Distelli vs Laravel Forge: What are the differences?

1. Deployment Automation: Distelli focuses on automating deployment tasks, while Laravel Forge focuses on simplifying server management for Laravel applications. Distelli offers a wide range of automation features including automatic deployments, rollbacks, and environment management, whereas Laravel Forge mainly focuses on server provisioning, monitoring, and scaling for Laravel projects.

2. Supported Technologies: Distelli supports a diverse range of technologies beyond just PHP, including Java, Node.js, Python, and Ruby, making it suitable for multi-language projects. On the other hand, Laravel Forge is specifically tailored for PHP applications, particularly those built with the Laravel framework, providing specialized tools and optimizations for Laravel projects.

3. Integration Ecosystem: Distelli offers integrations with various popular tools and services such as GitHub, Bitbucket, Slack, and JIRA, enabling seamless collaboration and automated workflows. In contrast, Laravel Forge has fewer integrations but offers tight integration with Laravel's ecosystem, providing direct support for Composer, Artisan commands, and Forge-specific tools.

4. Price Structure: Distelli follows a pricing model based on the number of deploy targets and environments, offering flexibility for scaling projects according to deployment needs. Laravel Forge, on the other hand, operates on a per-server pricing model, which may be more cost-effective for smaller projects but could become expensive as the number of servers increases.

5. Customization and Control: Distelli provides more customization options for deployment pipelines, allowing users to define custom steps, scripts, and integrations as needed. Laravel Forge simplifies the deployment process by offering predefined deployment workflows that cater to common Laravel application setups, trading off some flexibility for ease of use.

6. Community Support: Laravel Forge benefits from a strong community presence due to its connection with the Laravel framework, allowing users to access a wealth of community-contributed resources, tutorials, and solutions specifically tailored to Laravel applications. Distelli, while offering solid support options, may not have the same level of specialized community support for Laravel-specific issues.

In Summary, Distelli and Laravel Forge differ in deployment automation, supported technologies, integration ecosystem, price structure, customization and control options, and community support.