Laravel 8 is now released and includes many new features including Laravel Jetstream, a models directory, model factory classes, migration squashing, rate-limiting improvements, maintenance mode improved, time testing helpers, update routing namespace, and many more features.
The Laravel framework its components from your application or package, if you use a lower version such as 6.x or 7.x, since major releases of Laravel do include breaking changes. However, a new major version is released.
Laravel Jetstream
Laravel Jetstream improves upon the existing Laravel UI scaffolding found in previous versions. It provides a starting point for new projects, including login, registration, email verification, two-factor authentication, session management, API support via Laravel, and team management.