Laravel has been a key catalyst behind the transformation and growth of web development over the last two decades. This dominant PHP framework has enabled developers to build powerful applications on a massive scale worldwide.
This blog post will outline the Laravel version history, providing a deeper understanding of the framework’s progress. It also sheds light on the previous and latest releases of Laravel.
What Do You Mean by Laravel?
Laravel is an advanced PHP framework designed to streamline web development by offering elegant syntax, impactful tools, and a developer-conducive experience.
Who Created Laravel?
Taylor Otwell created Laravel in 2011 to improve PHP development, offering an alternative to the then-famous CodeIgniter framework.
Laravel Version History – A Snapshot of Laravel Version List
This section will focus on covering previous and latest versions of Laravel in one place. Additionally, it includes Laravel releases that have occurred periodically.
| Version | Release Date | Bug Fixes Until | Security Fixes Until | PHP Versions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laravel 13 | Q1 2026 | Q3 2027 | Q3 2027 | 8.3, 8.4 |
| Laravel 12 | February 24, 2025 | August 13, 2026 | February 24, 2027 | 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 |
| Laravel 11 | March 12, 2024 | September 03, 2025 | March 12, 2026 | 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 |
| Laravel 10 | February 14, 2023 | August 06, 2025 | February 04, 2025 | 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 |
| Laravel 9 | February 08, 2022 | August 08, 2023 | February 06, 2024 | 8.0, 8.1, 8.2 |
| Laravel 8 | September 08, 2020 | July 26, 2022 | January 24, 2023 | 7.3, 7.4, 8.0, 8.1 |
| Laravel 7 | March 03, 2020 | October 06, 2020 | March 03, 2021 | 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 8.0 |
| Laravel 6 | September 03, 2019 | September 07, 2021 | September 06, 2022 | 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 |
| Laravel 5.8 | February 26, 2019 | August 26, 2019 | February 26, 2020 | 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4? |
| Laravel 5.7 | September 04, 2018 | March 04, 2019 | September 04, 2019 | 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4? |
| Laravel 5.6 | February 07, 2018 | August 07, 2018 | February 07, 2019 | 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4? |
| Laravel 5.5 | August 30, 2017 | August 30, 2019 | August 30, 2020 | 7.0, 7.1, 7.2 |
| Laravel 5.4 | January 24, 2017 | July 24, 2017 | January 24, 2018 | 5.6, 7.0, 7.1 |
| Laravel 5.3 | August 23, 2016 | February 23, 2017 | August 23, 2017 | 5.6, 7.0 |
| Laravel 5.2 | December 21, 2015 | June 21, 2016 | December 26, 2016 | 5.5, 5.6, 7.0 |
| Laravel 5.0 | February 04, 2015 | August 04, 2015 | January 24, 2018 | 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 |
| Laravel 4.2 | June 01, 2014 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 4.1 | December 12, 2013 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 4.0 | May 28, 2013 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 3.2 | May 22, 2012 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 3.1 | March 27, 2012 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 3.0 | February 22, 2012 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 2.0 | September 1, 2011 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
| Laravel 1.0 | June 1, 2011 | Not Included | Not Included | Not Included |
The above Laravel releases, both previous and latest, further demonstrate that Laravel remains an impactful and robust PHP framework for web development in today’s era. Now, we will explain all the oldest and latest versions of Laravel one by one:
Laravel 12
Laravel 12, the latest version of Laravel, was officially released on February 24, 2025. It was mainly a maintenance-oriented release, including updates to minimal breaking changes and upstream dependencies.
This update contained enhancements to the developer experience and new starter kits.
Laravel 11
Laravel 11, the successor of Laravel 10, was officially released in March 2012. It introduced a simplified application structure following a minimalist approach for new projects.
Laravel 10
Laravel 10 was officially released in February 2023. Users were encouraged to utilize new features, such as Laravel Pennant for feature flags, enhanced routing and reliability, and test profiling, among others. Laravel 10 also dropped support for PHP 8.0.
Laravel 9
Laravel 9 was introduced in February 2022. Like previous versions of Laravel, this version also introduced new features and enhanced existing ones simultaneously. It supported Symfony 6.0 components, including Symfony Mailer Flysystem.
Laravel 8
Laravel 8 is the successor of Laravel 7, which was officially released in September 2020. The update included new features, such as model factory classes, job batching, improved rate limiting, dynamic Blade components, migration squashing, and many more.
