Sometimes you need relational data for parts of your app (MySQL) and flexible document storage for others (MongoDB). Here's how to set up both in Laravel 12.

Install MongoDB PHP Extension 

sudo apt install ext-mongodb

Install Required Composer Packages 

sudo composer require mongodb/mongodb
sudo composer require mongodb/laravel-mongodb:^5.2 --with-all-dependencies

.env example 

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=
DB_USERNAME=
DB_PASSWORD=

MONGODB_USERNAME=
MONGODB_PASSWORD=
MONGODB_SERVER=127.0.0.1
MONGODB_PORT=27017
MONGODB_DATABASE=
MONGODB_URI="mongodb://${MONGODB_USERNAME}:${MONGODB_PASSWORD}@${MONGODB_SERVER}:${MONGODB_PORT}/${MONGODB_DATABASE}?directConnection=true&serverSelectionTimeoutMS=2000&authSource=admin&appName=mongosh+2.2.2?tls=false&authSource=admin"

config/database.php 

use Illuminate\Support\Str;

return [

'default' => env('DB_CONNECTION', 'mysql'),

'connections' => [


'mysql' => [
    'driver' => 'mysql',
    'url' => env('DB_URL'),
    'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
    'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
    'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'laravel'),
    'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'root'),
    'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
    'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
    'charset' => env('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4'),
    'collation' => env('DB_COLLATION', 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'),
    'prefix' => '',
    'prefix_indexes' => true,
    'strict' => true,
    'engine' => null,
    'options' => extension_loaded('pdo_mysql') ? array_filter([
    PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => env('MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA'),
    ]) : [],
],

'mongodb' => [
    'driver' => 'mongodb',
    'dsn' => env('MONGODB_URI', 'mongodb://'.env('MONGODB_USERNAME').':'.env('MONGODB_PASSWORD').'@'.env('MONGODB_SERVER').':'.env('MONGODB_PORT').'/'.env('MONGODB_DATABASE').'?directConnection=true&serverSelectionTimeoutMS=2000&authSource=admin&appName=mongosh+2.2.2?tls=false&authSource=admin'),
    'database' => env('MONGODB_DATABASE'),
    ],
],

];

Model examples

MySQL Model (User) 

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model
{
    protected $connection = 'mysql';

    protected $fillable = [
        'name', 'email',
    ];
}

MongoDB Model (Post) 

namespace App\Models;

use MongoDB\Laravel\Eloquent\Model;

class Post extends Model
{
    protected $connection = 'mongodb';
    protected $collection = 'posts';

    protected $fillable = [
        'title',
        'body',
        'slug',
    ];
}

Example Controller 

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\User;
use App\Models\Post;

class ExampleController extends Controller
{
    public function store(Request $request)
    {
        $user = User::create([
            'name' => 'John Doe',
            'email' => '[email protected]',
        ]);

        $post = Post::create([
            'title' => 'MongoDB Example',
            'body' => 'This is stored in MongoDB.',
            'slug' => 'mongodb-example',
        ]);

        return response()->json([
            'user' => $user,
            'post' => $post,
        ]);
    }
}

That's it. You now have MySQL and MongoDB both fully working in a Laravel 12 app.