Skip to content

Dedicated PHP engineers

Hire PHP developers who can modernise a codebase without a rewrite theatre.

Need a senior PHP engineer for a Laravel app, a custom framework, or a legacy system that still prints invoices? DayDecoder hires against production PHP: typing, tests, and a path off the 2014 patterns — with overlap hours for overseas teams.

Talk about a PHP hire All hiring options

What our PHP developers take on.

Most “hire PHP developer” searches are really two jobs: keep a live system alive, and move it toward a maintainable PHP 8 codebase. We do both. We do not sell a greenfield rewrite as the default.

If the product is already Laravel, the PHP hire looks a lot like our Laravel practice: schema, HTTP, queues, billing. If it is a custom MVC from a decade ago, the first month is usually characterisation tests, a Composer autoload, and strangling one module at a time. Either way you should hear a plan that names the PHP version, the database, and the first seam we will cut — not a slogan about “digital transformation”.

DayDecoder’s public work is Laravel-heavy because that is what we recommend for new products. The founder’s path was junior PHP, then senior PHP, then leading Laravel teams. That history matters when your repo is still a mix of helpers, global state and one 4,000-line controller. We have sat in those files. We will not pretend they are charming.

  • PHP 8 upgrades

    From 7.4 or 8.0 to a supported 8.x, with typed properties, a real Composer lockfile, and CI that fails on parse errors before production does.

  • Legacy module strangling

    Pick a bounded feature — invoices, login, reports — wrap it, add tests, and replace it. The rest of the app keeps taking payments.

  • APIs in front of old PHP

    A JSON layer so a new React or mobile client can ship while the admin stays on the existing PHP until it is ready to move.

  • Security and dependency hygiene

    Composer audit, abandoned packages, session and CSRF gaps, and the SQL that was concatenated in 2016. Quiet work. Necessary work.

Skills and tool stack

PHP skills we actually use.

The interview is not “have you heard of Symfony”. It is whether someone can read a messy codebase and leave it better in week two.

We default to Laravel for new PHP products because the team already ships it. We will work in Symfony or a custom framework when that is what you have. We will not drag a healthy Symfony app into Laravel for our convenience, and we will not keep a custom framework alive if Laravel would honestly cost you less over two years — we will write that trade-off down.

Language

  • PHP 8.2–8.4
  • strict types
  • Composer
  • PSR-12
  • PHPStan / Psalm when the repo can take them

Frameworks

  • Laravel
  • custom MVC
  • Symfony components where they already exist

Data

  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • PDO / Eloquent
  • migrations you can replay

Quality

  • PHPUnit
  • Pint or PHP-CS-Fixer
  • CI on pull requests

Engagement models

Full-time PHP capacity, a reserved part-time seat, or hourly rescue.

Legacy work is usually a dedicated seat. A one-off upgrade can be a scoped project. Hourly is for firefighting and reviews.

Dedicated full-time PHP developer

The same engineer in the repo every week, owning the upgrade roadmap and the production bugs. Best when the PHP estate is the business, not a side script.

Part-time dedicated

A few days a week for a team that already has a PHP lead and needs extra hands on a module or a version climb.

Hourly PHP help

A failing payment callback, a Composer conflict, a security patch. Time-logged. We will tell you if the fire is actually a rewrite in disguise.

Hiring process

How a PHP engagement starts.

We need the PHP version, hosting, and a honest list of what breaks when someone deploys on a Friday.

  1. 1

    Show us the estate

    PHP version, framework (or lack of one), test suite, and how you deploy. A 30-minute call with the founder is enough to see if we can help.

  2. 2

    Written path, not a rewrite slogan

    Upgrade in place, strangle a module, or a bounded new app beside the old one. You get that in writing before we bill.

  3. 3

    Access and a safety net

    Staging that matches production closely enough, backups, and a first characterisation test around the riskiest flow.

  4. 4

    First safe change

    A dependency bump, a typed class, a bugfix with a test. Proof we can deploy without folklore.

  5. 5

    Weekly demo of behaviour

    Not “we refactored”. A user-visible or operator-visible change, every week, in your time zone overlap.

PHP support hours that match US, UK, EU and Australian teams.

Legacy PHP tends to fail when a real user is online. We keep overlap for that: afternoon for the UK and Europe, a late window for the US East Coast, early calls for Australia. Batch upgrades and Composer work run in India hours so your day is not full of “waiting on a lockfile”.

