Craft CMS 6 Announced: Hello Laravel!

The announcement at Dot All 2025 in Lisbon hit the Craft CMS community like a bomb: Craft CMS 6 will migrate from Yii2 to Laravel. Release planned for Fall/Winter 2026. This is the biggest architectural change since Craft 3 - but this time done with intelligence.

As one of the first Craft CMS Premium Partners in the DACH region since 2015, I'm following this development with particular interest. And honestly: it was about damn time.

Yii2 Had No Future

Yii2 is a dying framework. The maintainers have long focused on Yii 3, which is so different that switching there would have been as complex as switching to a completely different framework. Brandon Kelly stated it clearly in Lisbon: Why chase a dying horse when Laravel stands ready as the undisputed market leader?

In my daily work, I feel this permanently. How often have I heard: "Yii? I've never worked with that. I know Laravel, but Yii…"

Laravel brings a massive ecosystem - queue systems, caching, authentication, first-party packages like Horizon and Telescope. But most importantly: Developer Experience. Laravel is documented like no other framework. The community is huge. When I have a problem, I find a solution in seconds. With Yii2? Good luck.

Craft CMS 3 Upgrade Was a Disaster - This Won't Be Repeated

I lived through the switch from Craft CMS 2 to Craft CMS 3. It was hell. Pixel & Tonic now openly admits it: The switch took years too long, plugins had to be completely rewritten, and in the end there wasn't a single new feature that excited my clients. Just technical overhead.

Brandon Kelly promised: "Something like this will never happen again." And the strategy for Craft CMS 6 shows he means it:

First: No complete rewrite. Craft CMS 6 is largely a port to Laravel, not a reinvention of the wheel. The architecture remains fundamentally the same. This means: My knowledge about Craft CMS remains relevant.

Second: A Yii 2 Adapter Package ensures compatibility. Brandon Kelly demonstrated the "Happy Brad" plugin in the workshop - it ran on Craft CMS 6 without changing a single line of code. The adapter package contains the complete Yii 2 framework plus Laravel wrapper for Craft CMS 5 classes. Clever.

Third: There are real new features that justify the upgrade effort.

Features in Craft CMS 6 That Actually Make Sense

Craft CMS 6 brings six content management features I can directly sell to my clients:

Content Releases: Publish multiple entries simultaneously, manually or scheduled. A blessing for coordinated launches like marketing events or sales (hello Black Friday!).

Scheduled Drafts: Publish individual drafts on a schedule. No more manual reminders.

Content Import Tool: Bulk operations and migrations become significantly easier. I've spent hundreds of hours migrating data to Craft CMS - this tool would have saved me much pain.

Content Approval Workflows: Governance for companies with four-eyes principle. My clients in the medical sector will love this.

Edit Page Commenting: Feedback directly in the backend entry interface, instead of email ping-pong.

Element Activity Logs: Full transparency about all changes. "Who changed what when?" - finally a clear answer.

The Control Panel is completely rebuilt with the Lion Web Component Framework: Dark Mode, mobile-optimized, modern UI. As a plugin developer, I can use the same components as the core. This saves time and ensures consistency.

WCAG 2.2 Level AA - Seriously Meant

Every component is tested for WCAG 2.2 Level AA conformity. Accessibility isn't an addon, but part of the foundation. The Craft CMS 5 Control Panel already supports keyboard navigation, skip links, screen reader compatibility, and color-independent indicators.

With the European Accessibility Act since June 2025, this is no longer optional, but mandatory. Pixel & Tonic is exemplary here. For me this means: I can deliver accessible solutions to my clients from the start, without retrofitting later.

Five Years LTS - No Stress

The killer feature: Craft CMS 5 will be an LTS version with five years support after Craft CMS 6 release.

GA is planned for Q4 2026. That means: I have until 2031 to migrate my client projects.

Five years. No panic, no pressure. I can calmly evaluate, test, and then strategically decide when which project gets migrated. That's exactly how it should be.

The CLI tool craft6-revamp automates the technical changes. It updates bootstrap.php, changes web/ to public/ (Laravel standard), removes phpdotenv from composer.json, adjusts config.yaml and general.php.

What This Means for My Projects

For Templates: Virtually nothing. Twig remains Twig. Entry fetching works as before. Nothing changes for my clients.

For Plugin Development: This gets interesting. Short-term, I can use the adapter package and continue as before. Long-term, I can switch to Laravel patterns and use the entire Laravel ecosystem. Testing, packages, community solutions - everything is open to me.

For Existing Client Projects: I have several options. Projects can stay on Craft 5 LTS until 2031. Or I upgrade early with craft6-revamp. Or I take a phased approach - first adapter package, then gradually migrate to native Laravel patterns.

For New Projects: From late 2026 / early 2027, I'll probably start new projects directly with Craft CMS 6. Laravel as the basis means: standard tooling, familiar patterns, easier collaboration with other developers.

Conclusion: The Right Step at the Right Time

The Craft CMS 6 Laravel switch is more than a framework swap. It's a strategic realignment with the modern PHP world. Yii2 had no future. Laravel is the future. It's that simple.

What convinces me: The balance between ambition and pragmatism. No rushed "Upgrade now immediately!". Instead: Five years time. Adapter package. Gradual migration. Multiple paths. That's mature thinking.

As someone who has productively used Craft CMS since 2015 and served client projects with it for over 13 years, I say: This is the right decision. Laravel brings future-proofing, developer experience, and a vibrant ecosystem. The migration strategy is well thought out. The fear of a second Craft-CMS-3 disaster is unfounded.

For NORDWYND, this specifically means: I will intensively test Craft CMS 6 from the alpha stage. Existing client projects continue on Craft 5 LTS - without time pressure. New projects from 2027 probably start directly on Craft CMS 6. I'll use the next two years to prepare the migration and evaluate the new Laravel possibilities.

Honestly: I'm looking forward to it. Finally, I can approach Craft CMS projects with the same developer experience as Laravel projects. That will make many things easier.