diff --git a/packages/create-cloudflare/src/frameworks/index.ts b/packages/create-cloudflare/src/frameworks/index.ts
index 271c6ab732e9..22292d9c785e 100644
--- a/packages/create-cloudflare/src/frameworks/index.ts
+++ b/packages/create-cloudflare/src/frameworks/index.ts
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ export const getFrameworkCli = (ctx: C3Context, withVersion = true) => {
 	const frameworkCli = ctx.template
 		.frameworkCli as keyof typeof frameworksPackageJson.dependencies;
 	const version =
-		ctx.template.frameworkCliVersion ??
+		ctx.template.pinFrameworkCli ??
 		frameworksPackageJson.dependencies[frameworkCli];
 	return withVersion ? `${frameworkCli}@${version}` : frameworkCli;
 };
diff --git a/packages/create-cloudflare/src/templates.ts b/packages/create-cloudflare/src/templates.ts
index 80b687472f99..767dee0ca0a4 100644
--- a/packages/create-cloudflare/src/templates.ts
+++ b/packages/create-cloudflare/src/templates.ts
@@ -76,10 +76,10 @@ export type TemplateConfig = {
 	/** The name of the framework cli tool that is used to generate this project or undefined if none */
 	frameworkCli?: string;
 	/**
-	 * The version of the framework cli tool to use.
-	 * If omitted the cli version is taken from src/frameworks/package.json, which is the default/standard behavior.
+	 * A specific version of the framework cli tool to use instead of the standard one taken from the src/frameworks/package.json
+	 * (which gets managed and bumped by dependabot)
 	 */
-	frameworkCliVersion?: string;
+	pinFrameworkCli?: string;
 	/** When set to true, hides this template from the selection menu */
 	hidden?: boolean;
 	/** Specifies a set of files that will be copied to the project directory during creation.
diff --git a/packages/create-cloudflare/templates-experimental/next/c3.ts b/packages/create-cloudflare/templates-experimental/next/c3.ts
index 91d9dd34fc15..368cac1a3398 100644
--- a/packages/create-cloudflare/templates-experimental/next/c3.ts
+++ b/packages/create-cloudflare/templates-experimental/next/c3.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ export default {
 	// TODO: here we need to specify a version of create-next-app which is different from the
 	//       standard one used in the stable Next.js template, that's because our open-next adapter
 	//       is not yet fully ready for Next.js 15, once it is we should remove the following
-	frameworkCliVersion: "14.2.5",
+	pinFrameworkCli: "14.2.5",
 	platform: "workers",
 	displayName: "Next (using Node.js compat + Workers Assets)",
 	path: "templates-experimental/next",