Laravel Reverb Broadcasting at Scale | Mohamed Said [ ![Mohamed Said](https://cdn.msaied.com/01KT78WE565VEMM3PSNQAAB0MH.png) Mohamed Said Laravel Backend Engineer ](https://msaied.com) [ Home ](https://msaied.com) [ Projects ](https://msaied.com/projects) [ Articles ](https://msaied.com/articles) [ Certificates ](https://msaied.com/certificates) [ Contact ](https://msaied.com#contact-section) [ ](https://github.com/EG-Mohamed) [ Home ](https://msaied.com) [ Projects ](https://msaied.com/projects) [ Articles ](https://msaied.com/articles) [ Certificates ](https://msaied.com/certificates) [ Contact ](https://msaied.com#contact-section) [ home ](https://msaied.com) [ articles ](https://msaied.com/articles) Laravel Reverb at Scale: Broadcasting Architecture, Queue Pressure, and Channel Authorization On this page 1. [ Why the Default Reverb Setup Breaks Under Load ](#why-the-default-reverb-setup-breaks-under-load) 2. [ Decoupling Broadcast Events from the Request Cycle ](#decoupling-broadcast-events-from-the-request-cycle) 3. [ Use a Dedicated Broadcast Queue ](#use-a-dedicated-broadcast-queue) 4. [ Channel Authorization Without the N+1 Trap ](#channel-authorization-without-the-n1-trap) 5. [ Cache Authorization Results ](#cache-authorization-results) 6. [ Horizontal Scaling with a Shared Redis Pub/Sub Backend ](#horizontal-scaling-with-a-shared-redis-pubsub-backend) 7. [ Monitoring What Actually Matters ](#monitoring-what-actually-matters) 8. [ Takeaways ](#takeaways) ![Laravel Reverb at Scale: Broadcasting Architecture, Queue Pressure, and Channel Authorization](https://cdn.msaied.com/271/5a8bf1e074fde8573c019a938896d953.png) #laravel #reverb #websockets #broadcasting #queues Laravel Reverb at Scale: Broadcasting Architecture, Queue Pressure, and Channel Authorization =============================================================================================== 23 Jun 2026 4 min read ![Mohamed Said](https://cdn.msaied.com/01KT78WE565VEMM3PSNQAAB0MJ.jpg) Mohamed Said Table of contents 1. [ 01 Why the Default Reverb Setup Breaks Under Load ](#why-the-default-reverb-setup-breaks-under-load) 2. [ 02 Decoupling Broadcast Events from the Request Cycle ](#decoupling-broadcast-events-from-the-request-cycle) 3. [ 03 Use a Dedicated Broadcast Queue ](#use-a-dedicated-broadcast-queue) 4. [ 04 Channel Authorization Without the N+1 Trap ](#channel-authorization-without-the-n1-trap) 5. [ 05 Cache Authorization Results ](#cache-authorization-results) 6. [ 06 Horizontal Scaling with a Shared Redis Pub/Sub Backend ](#horizontal-scaling-with-a-shared-redis-pubsub-backend) 7. [ 07 Monitoring What Actually Matters ](#monitoring-what-actually-matters) 8. [ 08 Takeaways ](#takeaways) Why the Default Reverb Setup Breaks Under Load ---------------------------------------------- Laravel Reverb ships with sensible defaults that work perfectly for demos and small apps. The moment you push beyond a few hundred concurrent connections or start broadcasting from high-frequency jobs, you hit a predictable set of problems: queue workers become the bottleneck, channel authorization adds latency on every subscribe, and a single Reverb process becomes a single point of failure. This article focuses on three concrete production concerns: relieving queue pressure from broadcast events, hardening channel authorization, and running Reverb horizontally. --- Decoupling Broadcast Events from the Request Cycle -------------------------------------------------- Every `ShouldBroadcast` event dispatched inside a request is serialized and pushed onto a queue. If your broadcast queue shares workers with your default queue, a spike in HTTP traffic can starve WebSocket delivery. ### Use a Dedicated Broadcast Queue ```php // app/Events/OrderStatusUpdated.php class OrderStatusUpdated implements ShouldBroadcastNow { public function broadcastQueue(): string { return 'broadcasting'; } } ``` Then in `config/horizon.php`, give that queue its own supervisor pool: ```php 'broadcasting' => [ 'connection' => 'redis', 'queue' => ['broadcasting'], 'balance' => 'auto', 'minProcesses' => 2, 'maxProcesses' => 10, 'tries' => 3, ], ``` Using `ShouldBroadcastNow` skips the queue entirely for ultra-low-latency events where the payload is cheap to compute. Reserve it for lightweight events only — anything that hits the database should stay queued. --- Channel Authorization Without the N+1 Trap ------------------------------------------ Private and presence channels call your authorization callbacks on every subscribe. If those callbacks issue unguarded Eloquent queries, a reconnect storm (e.g., after a deploy) will hammer your database. ### Cache Authorization Results ```php // routes/channels.php Broadcast::channel('orders.