The biggest Laravel announcements by Taylor Otwell at Laracon EU 2025

Laracon EU 2025 in Amsterdam was the stage for the Laravel core team to announce a series of significant updates and new initiatives, signalling what Taylor Otwell calls a new era for the PHP framework. With a laser focus on developer productivity and a streamlined experience, Laravel is positioning itself as the obvious choice for modern web application development.

These announcements aren't just incremental improvements; they represent a cohesive vision for the future of Laravel development, from local environments to large-scale production deployments.

Laravel Cloud

The headlining announcement was undoubtedly the unveiling of Laravel Cloud, set to launch on February 24th. This platform aims to abstract away the complexities of infrastructure management, allowing developers to focus solely on building applications. Otwell highlighted the goal of enabling deployment from local development to production in under a minute, a game-changer for rapid iteration and time to market.

• Zero Configuration: Laravel Cloud boasts zero configuration requirements and no environment variables to manage, significantly lowering the barrier to entry.

• Scalability: The platform allows for easy scaling of applications, databases, caches, and queues, with customizable auto-scaling settings.

• Comprehensive Tooling: Laravel Cloud provides tools for issuing Artisan commands, viewing logs (application and access), and monitoring application metrics like Edge network responses, CPU usage, and RAM usage.

• Pricing: Offering a sandbox plan with no fixed monthly fee alongside a production plan, Laravel Cloud caters to a wide range of projects.

Streamlined Starter Kits

Recognising the potential for "decision paralysis" among new developers, Laravel is consolidating its starter kits. Laravel Breeze and Jetstream are being unified into single starter kits per stack, offering options for React, Vue, or Livewire. These new kits leverage modern component UI libraries like Shad CN and Flux. This move simplifies the initial project setup, allowing developers to quickly dive into building features with a pre-configured, modern stack.

Laravel 12

In a commitment to stability, Laravel 12 aims to be a major update without introducing breaking changes. This ensures that existing Laravel applications can seamlessly upgrade to the latest version without requiring code modifications. While details are still emerging, this release demonstrates a focus on backward compatibility and a smooth upgrade path for the vast Laravel ecosystem.

Inertia.js

Laravel has officially acquired Inertia.js, a library that allows developers to build full-stack applications using React or Vue on the front end, powered by a Laravel backend. This acquisition signals a deeper integration of Inertia.js into the Laravel ecosystem, promising enhanced support and further development of this popular library.

Laravel Nightwatch

First unveiled at Laracon Australia, Laravel Nightwatch is the new application monitoring solution. Jess Archer will provide a full demonstration, showcasing the insights it offers into application behaviour and performance.

A Fresh Face for Laravel

Reflecting this new era, a brand new laravel.com website is on the horizon, designed to showcase the power and productivity of the framework. David Hill will provide a sneak peek, highlighting the design and user experience improvements.

VS Code Extension

To cater to the growing number of developers using VS Code, the official Laravel VS Code extension is nearing a stable release. This extension provides features such as Intellisense, code navigation, and autocompletion, offering a more seamless and productive development experience.

The Bigger Picture

These announcements highlight a strategic direction for Laravel, focusing on:

• Developer Experience: Lowering the barrier to entry for new developers and streamlining the development workflow for experienced developers.

• Productivity: Providing tools and frameworks that enable developers to ship applications faster and more efficiently.

• Full-Stack Focus: Embracing modern front-end technologies while maintaining a cohesive full-stack experience.

• Community: Continuing to foster a vibrant and supportive community around the Laravel ecosystem.

Taylor Otwell's challenge to "ship" underscores the core ethos of Laravel. By providing powerful tools and a streamlined development experience, Laravel empowers developers to bring their ideas to life and contribute to the ever-evolving web landscape.

The announcements at Laracon EU 2025 demonstrate that the Laravel team is committed to pushing the boundaries of what's possible with PHP, making it an exciting time to be a Laravel developer.