+16096320350
Request a Consultation
According to recent statistics, PHP powers over 86 million live websites, and out of them, 23.91% are in the top 1 million websites. What’s more interesting to note about PHP is that nearly 8 out of 10 websites are using this server-side scripting language in some way or another. Furthermore, PHP strengthened its foothold in the list of the most commonly used programming language, as per the recent developer survey conducted by Stack Overflow. From a business standpoint, PHP’s versatility and ease of adaptation make it a go-to technology for developing dynamic and interactive websites and web applications.
Given the rising popularity of PHP over the last two decades despite the emergence of modern programming languages, frameworks, and libraries, the need for hiring PHP developers is more than justified. However, hiring PHP programmers can be a tough row to hoe, since there is a vast pool of talent out there. The good news is that businesses can find quality developers from the vast talent pool by digging into this comprehensive guide to hiring PHP developers for web development. Let’s get started.
The 4-Step Guide to Hire Seasoned PHP Developers
Follow this simple step-by-step guide to hiring tech-savvy PHP developers for dynamic web development.
1. Define Your Requirements
Before hiring PHP developers, decision-makers need to define the project requirements in detail and ask themselves a few questions in advance to ensure a smooth hiring process. For instance, are they planning to make a smooth transition from PHP 7.4 to PHP 8.1 and looking for developers having rich expertise in first-class callable syntax, final class constraints, pure intersection classes, etc? Or, the PHP project development requirements are more complex and they need someone with extensive SQL skills, proficiency in procedural programming and third-party APIs, and a sound understanding of MVC-based platforms.
Primarily, the key objectives of PHP development include:
- MVP Designing and development
- Creation and administration of a CMS
- PHP Integration and upgradation
- APIs integration
- Custom software development based on PHP
2. Choose the Right PHP Framework
After defining the project requirements, it’s time to choose the right PHP framework. There is a wide array of PHP frameworks out there, each comes with its own set of functionality, advantages, and disadvantages and is ideal for different web development scenarios. For instance, if a business is looking for something scalable, they may consider choosing the Laravel PHP framework since it provides a routing system, templating engine, and a local development engine that supports scalable web development.
Similarly, if a business requires PHP developers to work on complicated projects, they may consider using the Laminas Project framework since it comes with powerful components such as dependency injection, pagination, input validation, event dispatchers, and more that enable PHP developers to build web applications and APIs in a quick turnaround time. There are many other PHP frameworks such as Symfony, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Phalcon, and FuelPHP that enterprises can choose tailored to their unique project requirements. Always remember that choosing the right PHP framework for web development projects is critical since it enables developers to reduce development time and provides enterprises with a faster time-to-market advantage.
Is PHP Dead – A Fallacy or Reality
3. Choose a Hiring Model
When it comes to hiring PHP developers, enterprises can choose between in-house development or building your technical (BYT) team model. For building an in-house team, enterprises need to go through the tedious and time-consuming process of setting up a hiring team to screen the candidates’ profiles from popular job networks such as Indeed, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, ZipRecruiter, and more. After screening hundreds of profiles, the hiring team shortlists some developers for the interview round. Once the hiring is completed, enterprises need to bear some additional costs that include employee benefits such as medical insurance, incentives, annual leaves, etc. This is a highly expensive affair for small and mid-sized businesses.
Another popular method of hiring PHP developers is opting for building your technical (BYT) team model. In this hiring model, offshore development companies work closely with Startups, SMBs, and Enterprise-level organizations for their resource augmentation, scalability requirements, and project consultation. In other words, the offshore development company is committed to helping clients in achieving their project goals. Listed below are three popular engagement models offered by offshore development companies to meet every business need.
| Fixed Price | Time and Material | SLA/Milestone Based |
|---|---|---|
| This hiring model is ideal for small and medium-scale PHP web development projects. As the name suggests, customers need to pay a fixed price in this hiring model for all milestone deliverables. | This hiring model is ideal for such projects where the PHP web development requirements are dynamic and flexible. In this model, the customer is billed once a month as per the efforts invested by the web development team. | This hiring model is ideal when enterprises need to hire PHP experts for an iterative and process-oriented project with well-defined milestones both internal and external. |
4. Sign the Contract
Once the decision-makers decided to hire PHP developers from an IT software and service provider and selected the right engagement model based on their project requirements, it’s time to sign the contract with the IT vendor that includes all expected deliverables, payment terms, failure-related penalties, NDA conditions, and other critical elements that ensure smooth project delivery.
Why Enterprises Choose PHP for Custom App Development
The Cost of Hiring PHP Developers
The cost of hiring a PHP developer depends on the engagement model enterprises opt for: in-house development, hiring freelancers, or outsourcing the project to an offshore web development company. Other critical factors that can influence the web development cost are the scope of the project, the developer’s expertise and industry experience, and of course, location. Below is a complete chart of PHP developers’ salaries that vary across different countries.
| Country | Annual Salary Range | Average Hourly Rates |
|---|---|---|
| USA | $82,000—130,000 | $70 |
| UK | $50,000—65,000 | $65 |
| Norway | $46,800—72,000 | $45 |
| Western Europe | $49,000—57,000 | $50 |
| Singapore | $48,000—51,600 | $45 |
| India | $46,000—50,000 | $40 |
Closing Thoughts
As stated above, the market is brimming with PHP developers and it’s just a matter of fact knowing how to find the right developer. Hopefully, after reading this comprehensive guide, decision-makers can ask the right questions related to web development and choose the best PHP developer for their project.
