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Freelance PHP Developers

PHP Development Overview

As one of the earliest programming languages to hit the scene back in 1995, PHP has grown in conjunction with the commercialization of the web. It was originally designed as a generic template language and has attracted many beginner developers with little to no formal training.

As a highly accessible language, novice PHP web developers often write sloppy spaghetti code using PHP while learning. As a result, PHP is sometimes criticized for lacking style and strong development practices. However, the existence of bad code does not mean the coding language itself is bad.

PHP gets a bad rap for the same reasons it’s so useful: it’s easy for devs to learn and use, has a vibrant community, and results in user-friendly websites. With PHP 8 now making the language faster, more applicable, and easier to use than ever, there can be no doubt that PHP is here to stay.

As described by the Slack engineering team, PHP is a force to be reckoned with because “[it] provides better support for building, changing, and operating a successful project than competing environments.”

Laravel and Symfony are currently the most useful PHP frameworks for building increased complexity and working more quickly and securely. Thanks to highly active communities constantly putting out new modules, tools, plugins, and answers to common questions, these two frameworks are most popular for prototyping and rapid application development.

Other PHP frameworks teams may use include Phalcon, FuelPHP, CodeIgniter, Slim, Yii (and Yii2), CakePHP, Lumen, and Laminas Project (formerly Zend Framework).

How to Hire a PHP Developer

Finding a PHP developer is relatively easy — there are over 6 million software developers skilled in PHP around the world, according to recent estimates.

However, the problem is finding a good PHP developer. You want to find an engineer able to follow the PHP Standards Recommendations (PSRs). You want one fluent enough to not regularly cause errors, but, when they do, they actively learn from their mistakes. And, you probably want one worth the significant money you’ll spend on them.

Not to worry!

Here is a step-by-step guide to finding a PHP programmer you’ll want to keep around:

1. Determine What You Need a PHP Developer to Do

Why are you looking for a PHP developer in the first place?

Are you looking for someone to build out an Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) eCommerce web application?

Need help with scripting custom elements in WordPress?

Do you see yourself migrating from PHP 7.4 to PHP 8.2 and want someone who has the skill sets in first-class callable syntax, pure intersection types, and final class constraints?

Or are your PHP development needs more intensive, requiring knowledge of MVC-based frameworks, 3rd-party APIs, advanced SQL skills, and experience with both procedural and object-oriented programming, for example?

For project-based hires, scope out the details before continuing, at least on a basic level. Projects that aren’t clearly defined are easily misunderstood, underestimated, finished wrong, or not finished. That’s a waste of time and money, so try to do it right from the start!

To hire a dedicated PHP developer, consider what needs to be done a year later, rather than just your current PHP needs. While PHP might be the language you’re looking for, you may actually discover you’re looking for a web developer or full-stack developer with PHP as their strong suit.

2. Decide Between Freelance Developers vs In-House Employees

How do you want to work with your future PHP developer?

Hiring dedicated PHP developers as full-time employees has been the standard, and there are many benefits to choosing this method. The costs are foreseeable, it’s easier to supervise them directly, and you can build loyalty to your business, product, and brand, among other things. In-house PHP developers also benefit by having job security, a chance to grow professionally, and perks and benefits outside the standard salary.

But there are advantages in freelancers over traditional hiring, as well. Software development is well ahead of other industries in how remote-friendly it is. When hiring freelance PHP programmers, you can access a global talent pool, save money on taxes and payroll, and enjoy faster hiring times (usually). In fact, PHP developer freelance hourly rate in the US averages around $42.68.

3. Write a Compelling Job Description

A well-crafted PHP developer job description is not only like an advertisement for your company, it’s also an important tool for you to draw the right talent into your recruiting funnel. There are five basic sections every job description should include. They are as follows:

1. Job title, location, type of employment (full-time, part-time, etc.), and salary range
2. Company overview, vision, mission statement, and culture
3. A detailed list of day-to-day responsibilities
4. Required technical skills (e.g., CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Drupal)
5. Benefits and perks

What you need to do is customize these components for your company and talent needs. To hire PHP web developers, you should use keywords that attract candidates with the skillset you are looking for. For example, if you want an enterprise PHP developer with experience migrating to PHP 8, MVC framework, and object-oriented programming, you should use these keywords at the top of your requirements section.

A vague job description casts a wider net and attracts more candidates who are less likely to be a match for the opening. Specificity is the way to go when looking for PHP programmer for hire.

Learn more about crafting great JDs in our guide on how to write a back-end developer job description.

