Laravel 12 vs Laravel 11: Should You Migrate Now?

Laravel 12 has been released and is already making waves. Faster, cleaner, and more powerful, it promises an even smoother development experience. But the real question is: is now the right time to migrate?

This in-depth, comprehensive article walks you through the process step by step (even if you’re running a production project) to help you decide whether, when, and how to move to Laravel 12 hassle-free.

🆕 What’s New in Laravel 12? (and Why It Matters)

🚀 Boosted Performance with HTTP Route Caching 2.0

Laravel 12 speeds up route loading even further, especially valuable for projects with dozens (or hundreds) of routes. Less boot time, more responsiveness for users.

📚 A More Elegant Eloquent

• New sorting methods (orderByDesc, improved orderByRaw).

• Better readability for conditional queries.

• Simplified complex subqueries.

Result: your Eloquent code becomes shorter, clearer, and easier to maintain.

🛠️ Artisan on Steroids

Laravel 12 adds new Artisan commands that speed up class generation, migrations, and DevOps task automation.

🌐 Optimized for Octane and Vapor

Laravel 12 is designed to take full advantage of Laravel Octane (super-fast server) and Laravel Vapor (serverless), without tedious configuration.

🔐 Security & PHP Compatibility

Laravel 12 supports PHP 8.3+ and includes security enhancements to protect your project against common vulnerabilities.

🆚  Laravel 12 vs Laravel 11: Comparison Table

🚧 Why Migrate Now?

Benefits

✅ Improve your app’s speed without a full rewrite.
✅ Clean up your code with new Eloquent methods.
✅ Be ready for Octane and Vapor if you want to scale.
✅ Keep your project secure and aligned with best practices.
✅ Stay up to date and avoid technical debt.

When to Wait

⏳ If your key dependencies aren’t compatible yet.
⏳ If your project is frozen or only in light maintenance mode.
⏳ If you don’t have automated tests to validate the refactor.

🚀 Laravel 12 Migration Checklist (Notion)

To help you migrate stress-free, we’ve prepared a checklist:

✅ Dependency audit with composer outdated.
✅ Full backup (DB + files + Git).
✅ Review the official Laravel 12 migration guide.
✅ Set up a local testing environment.
✅ Run composer update and check for errors.
✅ Validate critical features.
✅ Progressive deployment with rollback ready.
✅ Review logs after migration.
✅ Cache optimization (php artisan optimize).
✅ Update internal documentation.

💡 Practical Tips Before Migrating

⚡ Test your jobs and queues: some methods may behave differently.
⚡ Double-check your custom middlewares.
⚡ Clean up deprecation warnings before migration.
⚡ Use php artisan route:cache and config:cache to maximize performance gains.
⚡ Add end-to-end tests to validate post-migration behavior.

🎯 Conclusion: To Migrate or Not to Migrate?

Laravel 12 delivers real improvements without breaking your project.
👉 If you want to boost performance, modernize your code, and keep your project secure, now is the time to plan your migration.

👉 If you run a large app without tests or with complex dependencies, plan, audit, and migrate gradually.

Laravel continues to prove it is the most enjoyable and productive PHP framework on the market. Laravel 12 only reinforces that position.

📣 Need Help Migrating to Laravel 12?

At OBI Partner, we support teams in their migrations with:
✅ Laravel 12 technical audit
✅ Turnkey migration
✅ Implementation of automated tests

Contact us today to discuss your project.