Legacy Laravel 8 to Laravel 12 Upgrade & System Modernization

The Challenge

The client’s web platform was running on Laravel 8 and PHP 7.4, which had reached the end of its active support lifecycle.

As a result, the system faced security risks, compatibility issues with modern packages, and performance bottlenecks.

Key Problems

• Deprecated methods and outdated service providers

• Incompatible packages (Spatie Roles, Horizon, and Passport)

• Missing modern Laravel features (like job batching, anonymous migrations, and native type-hinting)

• Difficulty integrating with new third-party APIs due to old PHP syntax

The goal was to upgrade the system to Laravel 12, modernize its architecture, and refactor critical components — without interrupting live traffic or causing data inconsistency.

Our Solution

We executed a comprehensive Laravel 8 → 12 upgrade plan, broken into multiple phases for safety, testing, and incremental rollout.

1. Pre-Upgrade Audit

• Conducted a full dependency audit via Composer and identified packages requiring replacements or updates.

• Used Laravel Shift and Rector to detect deprecated code and auto-apply modern syntax updates.

• Created a staging environment to simulate upgrade steps without affecting production.

2. Framework & PHP Upgrade

• Upgraded PHP from 7.4 to 8.3 for maximum Laravel 12 compatibility.

• Updated framework core and adjusted namespace imports, service providers, and route definitions.

• Migrated to the new bootstrap/app.php structure and simplified middleware registration.

3. Code Refactoring

• Replaced old Auth scaffolding with Laravel Breeze for a modern authentication flow.

• Refactored controllers and services to use dependency injection and type-hinting.

• Cleaned up jobs, events, and listeners for better event-driven design.

• Rebuilt caching logic using Redis for faster response and queue management.

4. Testing & Deployment

• Implemented automated unit and feature testing to validate upgrade stability.

• Used GitHub Actions for continuous integration and automated regression checks.

• Deployed with zero downtime using Laravel Envoyer and blue-green deployment strategy.

Key Features Delivered

• Full Laravel 8 → 12 migration with PHP 8.3

• Modern authentication with Laravel Breeze

• Redis caching and optimized query execution

• Enhanced event-driven architecture with listeners and jobs

• Upgraded API routes with versioning and better error handling

• CI/CD integration via GitHub Actions for automated testing

• Security hardening and input validation refactor

Result & Impact

After the upgrade, the platform’s performance increased by 45%, and API latency dropped significantly.

The new Laravel 12 structure improved developer workflow and reduced onboarding time for new engineers.

All deprecated code was removed, and packages were updated for long-term maintainability.

The application maintained 99.97% uptime throughout the upgrade process and became fully compliant with modern security standards.

The project delivered a 135% ROI in just three months, largely due to lower maintenance overhead and better server performance.