4. Verify Candidates for PHP Skills and Experience

You’ve found a few PHP developers who look good on paper. But, how do you tell if your PHP dev candidates have the expertise, skills, and background you want?

To give you an example of how you might verify the PHP credentials of your prospective hire, we’ll give you a peek into how we do it at Arc.

Arc developers go through a rigorous and transparent vetting process before they are featured to hiring managers. We want employers to feel confident they are saving time by meeting candidates who are already qualified.

Arc vets developers in two ways before matching them with companies:

1. Communication skills verification – Our talent partners first screen a candidate’s profile for relevant training and experience. If it checks out, we then assess their English language proficiency and communication skills (important, especially for remote PHP developer job positions!).
2. Technical vetting process – Next, developers will take a technical assessment to test their skills and knowledge in programming languages, algorithms, domain specialization, and frameworks. We also test their ability to translate these programming skills into business value.

Finally — don’t forget about soft skills!

Soft skills can make or break your projects, particularly when hiring remote PHP developers, whether they’re long-term employees or short-term freelancers. Great communication skills are vital, particularly effective communication across cultures, their ability to collaborate remotely, and interpersonal skills.

When you hire a great PHP developer, you won’t feel the need to micromanage them, as they should work well autonomously. Make sure to verify their analytical skills, ability to solve problems, and time management as much as you can.

Remote software engineers should be productive, so ask them how they effectively manage remote work distractions and how keep themselves motivated.

5. Check Past Work & References

Before establishing a formal relationship with a PHP developer, don’t forget to review their years of experience, past work, and portfolio of completed work. Depending on their preferences, they may have their own website or a developer portfolio hosted on GitHub or another site like that. Dig into it.

Similarly, don’t hesitate to view the candidate’s LinkedIn profile. Check their work experience section to understand if they work with PHP regularly and for how long they’ve done so.

Do they display their passion for PHP development prominently in their headline or About section? Are there any publications, honors and awards, or organizations listed that bolster their proof of PHP skills? If you need a senior PHP engineer, does their experience go as far back as the PHP 5 (or even PHP 4) days?

If you want to be thorough, ask for references as well. There may already be some on their LinkedIn profiles under the Recommendations section, but you can also ask them for a few names, phone numbers, and email addresses to ask questions that better relate to your PHP hiring needs.

6. Interview Your Prospective PHP Developer

To narrow your list down to the perfect candidate, you’ll need to ensure your prospective developers have a thorough knowledge of PHP and how to build with it efficiently.

Here are a few PHP interview questions to get you started:

• What are the main error types in PHP and how do they differ?
• How does PHP interact with HTML? With JavaScript?
• What are traits in PHP?
• List several PHP variables you know and briefly describe their characteristics and how they work.
• Give me a list of the various data types (scalar types, compound types, special types) in PHP and quickly explain each.
• Name some of the new features released in PHP 8.2.
• Which PHP frameworks are you familiar with?
• If migrating from PHP 7.4 to PHP 8, what are the backward-incompatible changes to be aware of?
• What PSR standards do you follow? Why would you follow a PSR standard?

For a complete guide, check out our list of the most important PHP interview questions to ask. In addition to technical knowledge, it’s also key to assess your PHP developers’ communication skills, professionalism, creativity, and level of interest during the interview process.

For more ideas, you can check out our guides for general software engineering interview questions and senior software engineering interview questions to ask. To go even further, you can test whether they’ll work autonomously with our freelance interview questions and our remote-readiness interview questions.

7. Understand What You Can Afford to Pay

To attract the best talent, you need to be aware of PHP developer salary expectations and the going PHP developer freelance hourly rates.

Remote PHP developers make a global average of $65,613 USD per year, based on self-reported data from our salary database:

• For junior PHP developers, the average salary is $56,732.
• For senior PHP developers, the average salary is $81,526.

US-based PHP developers make an average salary of $87,376, with junior PHP developers averaging $72,350 and senior PHP developers averaging $104,033.

For freelance PHP developers, the average hourly rate is $61-80, based on data compiled on more than 20,000 vetted developers in our network. Keep in mind that this survey included participants of varying experience levels from all around the globe. PHP developers in Asia, Northern Africa, and Eastern Europe may charge lower than $45 per hour, while skilled developers in North America may charge upwards of $160.

When comparing the cost of full-time salaried PHP developers against the cost of freelance developers working full-time hours, the former may seem like a bargain. However, keep in mind that unpaid benefits and indirect costs significantly increase the overall expenditure of full-time on-site employees.

