DDEV for Symfony and Shopware: The Perfect Local Development Environment

After years with Vagrant, Docker Compose and manual setups, I've settled on DDEV — and I'm staying. Here's why.

What Makes DDEV Different¶

DDEV is a Docker-based development environment that does exactly one thing extremely well: getting local PHP projects up and running. Unlike a hand-written docker-compose.yml, DDEV offers:

• Zero Config: ddev config automatically detects Symfony, Shopware, WordPress
• HTTPS out of the Box: Local SSL certificates via mkcert
• Multi-Project: Multiple projects running in parallel, each with its own URL
• Versioning: PHP version, MariaDB version, Node.js — all configurable

Quick Start for a Symfony Project¶

cd mein-symfony-projekt
ddev config --project-type=symfony
ddev start

# HTTPS URL immediately available
open https://mein-symfony-projekt.ddev.site

The .ddev/config.yaml:

name: mein-projekt
type: symfony
php_version: "8.2"
mariadb_version: "10.11"
nodejs_version: "20"
webserver_type: nginx-fpm

All Commands Run in the Container¶

Important: PHP, Node.js and Composer always run inside the container. The host system only needs Docker and DDEV:

# PHP commands
ddev exec composer install
ddev exec bin/console cache:clear
ddev exec vendor/bin/phpunit

# Node commands
ddev exec npm install
ddev exec npm run build

# Database access
ddev mysql
ddev export-db --file=backup.sql.gz
ddev import-db --file=backup.sql.gz

Shopware 6 with DDEV¶

Shopware requires some extras — Elasticsearch, Redis, RabbitMQ. DDEV supports these via add-ons:

ddev get ddev/ddev-elasticsearch
ddev get ddev/ddev-redis

In the .ddev/config.yaml:

name: mein-shop
type: shopware6
php_version: "8.2"
mariadb_version: "10.11"

Playwright Tests in the Container¶

A special setup: running E2E tests with Playwright directly inside the DDEV container. The advantage: no local Chromium installation needed, tests run in the same environment as the application.

# Install Chromium (one-time)
ddev exec npx playwright install chromium
ddev exec npx playwright install-deps chromium

# Run tests
ddev exec npx playwright test

Important: The baseURL in the Playwright config must be https://localhost (not the .ddev.site URL), since Playwright runs inside the container:

export default defineConfig({
    use: {
        baseURL: process.env.BASE_URL || 'https://localhost',
        ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
    },
});

Multi-Project Operation¶

DDEV manages router containers that make all projects accessible under their own URLs:

https://firma-neu.ddev.site     → Symfony website
https://dj-ti-max.ddev.site     → DJ website
https://mein-shop.ddev.site     → Shopware 6

Each project has its own database, its own PHP version and its own Node.js process. No conflicts, no setup hassle.

Tips from Practice¶

1. Pin the database version: If the database was originally created with MariaDB 10.3, the config must also specify 10.3 — otherwise you'll run into compatibility issues on import.

2. Xdebug on demand: Xdebug slows down PHP significantly. Only enable it when needed:

ddev xdebug on   # Enable step debugging
ddev xdebug off  # Disable again

3. Custom Commands: Create your own shortcuts for frequently used commands:

# .ddev/commands/host/deploy
#!/bin/bash
ddev exec bin/console cache:clear --env=prod
ddev exec composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
echo "Deploy-Vorbereitung abgeschlossen!"

DDEV has fundamentally changed the way I develop locally. The setup time for a new project has shrunk from hours to minutes — and the reproducibility of the environment completely eliminates "works on my machine" problems.