{orderId}', function (User $user, int $orderId) { $cacheKey = "channel_auth:{$user->id}:{$orderId}"; return Cache::remember($cacheKey, now()->addMinutes(5), function () use ($user, $orderId) { return $user->can('view', Order::findOrFail($orderId)); }); }); ``` Five minutes is usually safe for order-level permissions. For presence channels that carry user metadata, cache the payload too: ```php Broadcast::channel('team.{teamId}', function (User $user, int $teamId) { $member = Cache::remember( "presence_auth:{$user->id}:{$teamId}", now()->addMinutes(2), fn () => $user->teams()->find($teamId) ); return $member ? ['id' => $user->id, 'name' => $user->name] : false; }); ``` --- Horizontal Scaling with a Shared Redis Pub/Sub Backend ------------------------------------------------------ Reverb uses Redis pub/sub to fan out messages across multiple server instances. The key is ensuring every Reverb worker subscribes to the same Redis channel namespace. ```bash # .env on each node REVERB_SERVER_HOST=0.0.0.0 REVERB_SERVER_PORT=8080 REVERB_SCALING_ENABLED=true REVERB_SCALING_REDIS_HOST=redis-cluster.internal ``` Behind a load balancer, sticky sessions (IP hash or cookie-based) are **not** required when scaling is enabled — Reverb's Redis backend propagates messages to whichever node holds the connection. Confirm this in `config/reverb.php`: ```php 'scaling' => [ 'driver' => 'redis', 'redis' => [ 'connection' => 'reverb', ], ], ``` Define a dedicated Redis connection in `config/database.php` so Reverb's pub/sub traffic doesn't share a connection pool with your cache or session drivers. --- Monitoring What Actually Matters -------------------------------- Reverb exposes a `/apps/{appId}/connections` endpoint (protected by your app secret) that returns current connection counts. Scrape it with a cron and push to your metrics store, or hook into Reverb's `ConnectionEstablished` and `ConnectionClosed` events: ```php Event::listen(\Laravel\Reverb\Events\ConnectionEstablished::class, function ($event) { Metrics::increment('reverb.connections.active'); }); ``` Track queue depth on the `broadcasting` queue separately from connection count — a growing queue with stable connections means your event payload computation is the bottleneck, not Reverb itself. --- Takeaways --------- - Isolate broadcast events onto a dedicated Horizon queue pool to prevent starvation. - Cache channel authorization callbacks; reconnect storms will expose any unguarded query. - Enable `REVERB_SCALING_ENABLED` with a dedicated Redis connection for true horizontal scale. - Use `ShouldBroadcastNow` only for lightweight, database-free events. - Monitor queue depth and connection count independently — they point to different bottlenecks. Found this useful? [ ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmsaied.com%2Farticles%2Flaravel-reverb-at-scale-broadcasting-architecture-queue-pressure-and-channel-authorization&text=Laravel+Reverb+at+Scale%3A+Broadcasting+Architecture%2C+Queue+Pressure%2C+and+Channel+Authorization) [ ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmsaied.com%2Farticles%2Flaravel-reverb-at-scale-broadcasting-architecture-queue-pressure-and-channel-authorization) Frequently Asked Questions ---------------------------- 3 questions Q01 Do I need sticky sessions when running multiple Reverb nodes behind a load balancer? No. When `REVERB_SCALING_ENABLED=true` is set and Reverb uses Redis pub/sub, messages are propagated to whichever node holds the client connection, so sticky sessions are unnecessary. Q02 When should I use ShouldBroadcastNow instead of ShouldBroadcast? Use ShouldBroadcastNow only for events whose payload requires no database queries and where sub-second delivery matters. Any event that touches the database should remain queued to avoid blocking the request cycle. Q03 How long should I cache channel authorization results? Two to five minutes is a reasonable default for most permission models. Shorter TTLs suit presence channels with frequently changing membership; longer TTLs suit stable resource-level permissions like order ownership. Continue reading More Articles --------------- [ View all ](https://msaied.com/articles) [ ![Typed Enums as First-Class Domain Citizens in Laravel with PHP 8.3](https://cdn.msaied.com/282/71a8fc3e4cf4239b1bf6d38d57e0b985.png) laravel php8.3 enums ### Typed Enums as First-Class Domain Citizens in Laravel with PHP 8.3 Go beyond simple enum labels. 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