |
| Owner | laravel |
| Primary language | PHP |
| License | MIT — OSI-approved |
| Stars | 1.7k |
| Forks | 212 |
| Open issues | 9 |
| Latest release | v1.7.4 (2026-06-03) |
| Last updated | 2026-07-07 |
| Source | https://github.com/laravel/pulse |
What pulse is
A PHP-based monitoring tool that integrates with Laravel to collect and display real-time application performance data, request metrics, and system insights via a built-in dashboard.
Get the pulse source
Clone the repository and explore it locally.
git clone https://github.com/laravel/pulse.gitcd pulse# follow the project's README for install & configurationNeed it deployed, integrated, or customized instead? DEV.co ships production installs.
Best use cases
Implementation considerations
- Requires Laravel framework integration; installation via Composer and configuration in Laravel config files.
- Data storage backend selection (Redis, database) impacts retention, query performance, and infrastructure costs.
- Dashboard authentication and authorization must align with existing Laravel app security posture.
- Monitoring overhead: collecting metrics at scale may impact application response times; profiling overhead should be tested.
- Memory and CPU footprint of metric collection process should be validated in production environment sizing.
When to avoid it — and what to weigh
- Non-Laravel Applications — Pulse is Laravel-specific; it cannot be used with other PHP frameworks or non-PHP applications without significant adaptation.
- Multi-Tenant SaaS Monitoring — Single-tenant architecture may not scale efficiently for monitoring hundreds of independent customer applications simultaneously.
- Distributed System Tracing — Limited to single Laravel instances; lacks native support for distributed tracing, microservices correlation, or cross-service dependency mapping.
- Long-Term Data Retention — Designed for real-time dashboards; no clear indication of cost-effective long-term historical analytics or compliance-grade audit logging.
License & commercial use
Licensed under MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology License), a permissive OSI-approved license allowing commercial use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.
MIT license permits commercial use without restriction. However, no warranty or liability protection is provided by the license. Verify security posture and support model independently before production deployment in customer-facing systems.
DEV.co evaluation signals
Editorial assessment — not user reviews. Directional, with an explicit confidence level.
| Signal | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Maintenance | Active |
| Documentation | Strong |
| License clarity | Clear |
| Deployment complexity | Low |
| DEV.co fit | Good |
| Assessment confidence | High |
Dashboard access should be restricted to authenticated admin/ops personnel; review authentication mechanism and authorization rules. Security vulnerabilities should be reported via published security policy. Monitor Laravel framework and dependency CVEs. Data collected (request paths, user agents, query metrics) may contain sensitive information; ensure storage encryption and access controls. No public security audit results provided; independent assessment recommended before handling sensitive workloads.
Alternatives to consider
New Relic APM
Hosted SaaS alternative with broader language support, distributed tracing, and managed infrastructure; higher cost and vendor lock-in.
Datadog
Enterprise-grade monitoring covering logs, metrics, traces, and real-user monitoring; requires external SaaS account and pricing model.
Clockwork (Laravel)
Lightweight Laravel-specific debugging and performance profiling tool; deeper request-level insights but narrower scope than Pulse.
Build on pulse with DEV.co software developers
Integrate Laravel Pulse for real-time performance visibility. For guidance on deployment, security hardening, or integration with your infrastructure, talk to our DevOps and development specialists.
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pulse FAQ
Does Pulse require external services or SaaS accounts?
What data does Pulse collect and how is it stored?
What is the performance impact of enabling Pulse monitoring?
Can Pulse be used in production?
Software developers & web developers for hire
Adopting pulse is usually one piece of a larger software development effort. As a software development agency, DEV.co provides software development services and web development expertise — pairing senior software developers and web developers with your team to design, build, and operate open-source observability software in production.
Ready to monitor your Laravel app?
Integrate Laravel Pulse for real-time performance visibility. For guidance on deployment, security hardening, or integration with your infrastructure, talk to our DevOps and development specialists.