For more information, check out our guide on cost differences between freelance and in-house hiring.

Where to Find PHP Developers

Now you know how to find them, but where should you look to find top-notch PHP coders?

Here is a list of some of the best places to look to find great PHP programmers or web developers, back-end developers, and full-stack developers with significant experience working with PHP:

1. Hiring Platforms & Job Boards

We’re biased, of course, and we do believe Arc is the best place to find PHP engineers and programmers. However, there are a lot of other great job boards out there, as well.

Andela, Turing, and Toptal are three of the most well-established platforms specifically for locating tech talent. There’s also Terminal, Triplebyte, and a host of others.

Like Arc, most of these platforms pre-verify their developers to ensure a basic level of technical expertise, communication skills, and related abilities.

2. Freelance Marketplaces

Arc can also help you locate freelance PHP programmers. But, if you want to check some of your other options out, we won’t hold it against you!

For niche marketplaces specifically catering to freelance developers and other tech-adjacent talent, check out Gigster or Toptal, or browse through our list of Toptal alternatives, including BairesDev and Guru. For general freelancer marketplaces where you can find contract workers in tech and in a variety of other fields, there are Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer(.com), and others.

While the niche marketplaces specializing in freelance developers often vet the candidates for technical knowledge, be careful on general freelance marketplaces. There, it’s often a race to the bottom on pricing, and anyone can sign up and offer PHP software development services. While you might certainly find a great programmer or two there, it’s likely that it’ll be more the exception rather than the rule.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an awesome place to find developers with PHP experience looking for work if you feel like putting in the work yourself.

Not only can you look for programmers skilled in PHP, but you can immediately view their entire software engineering resume. Furthermore, you can utilize your own network of professional connections by reaching out to see if anyone has any leads on PHP programmers. Simultaneous with active searching, you can do a passive search by placing a job ad on LinkedIn, as well.

The main downside of using LinkedIn to source developers is that everyone uses it. There, you’re competing against top companies, technical sourcers, and recruitment agencies, all trying to get the best PHP developers.

4. Recruiters

Recruitment agencies and solo tech recruiters are a great option when looking for local tech talent or for developers who’ll work remotely. Recruiters take care of vetting, matching, and also interviewing, but this comes at a higher price, as you can imagine.

However, that high price frees you and/or your in-house hiring staff from the time and effort it takes to go through numerous employment processes. On top of that, recruiters and recruitment agencies often have domain knowledge, in this case, PHP development, as well as leads in their system to current PHP developers looking for work.

These five options are some of the most popular ways to source developers working with PHP, but they’re not all of them. See this post for a full list of ways to hire developers.

How to Work with a PHP Programmer Successfully

Once you’ve signed the contract, you might be eager to put them straight to work. After all, it probably was a long journey, even if you nailed each point in our PHP hiring guide!

However, keep the below advice in mind to ensure you create an environment that allows them to thrive, learn, grow, and be happy. Imagine putting in all that time and effort only to find out it’s not a great cultural fit for them three months later!

1. Spend Time Onboarding Your Developer Properly

Whether you’re hiring a full-time, in-house, in-office employee or a freelance PHP coder to just clock in a few hours on the weekends, it pays off to onboard your developers properly.

Software engineers and developers are usually quite analytical and often appreciate knowing the “why” behind your decisions and asks. Even if your company produces a well-known product or service, help your new PHP developer understand the point of their new role.

Spending a day or two onboarding software engineers and teaching them about the company sounds expensive. However, it certainly saves money in the long run, as they’ll be more invested in their work, able to make better decisions going forward, and simply feel like an important part of the team.

2. Settle the Legalities & Privacy Issues at the Very Beginning

If you’re employing a PHP developer, your company’s HR team likely has everything under control. But, when you hire a freelancer or contract worker, you may have to wade into the legalese yourself.

Every freelance PHP development project needs a solid contract to protect both parties. You can learn how to write one with our freelance developer contract templates.

A non-disclosure agreement is essential to protect your confidential information, but it also protects theirs. Also, if you’re working with a PHP freelance developer, be sure you understand [how to do taxes right[(https://arc.dev/employer-blog/taxes-when-hiring-a-freelancer/).

3. Come to Them With a Full-Fledged Plan

Learn how to write a PRD (product requirements document) they’ll understand. Just because it makes sense to you, it may not make sense to your newly hired PHP developer, so keep that in mind. Also, learn how to create an optimal development workflow to reach maximum productivity and efficiency.

