Laravel 12 bugfix support ended on August 13, 2026. Here's what that means for existing applications and when you should start planning your upgrade to Laravel 13.
On August 13, 2026, the general bugfix support period for Laravel 12 ended. Security updates will still be provided until February 24, 2027.
This doesn't mean that an application built on Laravel 12 will suddenly stop working. It simply means that Laravel 12 will no longer receive general bug fixes.
However, if you have an actively used and continuously developed application, it's probably a good time to start planning when and how to upgrade to Laravel 13.
Laravel itself is usually not the problem
When upgrading from Laravel 12 to 13, the framework itself is often not what causes most of the work.
It's everything around it.
Which Composer packages does the project use? Do they already support Laravel 13? Are there dependencies that haven't been maintained for years? Which PHP version is running on the server? Does the server environment need to be upgraded as well?
In a Laravel project that has been developed for several years, it's quite easy to run into a few surprises.
Do you have tests?
If the application has automated tests, an upgrade like this becomes much easier.
You upgrade the application, run the tests, and immediately get a good idea of what broke.
In my experience, however, many older Laravel projects have very few tests – or none at all. In these cases, the upgrade requires more manual testing and a more careful approach.
Do you need to upgrade to Laravel 13 right now?
I don't think that's the most important question.
What you should find out first is the current state of your project and how much work the upgrade is likely to require.
That's also why I created a free Laravel Health Check.
Upload your project's composer.json file and you'll get a quick technical overview of your Laravel version and dependencies.
👉 Laravel Health Check: janes.hu/laravel-health-check