Laravel 7
Laravel 7, the successor of Laravel 6, was officially released on March 3, 2020. It presented various advanced features to users, like Laravel HTTP client and Laravel Sanctum. Laravel 7 also played a key role in enhancing existing features, such as route caching, queue system, validation, and localization.
Laravel 6
As you may be aware, Laravel 6, the latest release following Laravel 5, was officially released on September 3, 2019. This update enabled users to experience new and exciting features, including Laravel Nova, Laravel Vapor, and Laravel UI, thereby improving the development experience to the next level. Additionally, several existing features were enhanced, including migrations, caching, localization, and others.
Laravel 5
Laravel 5 was officially launched in February 2015. The good thing about Laravel 5 was that it offered various internal modifications, including the decision to retitle the upcoming release of Laravel 4.3. Developers utilized several features, including Laravel Homestead, Laravel Echo, Laravel Valet, and Laravel Broadcasting.
Apart from this, Laravel 5 enhanced existing features, including the Blade templating engine, middleware, and Query Builder, among others.
Laravel 4
Laravel 4 was another substantial release of the Laravel framework. This major update presented significant improvements and new features to developers. Laravel 4 was officially launched in May 2013. Its codename, Illuminate, is also known as Laravel 4.
Laravel 3
Laravel 3 was introduced officially on February 22, 2012. Version 3 was an update of Laravel 2 and delighted users with numerous features, such as Artisan, also called Command Line Interface (CLI). The other crucial features of Laravel 3 were database migrations, unit test integration, session drivers, database drivers, Bundles, and support for handling events.
Laravel 2
Laravel 2 was launched or made publicly available in September 2011, an upgraded version of the initial Laravel 1 release. The second significant release of the Laravel framework offered a great mix of impressive features and enhancements compared to Laravel 1. Moreover, this update comprised support for controllers, making Version 2 fully MVC-compliant.
Laravel 1
Laravel was released on June 9, 2011, laying the groundwork for developing web applications using the PHP programming language. Being one of the oldest versions of Laravel, it introduced a few features, including authentication and authorization support, a simple routing mechanism, Models, Views, Sessions, and caching.
How Does Laravel Work?
As an open-source PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) framework, Laravel helps developers build a wide range of engaging and impactful websites. As you might know, a PHP framework allows developers to supercharge their web application development tasks by offering a library of pre-programmed modules.
Undoubtedly, websites still use PHP in massive numbers in today’s era. Currently, 73.7% of all sites with an open or visible server-side programming language deploy PHP.
What is Laravel’s Latest Version?
As for Laravel’s latest version, the current or newest version is Laravel 12. Besides, users also rely heavily on Laravel 11, the second-to-last version. These versions are described below:
- Laravel 12: Laravel 12 remains the current version of the framework, receiving weekly updates for bug fixes, new features, and security enhancements.
- Laravel 11: Laravel 11 is supported and will obtain bug fixes until September 3, 2025, and security fixes until March 12, 2026.
What is MVC in Laravel?
MVC architecture delivers a flexible, sustainable, and scalable foundation for Laravel applications. As the application expands or grows further, developers can effectively enhance its functionality by including new models, views, and controllers without affecting prevailing components.
How to Become a Laravel Developer?
If you want to pursue a career in Laravel, begin your journey by learning PHP, the core language on which Laravel’s foundation is built. Furthermore, acquaint yourself with Laravel’s structure, concepts, and features by utilizing documentation, online tutorials, and creating small projects. Interacting with and sharing ideas within the Laravel community, as well as contributing to open-source projects, will significantly improve your knowledge, skills, and expertise.
Apart from this, there is no harm in reading Laravel’s previous versions in detail to discover the importance of Laravel’s history. This may help you understand the evolution of Laravel, enabling you to become a proficient Laravel developer in the future.
Lastly, you can go through the PHP version history to benefit from this impressive PHP framework in the future.
Wrapping Up
We hope you will appreciate how we have curated this blog post, which explains the history of Laravel versions. From its modest beginnings in 2011 to its current status as the leading PHP framework, Laravel has revolutionized web development with its expressive syntax, developer-friendly tools, and ongoing innovation.
Laravel remains the developers’ first choice for developing contemporary, yet results-driven web applications, and its future promises much with continued enhancements, progress, and a dedicated community.
