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What are the differences between using Laravel Horizon and the default queue worker


The key differences between using Laravel Horizon and the default queue worker are:

1. Configuration Management:
- Default Queue Worker: Queue worker configuration is spread across multiple places, such as the `queue.php` config file and the `queue:work` command options.
- Laravel Horizon: All queue worker configuration is centralized in the `config/horizon.php` file, making it easier to manage and version control.

2. Monitoring and Metrics:
- Default Queue Worker: There is no built-in monitoring or metrics dashboard for the default queue worker. You need to rely on external tools or custom logging to monitor queue health.
- Laravel Horizon: Horizon provides a beautiful dashboard that displays detailed metrics about your queue system, such as job throughput, runtime, and failures.

3. Balancing Strategies:
- Default Queue Worker: The default queue worker processes jobs in the order they are added to the queue.
- Laravel Horizon: Horizon offers three balancing strategies (`simple`, `auto`, and `false`) that allow you to distribute jobs across worker processes more efficiently.

4. Automatic Scaling:
- Default Queue Worker: You need to manually manage the number of queue worker processes running.
- Laravel Horizon: Horizon can automatically scale the number of worker processes based on the current workload of your queues, using the `auto` balancing strategy.

5. Supervisor Integration:
- Default Queue Worker: You need to manually set up a process manager like Supervisor to ensure the queue worker process is running continuously.
- Laravel Horizon: Horizon integrates with Supervisor out of the box, making it easier to manage the queue worker processes.

6. Job Retries and Failure Handling:
- Default Queue Worker: You need to implement custom logic to handle job retries and failures.
- Laravel Horizon: Horizon provides built-in support for job retries and failure handling, including the ability to view and manage failed jobs.

In summary, Laravel Horizon provides a more comprehensive and centralized solution for managing your application's queue system, with features like monitoring, automatic scaling, and advanced configuration options that are not available in the default queue worker.

Citations:
[1] https://divinglaravel.com/introduction-to-how-laravel-horizon-works
[2] https://www.honeybadger.io/blog/laravel-queues-deep-dive/
[3] https://dev.to/devlopez/unleashing-the-power-of-laravel-horizon-16g9
[4] https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/laravel/laravel-horizon-queue-worker-configuration
[5] https://laravel.com/docs/11.x/horizon