For Braden Keith, owner of Romega Software, Laravel Forge delivers far more than simplified server management.

By consolidating his agency’s deployments under Forge, Braden has achieved multiple benefits:

• Reduced the time required for provisioning new projects by 30–50 hours
• Saved 3–5 hours every week on patching and updates
• Avoided the need to hire a dedicated DevOps engineer

The numbers add up to 250 hours saved annually, lower infrastructure costs for clients, and the ability to grow his software business without increasing overhead.

“Forge is like the AI of infrastructure,” Braden explained. “It lets my team scale without hiring more people. That’s critical.”

Scaling a Software Agency with Forge

Braden acquired an existing agency that built both marketing websites and custom applications. Over time, he split it into two sides: one that still handles marketing work, Romega Digital, and another, Romega Software, dedicated to software products.

Romega serves a mix of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to early-stage startups. Some of its clients include the Boston Celtics, Stanford Health Care, and the Family Research Council.

Most of his agency’s projects involve transforming data, making systems talk to each other, and providing dashboards so clients can manage their data without direct database access.

“Our software team is completely Laravel-focused,” he explained. “We use React and Nova as well. That’s where we put most of our energy now.”

Why Forge

The agency runs lean with three employees, scaling through contractors when specific expertise is required. Forge is central to making that work. With nearly 30 servers under management, Braden has seen measurable gains:

• 30–50 hours saved on initial provisioning per project.
• 3–5 hours saved weekly from patching, renewals, and deployments.
• 150–250 hours saved annually, equivalent to weeks of full-time DevOps work.

“Forge lets us run a software company without a dedicated DevOps team,” Braden said. “I can allow developers with varying skill levels to work safely on infrastructure without risk. Everything is logged, standardized, and secure.”

One of the projects built by Romega

Favorite Forge Features

Braden has been an early adopter of the relaunched Forge and highlighted several improvements that have transformed his workflow:

• Zero-downtime deployments that make launches seamless.
• Unified environment variable management for less friction.
• Searchable instances across nearly 30 servers, making it easy to find the right environment fast.
• Streamlined deployment scripts that give teams command-line control without complexity.
• Healthchecks that ping your application from three different regions after deployment, ensuring it’s reachable.
• New API that opens the door for automation with Romega’s existing systems.

Upcoming features like first-party Cloudflare integration are also on Braden’s radar, as they will further improve certificate management.

“I win more deals because our infrastructure costs are lower,” Braden said. “Clients don’t face a big-ticket item just to get their product stood up once they spend all this money for us to develop it. Forge keeps our costs lean, which makes us more competitive as an agency.”

He has also seen the difference firsthand while consulting with another agency that lacked Forge. “They have a developer spending half his week on server management. That’s a massive hidden cost. I don’t have that overhead.”

Braden Keith, owner of Romega Software

The Tech Stack

Romega Software uses a consistent stack across projects:

• Laravel for backend development
• React for front-end interfaces
• Laravel Nova for dashboards and data management
• Livewire and Vue on some legacy projects
• Google Cloud for infrastructure
• Occasional Python workflows triggered from Laravel applications

Besides choosing the right stack for the job, his advice for fellow developers is to specialize in a specific area.

“You’ll hear a lot of noise and opinions in this industry, but I’ve never run into something Laravel couldn’t do,” he said. “At some point, you need to pick something to master, and Laravel is a great option. The documentation is excellent, the ecosystem is strong, and the community is welcoming. Maximize your focus, minimize distractions, and Forge will help you get real products out the door faster.”

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