Laravel Upgrade Service

If your app is still on Laravel 8, 9, 10 or 11, it no longer gets security fixes. Laravel 12 is close behind. The upgrade itself is usually not the scary part. The scary part is everything around it: packages that were never updated, a PHP version your host is about to drop, and an app that has to keep taking orders while it changes underneath. I upgrade Laravel apps in small, tested steps, on your existing database, so the business doesn't notice anything except that the warnings stop.

I'm Umer Farooq, a senior full-stack developer with 9+ years of experience. Laravel is the framework I use most, alongside Node.js, React, Next.js, Vue, Angular, MySQL and Postgres. I'm based in Islamabad, Pakistan, and I work with clients remotely. The apps I work on today run on Laravel 11, 12 and 13, and this site runs on Laravel 13.

Where each Laravel version stands

Laravel gives every major release 18 months of bug fixes and 2 years of security fixes. According to the official Laravel release notes:

Anything older than Laravel 10 has been out of support for longer still. Laravel 13 needs PHP 8.3 or newer, so on most older apps the PHP upgrade and the framework upgrade have to be planned together.

Who this is for

• Teams on an end-of-life Laravel version who keep putting the upgrade off because nobody is sure what will break.
• Founders whose original developer has left, and the app hasn't been touched beyond small fixes since.
• Businesses whose host is retiring an old PHP version and the app won't run on the newer one yet.
• Apps with a Filament admin panel, Livewire or other packages that have to move to new major versions at the same time.
• Teams who want new framework features, but can't use them until the app is current.

If your app isn't on Laravel at all, or is on plain PHP or an old framework, see legacy application modernization or CodeIgniter to Laravel migration instead.

Why Laravel upgrades go wrong

The framework itself usually changes less than people expect between majors. What actually stops an upgrade:

• Abandoned packages. A package that never shipped a version for the new Laravel release blocks Composer from resolving at all. It has to be updated, replaced or brought in-house.
• The PHP floor. Moving to PHP 8.3 or newer brings its own deprecations, such as dynamic properties and implicit nullable parameters, and stricter type behaviour.
• Code that relies on behaviour, not signatures. Things like default values, query builder edge cases or middleware order can change quietly, and your tests are what catch them.
• No tests. Without a safety net, every change is a guess. This is the most common reason an upgrade drags on.
• Old build tooling. Apps started on Laravel 8 or earlier often still build assets with Laravel Mix rather than Vite.
• Server and deployment setup. Shared hosting, cPanel, a VPS or a container image all need the new PHP version and extensions in place before the release, not after.

How I upgrade a Laravel app

1. Audit. I read the code, the composer.json, the server setup and the tests (or note that there aren't any). You get a written list of the current Laravel and PHP versions, every package and whether it supports the target version, and the risks ranked.
2. A safety net first. Before changing the framework, I add tests around the flows that make money or would cause support tickets if they broke: login, checkout, invoicing, reports, key API endpoints.
3. One major version at a time. 10 to 11, then 11 to 12, then 12 to 13, each following the official upgrade guide, each in its own branch with a passing test run. Tools like Rector and static analysis handle the mechanical changes, and the rest is done by hand.
4. Packages and PHP. Packages get bumped, replaced or rewritten where they're abandoned. The PHP version moves up alongside the framework, with deprecations fixed rather than silenced.
5. Admin panels and frontend. Filament, Livewire or Inertia upgrades where they apply, and a Mix to Vite move if the app still needs one.
6. Deploy with a way back. Each step goes to staging first and then to production through your existing hosting, with a rollback path for every release. Your database stays in place the whole time.

A Laravel 12 to 13 upgrade is often small, because Laravel 13 kept breaking changes to a minimum. Several majors behind, with no tests and a few abandoned packages, is a different job. The audit tells you which one you have before you commit to anything.

What you get

• A written audit with a version-by-version plan, before any code changes.
• Your app on a supported Laravel release and a supported PHP version.
• Tests around your critical flows, so the next upgrade is routine.
• Packages that are maintained, with abandoned ones replaced.
• Each upgrade step delivered as its own reviewable change in your repository.
• Handover notes covering what changed and what to watch, so you're never locked in to me.

Laravel work I've done

These are real systems, described the same way as on their case study pages:

• Farabi Clinics ERP (2024 to present). Bookings, insurance and pharmacy for a multi-branch clinic operation. Its earlier-generation API needed a full rewrite, and I contributed substantially to both the legacy API and its V2 rewrite on Laravel 11, plus the Next.js admin dashboard.
• Multi-Tenant CRM (early stage). My own product on Laravel 12, Filament 4 and Stancl Tenancy, with automatic tenant provisioning and isolated per-tenant databases.
• Momentum Engineering (in progress). A catalog and inquiry platform for a heavy-machinery trading business, which I'm building on Laravel 13 as owner and primary developer.
• School ERP (2025 to present). A multi-branch school system on Laravel with nwidart modules. I'm the sole developer of the current codebase.

From 2018 to Oct 2026 I also worked on NitroTickets, where I led its rebuild from CodeIgniter into Laravel on the live production database.

Related services

If you also need new features built once the app is current, see hire a Laravel developer. If the upgrade touches payment gateways, webhooks or other APIs, see Laravel API integrations. If the frontend needs work too, see hire a full-stack developer.

You work with me directly

There's no agency in the middle. The person on the first call is the person who reads your code, runs the audit, does the upgrade and answers your messages. If your app needs something I'm not the right person for, I'll tell you.

Book a quick call

Tell me which Laravel and PHP versions you're on, where the app is hosted and what worries you about upgrading. In 30 minutes we can work out how big the job really is and what a sensible first step looks like.

Book a 30-minute call or send me a message.