PortBayvsLaravel Valet
Valet is the terminal purist's local dev tool — MIT-licensed, around 7 MB of RAM, nginx + dnsmasq + PHP-FPM bound to .test domains. PortBay keeps the same fundamentals and adds the things Valet leaves to other tools: a GUI, per-project databases, Mailpit, Node, public tunnels and one-click imports — without giving up open source.
Which one is right for you
You want the full stack, open source.
You want the .test/HTTPS Valet feel without assembling four other tools around it. You'd rather hit play than `composer global require` after every macOS update. You run Node alongside PHP and don't want a separate app for databases.
It already fits your workflow.
You're a pure-CLI Laravel developer, you want 7 MB of RAM and no GUI, and you're comfortable composing Valet + Homebrew PHP + DBngin + ngrok yourself. You contribute to drivers or hack on Valet itself.
Feature by feature
Every row sourced from the live product page. We mark partial support honestly — including where the other side wins.
Coming from Valet
If you've built up a Valet park of .test sites with per-site PHP isolation, PortBay reads the same nginx site definitions and PHP map on first launch and brings them in as-is. Valet keeps running until you uninstall it; PortBay re-issues mkcert certificates so HTTPS keeps working under both tools. Anything you used DBngin or ad-hoc Postgres for moves into PortBay's per-project database panel.
- Install PortBay and open it once. It picks up your Valet site list.
- Choose the sites to bring across. PHP isolation, TLD and certs carry over.
- Add databases inline as you need them — no separate DBngin process.
PortBay vs Valet, in plain terms
Is PortBay a Valet alternative with a GUI?
Yes. PortBay keeps Valet's foundation — real .test domains, trusted local HTTPS, native processes, no Docker — and adds a GUI, per-project MySQL/Postgres databases, Mailpit, Node version management and Cloudflare tunnels in one app.
Does PortBay use the same .test domain workflow as Valet?
Yes. Every PortBay project gets a .test hostname automatically, and PortBay issues a trusted mkcert HTTPS certificate so browsers treat your site as secure with no warnings — the same end-state as `valet secure`, with no per-site command to run.
Will PortBay work alongside an existing Valet install?
Yes during migration. PortBay and Valet can coexist while you move sites across, though both bind to port 80, so only one should serve a given hostname at a time. Once you've imported, you can keep Valet for legacy projects or uninstall it.
Why is PortBay paid if Valet is free?
PortBay's free tier covers 6 projects with the full feature set — databases, Mailpit, Cloudflare tunnels, Node and mobile. The $10/month Pro plan removes the project cap for people running many sites; Valet has no project cap because it doesn't fund development, which is why its cadence is slow and its scope is intentionally narrow.
Do I lose anything moving from Valet to PortBay?
You trade Valet's minimalism (≈7 MB RAM, no GUI) for an integrated environment. If your workflow is purely terminal and you've already automated everything around Valet, the trade is genuine — Valet is still the right answer for that audience.
Run your first local site in one click.
Download for macOSFree & open source · macOS 11+ on Apple Silicon · Pro from $10/mo