Laravel 11 end of life: what to do now

The framework gives each major release 18 months of bug fixes and two years of security fixes. Laravel 11 was released on March 12, 2024, so both windows have closed. These dates come from the Laravel release notes; our Laravel versions page tracks the rest.

Laravel 12 looks like the cautious choice, but its bug-fix window closed on August 13, 2026 and its security fixes end on February 24, 2027. Stopping there buys a few months, and then you pay for a second upgrade project.

Laravel 13 has security fixes until March 17, 2028. Laravel’s own release notes describe it as a relatively minor upgrade in effort, so the extra step rarely adds much to the work of reaching 12.

The exception is hosting. If you can’t move off PHP 8.2 yet, Laravel 13 is out of reach until you can, because it needs PHP 8.3 or later. In that case, go to 12 now and put the PHP move on the calendar: php.net ends 8.2 security support on 31 December 2026.

The upgrade guides for each step list these as the changes most likely to reach application code.

From 11 to 12

• HasUuids now generates version 7 UUIDs. If you need to keep the ordered version 4 format, switch to the HasVersion4Uuids trait.
• Carbon 2 support is gone, so any code still on Carbon 2 moves to Carbon 3.
• The image validation rule no longer accepts SVG files unless you allow them explicitly.
• With no local disk defined in your config, the disk root moves to storage/app/private.

From 12 to 13

• The CSRF middleware is now PreventRequestForgery. The old names remain as deprecated aliases, but test and route exclusions should move across.
• A new serializable_classes cache option is set to false by default. Applications that store PHP objects in the cache must list those classes.
• MySQL and MariaDB upsert calls with an empty uniqueBy now throw an exception.

Our Laravel 12 to 13 guide goes through the second step in detail.

1. Run composer why-not laravel/framework ^13.0. It names the packages holding you back.
2. Check which PHP versions your host offers. PHP 8.3 or later opens the route to Laravel 13.
3. Run composer audit to see known advisories against what you have installed today.
4. Be honest about your tests. Little coverage means more manual checking, whichever version you pick.

If you would rather hand this over, our Laravel upgrade service starts with a free assessment and ends in a fixed quote. Published prices run $799–$2,999+ in USD, invoiced in USD, GBP, EUR or INR, depending on the size of the application, and the cost guide explains what moves the number.