New version

On February 8th the new version of Laravel—Laravel 9—was released, and with it we begin an exciting upgrade journey. Like every major update, it brings a bit of uncertainty: possible breaking changes, improvements we can now adopt, etc. But in software development we live in a constant state of evolution, so we’re prepared for what this new release brings. Official documentation.

Our experience

At Bloonde we’ve been building software for roughly 10 years and from the start we chose this magnificent framework for its robustness, elegance and the strength of its community. Our long list of clients and applications attest to the quality and reliability of our code—and that’s thanks both to our development team and to the framework itself.

“The PHP Framework for Web Artisans” is Laravel’s slogan. In a time where traditional craftsmanship is disappearing, web developers have become the new artisans—creating the tools of the future with our hands. Like any good craftsperson, we must equip ourselves with the best tools; in this case, the best framework in the PHP ecosystem.

If you have a project in mind, contact us and we’ll make it real using the best technology.

Improvements and differences in the new version

Some notable differences: Laravel extends the release cycle from 6 months to 1 year. Also, this version requires a minimum PHP v8.0 runtime—so if you’re still on an older 7.x line, it’s time to move.

Highlights we find especially interesting:

  • New exception page.
  • Anonymous migrations: eliminates class‐name collisions.
  • New query builder interface: Helper methods like whereNotExist, whereHas, with (previously Eloquent–only patterns) now in the Query Builder context.
  • Move from SwiftMailer to Symfony Mailer: SwiftMailer reached end of life.
  • Flysystem 3.x: Updated underlying filesystems layer.
  • Improved accessor & mutator definition syntax.
  • Implicit route bindings with enums: Constrain allowed values succinctly.
  • Controller route groups: Define all routes for a controller in a cleaner block.
  • Laravel Scout database engine support: For smaller datasets without external engines.
  • Full‑text indexes: With new query clauses (whereFullText, orWhereFullText).

These (and more) features will help us tackle upcoming technical challenges over the next months. Explore the rest of the new capabilities in the Laravel release documentation.