Craft CMS 6: A Glimpse into the Future at Dot All 2025 in Lisbon

The excitement was palpable as our entire team tuned in to Pixel & Tonic’s announcements at Dot All 2025 in Lisbon. This annual conference is always a major highlight for the Craft community, and this time was no exception. The new details about Craft CMS 6 mark a turning point for the popular content management system. Built on a completely new technological foundation and packed with exciting new features, Craft 6 promises to redefine the way we create digital experiences.

Brandon Kelly - Founder & CEO of Pixel & Tonic

The Biggest Leap: Transition to the Laravel Framework

The most fundamental change in Craft 6 is the switch from the Yii framework to Laravel—the world’s most popular PHP framework. This strategic move is more than just a technical update; it lays the groundwork for the future of the CMS.

The benefits of this shift are numerous:

Future-Proofing: By adopting Laravel, Craft remains modern, maintainable, and scalable.
Larger Developer Pool: Laravel’s widespread adoption makes it significantly easier for agencies and organizations to attract and find qualified developers.
Powerful Tools: Developers will now have access to proven Laravel tools such as Artisan CLI and Eloquent ORM, speeding up and streamlining development.
Simplified Integrations: Connecting with external services and managing multiple applications within the same codebase will become significantly easier, thanks to deep support for multi-tenancy.

New Features That Will Revolutionize Content Management

In addition to the technological overhaul, many new features for content editors and developers were announced—currently in the alpha phase. Highlights include:

Content Approval Workflows: Custom approval processes will be built-in, allowing for precise control over content publication.
Commenting on Entry Edit Pages: A long-awaited feature that improves collaboration. Editors can now leave feedback directly on the editing screen.
Activity Logs: A detailed timeline will track all changes to content elements, adding transparency to the editing process.
Entrification of Elements: The concept, introduced in Craft 4, will be fully realized in Craft 6. Categories, tags, global sets, and even Matrix blocks will be treated like entries—leading to a more consistent and flexible content modeling experience.

Smooth Transition and Long-Term Support

Drawing on lessons from the past, particularly the transition from Craft 2 to 3, Pixel & Tonic recognizes that such a significant upgrade can pose challenges for existing projects. To ease the transition from Craft 5 to 6, a compatibility layer has been announced.This layer will allow many existing plugins to run on Craft 6 with minimal or even no code changes, significantly lowering the upgrade barrier.

Additionally, an important decision has been made for all Craft 5 users: Craft 5 will become a Long-Term Support (LTS) version. This means it will continue to receive maintenance and critical security updates for five years after the release of Craft 6. Users can transition at their own pace without feeling pressured to upgrade immediately.

The ambitious rollout plan for Craft 6 spans the entire year of 2026:

Q1 2026: Completion of the Laravel migration and release of the first alpha version.
Alpha Phase (approx. 6 months): Core feature development.
Q3 2026: Launch of the beta version, planned to run for about three months due to the extensive changes.
Q4 2026: Targeted release of the final, general availability version.

Summary

In summary, Craft 6 is shaping up to be more than just a technical refresh—it’s a robust evolution of the CMS. This evolution delivers powerful new tools for content management and collaboration, while also integrating advanced system and server tools from Laravel that will empower developers.

The announcements at Dot All 2025 left us inspired and excited for what lies ahead in the Craft CMS ecosystem.

The future is bright 🙂

Craft CMS 6: A Glimpse into the Future at Dot All 2025 in Lisbon