Difference between php artisan migrate and php artisan migrate:fresh.

In Laravel, both php artisan migrate and php artisan migrate:fresh are used for handling database migrations, but they serve different purposes and behave differently. Let’s break it down clearly:

1. php artisan migrate

• Purpose: Applies new migrations that haven’t been run yet.
• Behavior:
  • Looks at the migrations table in the database.
  • Runs only the migrations that are not yet executed.
  • Does not delete existing tables or data.
• Use case: When you add a new migration (like creating a new table or modifying an existing one) and want to apply it without losing existing data.

Example:

php artisan migrate

• If you already ran users table migration before, Laravel will skip it and only run migrations that are new.

2. php artisan migrate:fresh

• Purpose: Drops all tables in the database and then runs all migrations from scratch.
• Behavior:
  • Deletes all existing tables in the database.
  • Runs all migrations from the beginning.
  • Any existing data will be lost.
• Use case: Useful during development when you want to reset the database completely and start fresh.
  Often used together with seeders:

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

This will reset your database and populate it with seed data.

Summary Table

💡 Tip: Never use migrate:fresh in production as it wipes all data. It’s meant only for local/dev environments.