Dot All 2025 signals a new era for Craft CMS

You may have already seen that we were recently at Dot All 2025. This is a Craft CMS conference organised by Pixel & Tonic, the creators of Craft. Here, developers and business leaders converge to shape the future of Craft CMS and learn about the latest developments. From Craft CMS 6 to shifts in accessibility, here’s what our team took away from the event.   

 

What does Craft CMS 6 mean for developers and digital teams?

One of the biggest announcements was the upcoming release of Craft CMS 6. But this won’t take place until after Craft has switched PHP frameworks from Yii to Laravel. We explain what to expect, along with timelines, in our recent article When will Craft CMS launch?  

Technical Director, Samuel Birch, has explained that not only is Laravel one of the biggest PHP Frameworks, it also has a clear roadmap and a very active community, so all in all it feels like a natural progression for Craft CMS.  

Craft CMS 6 should be out of beta and generally available in Q4 of 2026. If this is something you’re interested in finding out more about, get in touch with us. 

 

We can’t wait to try Datastar

Ben Croker, the developer behind Sprig, gave a talk about both this plugin and Datastar, another plugin that he and a few others have been working on. In it, he discussed real-time collaboration and demonstrated how both Sprig and Datastar can be used to create multi-participant experiences.  

Data Star is designed to improve front-end performance by allowing dynamic content to be loaded in smaller, separate chunks rather than one large block. This means a more responsive and visually appealing experience for users, as elements will appear as they load.

As a team, we feel that Datastar will undoubtedly have an impact on the way we develop sites. There are lots of ways it will do this; one example is that it will allow developers to update multiple elements on a page with a single call, simplifying code and improving maintainability.

What does Datastar mean for us and our clients? Not only are we looking at faster, smoother experiences with fewer bugs, but there’s an opportunity to create more exciting interactive or collaborative experiences through Craft CMS. If you have something in mind, we’d love to hear from you! 

 

Better reporting from Craft CMS 6? 

In other news, Craft will be introducing a native reporting system in Craft 6. This means built-in commerce reports, plus the ability to define custom report types all directly within the CMS. The Craft team say they’ll be adding an event hook so that developers can register their own report types. This makes it easier to tailor reporting to your project's specific needs.

Previously, we developed the DNA Reports plugin to bring flexible reporting to Craft and Craft Commerce (versions 3, 4, and 5). With Craft 6’s new native reporting features, this plugin won’t be necessary. But don’t worry, we’ll still be taking impeccable care of it until after 2030, when support for Craft 5 ends!  

 

Web accessibility is serious business

Accessibility was a major focus at Dot All this year, with the EU accessibility law prompting renewed discussion about inclusive design practices. Karel-Jan Van Haute gave a presentation on the European Accessibility Act in practice.

The presentation got both Senior Project Manager, Helen Godfrey and Project Coordinator, Emily Devaney, considering not only how we make clients aware of requirements, but how we approach inherited sites that we haven’t developed. 

We already design to WCAG guidelines, but the talk highlighted key areas for improvement, such as CAPTCHA accessibility and how PDFs are still often overlooked.

Of course, accessibility is just one of many factors that need to be weighed up when launching a new site. Others include sustainability, organisational goals or even user trends and preferences. As Craft CMS specialists, it’s our job to stay informed when it comes to these issues so that we can help you make the right decisions for your business. That’s why events such as Dot All play such an essential part in our annual calendar.   

So, lots in the pipeline and lots of positive developments for this growing content management system. It’s an exciting time to be part of the Craft CMS community, and we’re already looking at how these updates will shape our upcoming projects.