Craft CMS 6 is Coming: Should You Upgrade Straight Away?
by Ian Ebden in Craft CMS.
Craft CMS 6 is getting closer! Following its announcement at Dot All in September 2025, the first Craft 6 alpha arrived in May 2026. The headline change is a significant one: Craft is moving its underlying PHP framework from Yii to Laravel.
For developers, that's a pretty exciting change. Laravel has become the dominant framework in the PHP world, with an enormous ecosystem of packages, tools and developers around it.
But if you're a business running a Craft CMS website, there's probably a rather more practical question – do I need to do anything?
The short answer is no. At least, not yet.
Not Just Another Craft Update
Major Craft releases have always brought changes under the bonnet, but Craft 6 is particularly significant because of the switch to Laravel.
Pixel & Tonic has now completed the initial port of the Craft codebase and is actively developing Craft 6. The public alpha began in May, with beta expected during Q3 2026 and the full release expected in Q4.
Alongside the framework change, Craft 6 is expected to introduce a redesigned Control Panel, improved mobile support, content approval workflows, commenting for authors and activity logs. So there's plenty to look forward to.
But that doesn't mean I'd recommend upgrading an established business website the day Craft 6.0 appears.
There's no Rush to Leave Craft 5
This is perhaps the most important part of the Craft 6 story for existing website owners. Craft 5 has been designated a Long-Term Support release.
Pixel & Tonic currently lists Craft 5 as receiving active support until 31 December 2030, followed by critical security support until 31 December 2031.
That's an unusually generous support window and means businesses can plan their move to Craft 6 rather than being forced into it.
If your website is running an up-to-date version of Craft 5, performing well and doing everything you need it to do, there's no compelling reason to rush. I'd much rather see a client running a healthy, properly maintained Craft 5 website than racing onto Craft 6 simply because it's newer.
What About Craft 4 Websites?
This is where things are a bit different.
Craft 4 reached the end of active support in April 2025 and its additional security support ended on 30 April 2026. So if your website is still running Craft 4, I'd be thinking about an upgrade now.
That doesn't necessarily mean waiting for Craft 6. For most existing Craft 4 websites, moving to Craft 5 is likely to be the sensible option. It's mature, well supported, and will remain supported for years.
Depending on the age and condition of the website, that might involve a conventional in-place upgrade. On older installations, I sometimes prefer starting with a clean Craft 5 installation and migrating the site's content and functionality across (see my article).
Either way, the important thing is not to allow an unsupported CMS installation to sit untouched indefinitely.
Will my Plugins Work With Craft 6?
This is another reason I wouldn't rush into a major-version upgrade.
A Craft website isn't necessarily just Craft itself. It may rely on plugins for SEO, forms, redirects, ecommerce, integrations or bespoke functionality. Those plugins need to be ready too.
Craft 6's move to Laravel inevitably requires plugin developers to make changes, and Pixel & Tonic is already providing migration resources to help developers prepare.
The larger, actively maintained plugins will undoubtedly move quickly, but every website is different. Before upgrading a live site, I'd want to audit its plugins and dependencies, check compatibility, identify anything obsolete and test the complete upgrade away from production.
It's also an excellent opportunity to ask whether every plugin still needs to be there at all.
I've always preferred keeping Craft installations relatively lean. Fewer unnecessary dependencies generally mean fewer complications when major upgrades arrive.
Craft CMS 5: Upgrade or Rebuild?
Planning a Craft CMS 5 upgrade? Discover the pros and cons of upgrading in place versus starting with a fresh Craft 5 build, and how to choose the right approach for your website.
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What We Know About Craft CMS 6 So Far
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A Major Upgrade Can Also be an Opportunity
There's another way of looking at all this. If a Craft website is several years old, a major CMS upgrade can provide a useful opportunity to assess the website as a whole.
Is the front-end code still in good shape? Are there old plugins that can be removed? Is the site performing as well as it could? Has the content structure become unnecessarily complicated? Does the design still reflect the business?
Sometimes the right answer is simply to upgrade Craft and carry on. But sometimes it makes more sense to combine the CMS upgrade with some careful housekeeping or a complete rethink.
And occasionally an ageing Craft installation is better treated as a migration: preserve the content and functionality that's still valuable, while moving it onto a cleaner modern foundation.
So, Should You Upgrade to Craft 6?
Eventually, yes. Immediately, probably not.
If you're already running a well-maintained Craft 5 website, you're in a very comfortable position. Craft 5 has years of support ahead of it, so you can wait for Craft 6 and its plugin ecosystem to mature before deciding when the time is right.
If you're still running Craft 4 or an even older version, I wouldn't wait for Craft 6. Your priority should be getting the website onto a currently supported version of Craft.
And if you're not sure which version you're running — or whether your plugins and dependencies are still healthy — that's worth finding out.
I've been building Craft CMS websites since 2013 and provide ongoing Craft CMS support, maintenance and upgrades for businesses throughout the UK. If you'd like me to take a look at an existing Craft website and advise on the best upgrade route, get in touch.
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