If you need 24/7 on-call PHP, say so on the first call. A dedicated engagement can include a documented escalation path. We will not sell you a follow-the-sun fantasy with one engineer.

  • United States

    Morning updates waiting in your inbox when the US workday starts.

  • United Kingdom

    Same-day overlap for calls, reviews, and decisions.

  • Europe

    Afternoon overlap with Central and Eastern European teams.

  • Australia

    Early-morning calls that fit the Australian workday.

Why DayDecoder for a PHP hire.

PHP is how this company started. Laravel is where most of the new work lives. You get both, without a lecture about rewriting everything in another language.

  • Founder who still reads PHP

    Prakash’s published path is junior PHP, senior PHP, then Laravel team lead. The person on the call can open your helpers.php and stay calm.

  • Modern defaults, legacy manners

    New work in typed PHP 8 and Laravel. Old work treated as a live business, not a museum piece to be demolished in a slide deck.

  • You own the source

    Custom PHP and IP transfer on payment. No framework lock-in games. If you later hire someone else, they should not need a forensic recovery project.

  • Linked to Laravel when that is the real need

    If the job is clearly Laravel SaaS, we will send you to the Laravel hire page. This page is for people who said PHP on purpose.

Relevant work

PHP and Laravel products already on this site.

Most of our public case studies are Laravel — which is PHP in production. We show them here because that is the work, not because we renamed the stack for a keyword.

Restaurants, POS & hospitality Web, POS terminals, iOS & Android

Cloud POS & Business Management Suite for Restaurants and Retail

A multi-location point of sale and business management platform for restaurants, cafes and retail stores: fast checkout at the counter, table bookings, inventory, purchasing, staff and reports in one web app, with companion apps for terminals, kiosks and handheld devices.

Laravel MySQL Laravel Passport Pusher
Read case study : Cloud POS & Business Management Suite for Restaurants and Retail
Restaurants, POS & hospitality Android, iOS, POS terminals & tablets

POS, Self-Order Kiosk & Inventory Apps in Flutter and React Native

A family of mobile apps for a cloud POS platform: a Flutter POS app with phone and terminal layouts, a kitchen display and a self-order kiosk mode, plus React Native (Expo) apps for counter sales, customer kiosks, table ordering and inventory counts.

Flutter Dart Riverpod Hive
Read case study : POS, Self-Order Kiosk & Inventory Apps in Flutter and React Native
Fintech & payments Web, iOS & Android

Credit Card Bill Payments & Card Comparison Platform for a Fintech Startup

A consumer fintech platform for paying bills and recharges from a credit card, moving wallet money to cards, banks and UPI, and comparing credit cards with calculators and eligibility tools, delivered as a website, an admin panel and a React Native app.

Laravel MySQL Redis AWS
Read case study : Credit Card Bill Payments & Card Comparison Platform for a Fintech Startup
Recruitment & hiring Web & mobile API

Two-sided Job Portal & Recruitment Platform

A job portal for candidates and employers in India with one profile and resume per candidate, employer job posting and hiring, a daily feed of imported developer jobs, and consent-based talent pools for the mobile app.

Laravel MySQL Laravel Sanctum Laravel Socialite
Read case study : Two-sided Job Portal & Recruitment Platform

Related reading from our blog.

All articles

Related services and hires.

Services

Related hires

FAQ

Questions about hiring PHP developers.

Straight answers on the stack, ownership and time zones. Email us if yours is missing.

contact@daydecoder.com

Yes, when the work is a live PHP system we can run locally and on staging. If the code is an unmaintained 5.6 app with no git history, we will say so and propose a narrower first slice rather than a fantasy rewrite.

Let's talk

Need a PHP developer on your product?

Tell us what you are building. You will get honest advice on whether you need a dedicated hire, part-time capacity, or a scoped build.

  1. 1

    We reply within 24 hours

    A real person reads your message and replies on the next business day at the latest.

  2. 2

    Free 30-minute call

    We talk through your goals, users, and budget, and answer every question.

  3. 3

    Proposal & fixed quote

    You get a written scope, timeline, and price. No obligation.

contact@daydecoder.com Ahmedabad, India

Get a free consultation

Takes under a minute. No spam, no obligation.

What do you need help with?

Your details stay private. NDA on request.