Filament 4.0 is currently in active development and, as of June 2024, is not yet officially released as a stable version. The Filament team has stated that Filament 4 will support Laravel 12 and Tailwind CSS 4, which is great for future-proofing your project, especially if you plan to use the latest features and want consistency across your admin and frontend UI.
Here are some considerations:
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Production Readiness:
- If your project is mission-critical or you require maximum stability, it’s generally best to stick with the latest stable releases (Filament 3.x with Laravel 11).
- Filament 4 may have breaking changes, incomplete documentation, or undiscovered bugs until it reaches a stable release.
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Timeline:
- Since your deployment is planned for early October, there’s a chance Filament 4 will be stable by then, but there’s no guarantee. You can monitor the Filament GitHub repo or their Discord for updates.
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Upgrading Later:
- Starting with Filament 3 and upgrading to 4 later is a safe approach. The Filament team usually provides upgrade guides to help with migration.
- If you start with Filament 4 beta/RC, be prepared for possible breaking changes and the need to refactor as the API stabilizes.
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Tailwind 4 Support:
- If you need Tailwind 4 features now, you might need to use Filament 4 (beta) or find workarounds to use Tailwind 4 with Filament 3, which could be tricky.
Recommendation:
- For maximum stability and support, start with Laravel 11 + Filament 3.
- If you are comfortable with potential instability and want to use the latest stack, you can experiment with Laravel 12 + Filament 4 beta/RC, but be ready for changes and possible issues.
- Keep an eye on the Filament 4 release progress. If it becomes stable before your launch, you can consider switching or upgrading before deployment.
Example: Installing Filament 3 with Laravel 11
composer create-project laravel/laravel:^11.0 my-app
cd my-app
composer require filament/filament:"^3.0"
php artisan filament:install
Upgrading Later:
When Filament 4 is stable, you can follow the official upgrade guide to migrate your project.
Summary:
Unless you have a strong reason to use Filament 4 right now, it’s safer to start with Filament 3 for a production project. Monitor the Filament 4 release, and plan your upgrade accordingly.
