⚡ Laravel Octane – What Really Changes in the Request Lifecycle?

If you’ve used Laravel before, you probably know how a normal request works:

User visits your site → Laravel starts → handles request → sends response → PHP shuts down.

But with Laravel Octane, it works differently and much faster.

Let me explain what actually changes behind the scenes 👇

🔁 Normal Laravel Request Flow

In a normal Laravel setup (like Apache or Nginx):

1. A user hits your website (say /about)
2. Laravel boots up, loads service providers, configs, routes, etc.
3. Middleware runs, route is matched, controller is called
4. A response is sent back
5. PHP shuts down, and memory is cleared

This happens every time someone visits a page.

It’s safe and clean, but not the fastest.

🚀 Laravel Octane: A Faster Way

When you use Laravel Octane (with Swoole or RoadRunner), Laravel boots once and then keeps running in memory.

So instead of restarting Laravel for every request, it reuses the app.

This saves time and CPU. That's why responses become lightning fast.

⚙️ So What Changes in the Lifecycle?

✅ Laravel boots only once

When you run:

php artisan octane:start        

Laravel boots up once, loads routes, config, service providers, and stays in memory.

Every request after that doesn’t reload everything. It just reuses what’s already loaded.

⚠️ Be careful: memory is shared

Because the app stays alive, any data stored in memory, like static variables or singleton services, will stay between requests.

That means:

• One user’s data could affect another if not handled properly
• You need to reset some things yourself

🛠️ Octane gives you lifecycle hooks

To help with resetting things, Laravel Octane gives you events like:

Octane::tick(function () {
    // This runs before every request
});        

You can use this to:

• Clear cached data
• Rebind services
• Reset state manually

✅ Middleware, routing, and controllers still work

Good news. You don’t have to change how you write controllers or routes.

Laravel still uses the same router, middleware stack, and controller methods. Behind the scenes, the lifecycle is just faster and more efficient.

🔍 What You Need to Watch Out For

Using Octane means you must be extra careful with:

• Static variables – they don’t reset
• Singletons – like services in AppServiceProvider, which may hold onto data
• Sessions – make sure they are isolated per user
• Old packages – some don’t support Octane properly

📊 When to Use Octane?

Use Octane if:

✅ You’re building a high-traffic API

✅ You want real-time performance (dashboards, chat, etc.)

✅ You need faster response times under load

Don’t bother for:

❌ Small websites

❌ Basic CMS or blog sites

❌ Apps hosted on shared hosting (Octane needs CLI access)

You're right, Visvanathan. LinkedIn doesn't support markdown tables or code-style tables like that — they break the formatting and look messy on mobile too.

Here’s a LinkedIn-friendly version of that comparison table using bullet points and emoji for clarity:

🧠 Laravel vs Octane – Quick Comparison

Normal Laravel:

• ✅ Boots on every request
• ⏱️ Medium speed (around 100ms)
• 💾 Low memory usage
• 🛡️ Safe by default (everything resets)

Laravel Octane:

• ⚡ Boots once, reused for all requests
• 🚀 Very fast (around 10ms)
• 🧠 Higher memory usage (but managed)
• ⚠️ Needs caution with shared state

✍️ Final Thoughts

Laravel Octane can make your app super fast, but it also requires you to understand how memory works.

If you're moving from traditional Laravel to Octane, make sure you test well and reset what needs to be reset.

I’ve been exploring Octane deeply and love what it can do, but I always stay careful with services and state.

Have you tried Octane yet? Let’s share tips and lessons 👇

#Laravel #Octane #LaravelPerformance #PHP #RequestLifecycle