Support for Composer

DevKinsta Feature Requests
1

Are there plans to build in composer? This is a pretty important feature for us since most of our themes manage packages with composer. We could use composer outside of the container but that would lead to potential version mismatches.

1 Like
2

Hi @greghunt . Welcome to DevKinsta! You should still be able to use Composer on your sites once a site has been created on DevKinsta. It would be installed locally rather than on the Docker container. Have you experienced any issues implementing Composer on a site?

1 Like
3

Hi Michael, thanks for the reply. Yes the trouble is I may have a PHP version mismatch when using composer. For example my OS currently runs php8 but my kinsta site may be running 7.4 in its container. So if I run composer locally I may get errors with confused PHP versions

4

Backing this request up.
We also develop lot’s of WP sites with composer, so it would be great to have that included.

1 Like
5

Hi @aaronmeder @greghunt . I see what you mean. You’re correct that it’d need to do used from within the container but I understand that may not be ideal. I’ll move this over to our feature request section for our devs to take a look at.

1 Like
6

@aaronmeder @greghunt
Until this is part of DevKinsta, there is a simple and easy way to install composer on your DevKinsta.

Cheers

2 Likes
7

Thank you for sharing @nemanjac !

8

Hi,
Is there already a update? Because this hash is not valid anymore and we can not install composer.

9

Hi @jasperheidebrink, this should work if you use the current installer checksum found at the top of this page: https://composer.github.io/pubkeys.html

I’ll ask our developers to look into this feature request again as well.

10

Hello @nemanjac thanks for your answer, do you know if there is an option to use this on MacOS system?

11

Hello @DavidME :wave: Welcome to DevKinsta Community!

I don’t have/use Mac here (but Linux Ubuntu), and as I could check/see, those command-lines shared by manjac (:bowing_man: Thank you Nemanja Cimbaljevic!) should be able to be run on Mac machines as well.

In order to do so, first you can run/open the Terminal program on your Mac.
Then on your Terminal program, you can type this command (that will log you in to your local devkinsta_fpm docker’s container) :

docker exec -it devkinsta_fpm bash

After that, you can follow the next steps/commands provided there - start from line #5.
Note that on line #9 , you will just need to change that line to the following:

php -r “if (hash_file(‘sha384’, ‘composer-setup.php’) === ‘55ce33d7678c5a611085589f1f3ddf8b3c52d662cd01d4ba75c0ee0459970c2200a51f492d557530c71c15d8dba01eae’) { echo ‘Installer verified’; } else { echo ‘Installer corrupt’; unlink(‘composer-setup.php’); } echo PHP_EOL;”

that random number ( 55ce33d7678c5a611085589f1f3ddf8b3c52d662cd01d4ba75c0ee0459970c2200a51f492d557530c71c15d8dba01eae ) is taken from the current “Installer Checksum (SHA-384)” section here: https://composer.github.io/pubkeys.html

Once done, you can test to call the composer in that devkinsta_fpm container with something like this ( as shown on line #20 in that github page - to check its version ) :

composer --version

You can then type: exit to quit from that devkinsta_fpm container (and may want to close your Terminal program).

I also ran the above command lines on my Linux machine and the composer seems to be running fine there .

Screenshot from 2023-02-14 08-41-49
Screenshot from 2023-02-14 08-41-491596×761 161 KB

Cheers,
Agus

12

Hi, do you have any feedback on this ? its 2025 and almost 2026 and composer is needed

13

Hi @Olivier_Bigras

Were you able to try what Agus suggested above? While it seems a great feature, I am afraid we don’t have development progress or an ETA that we can provide yet regarding natively supporting Composer through DevKinsta.

14

Hi Adrian,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I’m aware of the workaround suggested above, but that’s exactly the issue: in 2025, Composer (and even Node for Tailwind/Vite workflows) shouldn’t require manual Docker exec steps or container-level installs that disappear every time DevKinsta rebuilds.

Composer has become a core requirement for modern WordPress development — not an optional extra. Tools like Bedrock, Timber, TailPress, Sage, and even many WooCommerce setups depend on it. Without native Composer support, DevKinsta feels incomplete for any modern PHP workflow.

Right now the workflow is:

  • open an external terminal

  • run docker exec manually

  • install Composer manually

  • reinstall after container rebuilds

  • manually manage Node/Tailwind builds

It works, but it’s not sustainable or efficient for day-to-day development.

It would really help if DevKinsta included:

  • Composer preinstalled in the PHP container

  • Optional Node support for Tailwind/Vite

  • An integrated terminal that automatically opens the correct container

At this point they’re essential tools, not “nice to have”.

If DevKinsta wants to stay competitive with LocalWP, DDEV, Lando, and Herd, native Composer support is key.

Thanks again — hoping this can move forward soon.

16

Thank you for your feedback. I have forwarded it to our DevKinsta development team. While we cannot provide an estimated time for when these features may become available, we will post updates here as they are made.