Laravel 12, launched on February 24, 2025, is the latest major version of the open-source PHP framework designed to facilitate the creation of web applications. Developed by Taylor Otwell, Laravel strives to offer a more advanced alternative with built-in support for features like user authentication and authorization. Laravel 12 focuses on continuous quality-of-life improvements and updating upstream dependencies. It is considered a maintenance release with minimal breaking changes, which allows most Laravel 11 applications to upgrade without significant code modifications.
Key features of Laravel 12 include new application starter kits for React, Vue, and Livewire, which provide authentication, routing, and a basic UI structure. These kits utilize Inertia, TypeScript, and Tailwind. The release also introduces enhanced WebSocket support, advanced query creation, and an AI-powered debugging assistant. Database query performance is more predictable, reducing overhead in applications that rely on large tables or run many background jobs. Additionally, Laravel 12 includes improvements to job batching, testing, debugging, and JSON handling. While specific pricing for Laravel itself is not applicable as it is an open-source framework, starter kits and related tools may have associated costs. Laravel 12 is currently available, with ongoing updates and enhancements being released.
