Laravel 12 prioritises maintenance, delivering enhancements for faster, more efficient, and secure development.

Laravel 12 is a maintenance focused release that brings improvements to make development faster, more efficient, and more secure. It doesn’t introduce big breaking changes but focuses on refining what’s already great. Here are the top updates in Laravel 12.

A Cleaner, More Organised Application Structure

Laravel 12 enhances route and middleware handling, facilitating improved application scalability and maintainability. This refined structure promotes a cleaner, more efficient codebase, simplifying large project development.

New Starter Kits for React, Vue & Livewire

Laravel 12 presents new starter kits, offering choices for React, Vue, and Livewire. These kits utilise Shadcn components for an enhanced user interface experience and are sourced from distinct GitHub repositories, granting developers complete control over the codebase while maintaining a lightweight and adaptable setup.

AI-Powered Debugging & Better Testing

Debugging is now streamlined and more efficient, thanks to the introduction of an AI-powered debugging assistant. This tool offers real-time insights and actionable suggestions based on runtime data, enabling developers to rapidly identify and resolve issues.

New API Versioning for Better Maintenance

Laravel 12's new API versioning system streamlines API management. Developers can now organise API routes more easily, facilitating smoother upgrades and maintenance without disrupting older versions.

Query Builder Gets Smarter

The introduction of the nestedWhere() method simplifies database queries, enhancing clarity and readability. Complex conditions are now more manageable, reducing redundancy and boosting code efficiency.

Stronger Security Features

Laravel 12 enhances security with improved password encryption and stronger validation methods, mitigating vulnerabilities such as injection attacks. This ensures enhanced data protection for user-sensitive information.

Easier API Development

Laravel 12 improves JSON API response handling, simplifying development for API-driven applications. Furthermore, authentication tools such as Laravel Sanctum and Passport have been optimised for enhanced performance and security.

Modernised Frontend Stack

Laravel 12 fully integrates Tailwind CSS 4.0 and Vite 6.0, simplifying frontend development. The new frontend:install command streamlines the setup of frontend frameworks such as Vue, React, and Livewire.

Smarter Job & Queue Management

Dynamic job prioritisation in Laravel 12 enhances the efficiency of background jobs, ensuring critical tasks are executed first. Improved queue monitoring simplifies the tracking and troubleshooting of background processes.

Improved Deployment & DevOps Tools

Laravel 12 improves deployment workflows with new CI/CD-friendly commands such as deploy:prepare, simplifying deployment automation. The framework also features enhanced integration with Laravel Forge and Envoyer, streamlining DevOps processes.

Deprecations and Minor Changes

Laravel 12 avoids major breaking changes, but includes a few minor adjustments:

• Str::is() now supports multiline regex, which is important for pattern matching.
• MariaDB schema dumps have been updated, with Laravel now utilising native CLI tools (mariadb-dump and mariadb).
• A new streamJson() method has been added to ResponseFactory for improved API handling.

These are minor changes, but worth noting when upgrading from an earlier version and are great tools to have going forward.

How Long Will Laravel 12 Be Supported?

Laravel adheres to a structured support policy, providing bug fixes and security updates for a defined duration. Here's an overview of the support timeline:

Laravel Version	PHP Version Support	Release Date	Bug Fixes Until	Security Fixes Until
9	8.0 – 8.2	February 8, 2022	August 8, 2023	February 6, 2024
10	8.1 – 8.3	February 14, 2023	August 6, 2024	February 4, 2025
11	8.2 – 8.4	March 12, 2024	September 3, 2025	March 12, 2026
12	8.2 – 8.4	February 24, 2025	August 13, 2026	February 24, 2027

What This Means for You

• Laravel 12 will receive bug fixes until August 13, 2026.
• Security updates will continue until February 24, 2027.
• ⚠️ Older Laravel versions (9 & 10) will no longer receive updates, so if you’re still on those, it’s time to upgrade!

You can read the full support schedule by clicking here.

Should You Upgrade to Laravel 12?

Upgrading to Laravel 12 is highly recommended for existing Laravel users. It delivers performance improvements, security enhancements, and improved tooling, all without causing breaking changes to existing code.

For new projects, Laravel 12 is the optimal choice, offering the most secure, efficient, and future-proof foundation.

Final Thoughts

Laravel 12 focuses on refining existing strengths rather than radical changes, aiming to make development faster, easier, and more reliable.

With improved security, performance enhancements, and streamlined workflows, this update concentrates on enhancing Laravel's existing strengths.