Compare · Laravel
Unstale vs Laravel Shift
Two different jobs: an automated tool you run yourself, and a done-for-you upgrade with a guarantee. Here's how to tell which one you need.
Laravel Shift is an automated service: for $19 to $39 per upgrade it opens a pull request with the routine changes in minutes, and your team finishes the rest. Unstale is done for you: from $1,500 we deliver a pull request that passes your test suite, or you get a full refund. If your team has a few days to finish an upgrade, start with Shift. If nobody does, or the app is also stuck on an old PHP version, that's where Unstale fits.
Side by side
| Laravel Shift | Unstale | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | An automated pull request with the routine upgrade changes, plus comments on anything it can't change safely | A finished pull request that passes your existing tests and build, with plain-English notes on every change |
| Who finishes the work | Your team | We do |
| Price, one upgrade | $19 to $39 per Shift. Laravel 11 to 13 takes two Shifts: $29 + $19 = $48 | $1,500, $4,500 or $12,000 by code size, up to 1.5× for higher-risk upgrades. The full jump is one order |
| Ongoing | Shifty Plans: $99 a year per repository for current versions, or $149 per 6 months for older ones. Automated weekly and monthly pull requests | Keep Current plan: $400 a month for codebases up to 100,000 lines, with monthly updates and your next major upgrade each year included |
| Hands-on help | Human Shifts with Shift's creator, bought in blocks: $350 for 1 hour, $950 for 3, $2,500 for 8 | The whole upgrade is hands-on, at the quoted fixed price |
| If it doesn't work | No pass-or-refund guarantee is described on its pricing pages | Full refund if the pull request fails your tests or build, or you reject it within 14 days. Regressions fixed free for 30 days after merging |
| Speed | Minutes for the automated pull request | 3 to 5 business days for under 20,000 lines; up to 4 weeks for the largest |
| What it covers | Laravel, plus tools for related packages and code style (Livewire, Tailwind, PHPUnit to Pest and more) | PHP and Laravel, Node.js, Python and Django, Ruby and Rails, including the language version itself (for example PHP 8.1 to 8.4) |
Which one to choose
Choose Laravel Shift if
- You have a developer who knows the app and has a few days
- You upgrade every year and stay close to the latest version
- Budget is tight: $48 versus $1,500 is a real difference
- You run many Laravel apps and want automated pull requests for all of them
Choose Unstale if
- Nobody on the team has time to finish an upgrade
- You want a fixed total price and a refund if tests fail
- The PHP version is also out of support (PHP 8.1 has no official fix for PHP2Shell)
- You also run Node.js, Django or Rails apps and want one supplier for all of them
Using both
They aren't mutually exclusive. Plenty of teams run a Shift, merge what it changes, and then find that the leftover work is the hard part: packages with no compatible release, behaviour that changed silently, tests that now fail. If that's where you are, request a free scan on the branch as it stands. The quote covers only what's left.
Competitor prices and details checked 23 October 2026 from their public pages, linked above. They can change; if you spot something out of date, tell us at hello@unstale.dev and we'll fix it.
Find out what your upgrade will take
A free report on what breaks, and a fixed price, within one business day. No sales call.
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