---
title: Craft CMS is Becoming a Laravel Package
date: 2026-04-28T13:26:00+02:00
author: admin
canonical_url: "https://craft-kit.dev/blog/craft-cms-6-laravel"
section: Blog
---
Craft 6 switches from Yii 2 to Laravel. If you have never touched Laravel, this is the moment to pay attention.

At Dot All 2025 in Lisbon, Pixel & Tonic announced that Craft CMS 6 will be built on Laravel — the most widely used PHP framework in the world. This is not a cosmetic update. It is a fundamental shift in how Craft works under the hood, and it changes what you have access to as a developer.

If you have been building with Craft for years and never needed Laravel, that is completely fine. But understanding what this change brings — and what it does not break — is worth your time.

> Craft 6 is still in development. Beta is planned for Q3 2026, general availability Q4 2026. Everything here is based on official announcements. Implementation details may evolve.

## Why Laravel?

Craft has been running on Yii 2 since Craft 3. Yii 2 is a solid framework — but it is a niche one. The developer pool is small, the ecosystem is limited, and the tooling has not kept pace with what modern PHP development expects.

**Laravel is a different story entirely.**

Laravel has 70% market share among PHP developers. Over 25,000 Composer packages. A GitHub community four times the size of Yii 2. For Craft developers, that means a vastly larger ecosystem, better tooling, and a much bigger pool of developers who already know the underlying framework.

For Craft developers, this means access to a vastly larger ecosystem, better tooling, and — if your agency hires — a much larger pool of developers who already know the underlying framework.

> Craft is not abandoning what makes it Craft. It is adopting the infrastructure that lets it go further.

## What you get access to

Once Craft 6 runs on Laravel, the full Laravel toolchain becomes available in your Craft project — not as third-party integrations, but as native capabilities.

> You are not learning a new CMS. You are getting a much larger toolbox for the one you already use.

 

 

- ⚙️ 
    
    ### Artisan CLI
    
     All Craft commands run via php artisan. Custom commands, generators, and task automation — the way Laravel developers already work.
- 🗃️ 
    
    ### Eloquent ORM
    
     Laravel's database layer is available alongside Craft's native element queries. Custom data models without fighting the framework.
- 📦 
    
    ### 25,000+ Composer packages
    
     Any Laravel-compatible package drops straight into your Craft project. Payments, notifications, PDF generation — already solved.
- 🚀 
    
    ### Laravel Octane
    
     In-memory application server. Extreme performance gains without changing your application code.
- 📊 
    
    ### Laravel Horizon
    
     Professional queue monitoring. Scheduled publishing, asset processing, email — all visible, all manageable.
- 🛠️ 
    
    ### Laravel Forge / Vapor
    
     Deployment pipelines you may already be using. Craft now fits into them natively.
 
 

## What happens to your existing projects

Craft 5 becomes an official LTS release the moment Craft 6 ships. That means five full years of security updates and critical bug fixes — no forced migration, no deadline pressure.

For plugins, Pixel & Tonic is shipping a Yii 2 adapter. Most existing Craft plugins will run on Craft 6 without code changes. The upgrade path is designed to be gradual, not a cliff.

> Craft 2 to Craft 3 was painful. Pixel & Tonic learned from it. This migration is built differently.

## What is new for content editors

The Laravel migration is not the only story. Craft 6 also ships a set of long-overdue editorial features that make the control panel meaningfully better for the people using it every day.

> Features your clients have been asking for since Craft 3. They are finally first-class.

 

 

- ✅ 
    
    ### Content Approval Workflows
    
     Built-in approval processes for content publication. Custom rules, precise control, no plugin required.
- 💬 
    
    ### Commenting on Entry Edit Pages
    
     Editors can leave feedback directly on the editing screen. No more back-channel Slack threads about a headline.
- 📋 
    
    ### Activity Logs
    
     A full changelog for every content element. Who changed what, and when.
- 📅 
    
    ### Content Releases
    
     Coordinate the publication of multiple entries at once. Campaign launches, site relaunches — handled.
 
 

## The timeline

- Q1 2026 → Laravel migration complete, first alpha released
- Q3 2026 Beta → approximately three months, open testing
- Q4 2026 → General availability
- 2027–2031 Craft 5 LTS → security and critical updates

## What to do now

If you are on Craft 5, stay there. It is stable, it is LTS, and there is no reason to rush. Use the time to get comfortable with Laravel basics — Artisan, Eloquent, the service container. None of it is complicated if you already understand PHP, and all of it will make you a more capable Craft developer when Craft 6 lands.

If you are starting a new project today, Craft 5 is still the right choice. The architecture you build now — clean templates, proper element types, structured content — will carry forward cleanly.

> The best time to learn Laravel basics is before you need them. That time is now.

 

 

##  Read the official announcement 

 [craftcms.com/blog/laravel](https://craftcms.com/blog/laravel)