4. Always Pay On Time

Your company will have things sorted out for in-house PHP software engineers and coders. However, you’ll have to be more vigilant if you’re working with a freelance PHP programmer.

Choose among fixed-cost, hourly, and retainer freelance payment methods and select the best one for your project. Pay on time, all the time — one late payment can significantly erode your developer's trust in you and your project, especially at the beginning.

If you’re looking for a payroll solution, check out our guide comparing ADP vs Paychex vs Gusto.

5. Invest In Their Development

Software engineers that are given employee development opportunities stay at their jobs longer, are more productive, and attract more clients, among other things. Whether they’re fully paid with stock options and pet insurance or an hourly freelance PHP developer, investing in their professional growth often has a high ROI. And, it keeps them happy so they stick around!

6. Let Them Go Gently, If You Must

Maybe you have a full-fledged developer horror story on your hands, or perhaps they’re simply just not working out. Whatever the case, ensure you are respectful and polite if deciding to let them go.

A failed development project is not ideal, but remember your PHP developer is a human being, not an easily replaceable product or lines of code. Your employee or freelancer still depends on their PHP programming to pay their bills, so do your best to ensure a smooth, low-stress exit for them.

Great PHP Development Resources

Before we wrap up our guide on how to hire PHP developers, here are some helpful PHP resources.

1. PHP Developer Communities

Much like NBA scouts tune in to the NCAA tournament to find the best draft prospects, you should keep your eye on the places where PHP developers play, learn, and share.

Get involved in online PHP communities to learn about the common challenges PHP developers are trying to solve, get news and updates, and come into contact with passionate programmers who take the initiative to work on their craft.

PHP programmers who are active in online communities will often be open to connecting and may be able to refer other developers if they themselves are unable to work on your project.

2. Blogs and Tutorials

Here are some awesome blogs and websites to keep you in the loop on the happenings in and around the world of PHP:

• Sitepoint – The people over at Sitepoint have a great section dedicated to PHP. There are things for beginners, like an introduction to MySQL or how to set up PHP environments, and they have more advanced PHP content, such as how to use PHP authorization with JSON web tokens or how to create hooks for a PHP API pipeline.
• Zend – The Zend PHP blog is jam-packed with articles, some on general PHP (e.g., performance, debugging), some on Zend products (e.g., Zend Framework, Zend Server), and some on the wider tech world (e.g., DevOps, AWS).
• Voices of the ElePHPant – This website interviews the notable people in the PHP community. Their name comes from the mascot of PHP, which is a purple elephant spelled as “elePHPant.”
• Laravel News – This blog is all about the world of PHP, and particularly the framework Laravel.
• php[architect] – The php[architect] site is the web home for the digital and print magazine of the same name. They host interviews, PHP news and important updates, articles on security, and some mini-lessons in specifics.

3. PHP Meetups and Conferences

Be sure to check out your local PHP Meetup Community. With more than 1 million members and 1,575 PHP Meetup groups worldwide, almost every major city has a meetup group that hosts events throughout the year. Such events are good opportunities to network with developers specifically interested in and skilled at PHP. If you’re up to it, you can even register to speak at meetups and share your ideas.

Hackathons and conferences are also sure stomping grounds for serious PHP developers. Try to find one in your region. Here are some popular PHP events around the world and online:

• PHPUK – London, UK
• phpDay – Verona, Italy
• International PHP Conference – Berlin & Munich, Germany; hybrid
• SymfonyLive & SymfonyWorld – Various Locations
• CakeFest (Official CakePHP Conference) – Online

4. PHP Newsletters

Here are a variety of email newsletters to subscribe to related to PHP programming, PHP frameworks, and general updates on the state of PHP development:

• Official PHP mailing lists
• PHPWeekly
• Laravel News
• Awesome PHP Weekly
• Laravel Daily
• The Symfony Blog

Wrapping Up Our Guide on Hiring PHP Developers

If you find yourself with a need for a PHP expert, here’s how to get started finding them:

Allocate a budget that matches the market rate in your region. Be sure you have a clear understanding of the additional costs associated with hiring full-time PHP developer employees.

Check out PHP developer hangouts, both online and off. Become a member of the PHP community — participate and network to find PHP coders who will be interested in joining you to build or improve your product.

Tailor and post your job description. Use keywords and include specific requirements in your job description — it will save you the trouble of dealing with an overwhelming number of unqualified candidates.

Prepare your interview process. Test each candidate’s depth of PHP knowledge with questions specifically designed for that purpose, and evaluate for general fit.