PHP stands for “Hypertext Preprocessor” and it’s one of the most popular and widely used server-side scripting languages for building both static and dynamic websites. PHP is a powerful and secure platform today as always. In today’s time, PHP powers literally 80% of websites around the web, making it the best and trusted framework for dynamic and interactive websites. And the most important, it has one of the largest developer talent pools that you can choose from.
Some popular websites including Facebook, Wikipedia, Aliexpress, WordPress, Flickr, Yahoo, Tumblr, MailChimp, etc. are also running on a PHP framework. Ultimately, there are endless things about PHP that are hard to explain in words.
If you’re thinking about developing a dynamic and custom website, then probably you will need an experienced developer that match with your exact needs and budget but you have no idea of costs you are likely to face. However, finding a developer is not hard but what’s hard is finding a good one. So you need to be creative with your search.
In this article, we will make your search easy in finding the right PHP developer, at the right cost.
Benefits of Using PHP:
Open source- This open-source framework is free to download; means you have no need to pay or buy additional software. Being an open-source framework, it makes development fast, easy, and simple. Also, the community of PHP developers is very large, constantly sharing upgrades, code libraries, etc.
Cost-efficient– The cost of website development is very low as this framework is featured with massive integrated solutions that do not require any initial cost like other languages.
Scalability– PHP is a powerful and scalable framework. Facebook, Yahoo!, and Wikipedia are the live example of it. This clearly shows the level of flexibility and scalability. No matter if you are a startup or an established enterprise, this language is capable of handling growing traffic.
Versatile– The code of PHP can easily run on all significant platforms. It easily works on various platforms such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and UNIX. It supports major web servers like Apache, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Personal Web Server, and servers like Netscape, iPlanet, Caudium, and web browsers.
Speed– PHP is the fastest scripting language due to own memory, aimed at decreasing loading times and data processing time.
Security– Despite a misperception about low-security level, PHP shares the same vulnerabilities as any other programming and scripting language.
Customized development– Website or web application you can build as per your requirements. Your desires are not limited as you can literally customize your code or website whenever you want.
How to measure the knowledge of a PHP developer?
The internet community is full of PHP developers. They all are perfect and have done many projects of all types. Having a knowledge of PHP is not good enough, but the knowledge of all its frameworks like Laravel, Codeigniter, Symfony, CakePHP, Yii, Zend, Phalcon, and Joomla might work for you to hire a good PHP developer. Also, look at the skills claimed by PHP developer that you are planning to hire. If the developer excelled in the skills given below, then you can hire them without any doubt.
- Excellent working knowledge of PHP
- Excellent programming knowledge
- Knowledge of OOP (object-oriented programming).
- Working with SQL/MySQL databases
- Working with Cloud environment
- Good knowledge of third party APIs.
- Knowledge of HTML and CSS
- Good understanding of JavaScript
- Knowledge of control systems (SVN/Git)
- Working experience in frameworks like Laravel, Symphony, and YII
- Familiar with CMS like Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress
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Where to find PHP developers?
There are several ways where you can find and hire a talented PHP developer. Here are some of the best ways to look out for talent.
Freelance Marketplaces
Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, and many others are the most popular places for hiring a freelance PHP developer. These trusted platforms allow you to connect and bid for a particular developer.
Job Portals
The easier part for you to hire a PHP developer is when you look at Job Portals, that’s where you can easily search for a PHP Developer. Many PHP developers post their resumes on these portals which makes it easier for the recruiters to select the right developer for their project. It narrows your search and provides you with only relevant profiles.
LinkedIn is one of the most trusted platforms which helps different companies to hire the best developers around the world. LinkedIn provides you with many options to filter your search so that makes it simpler and easier for you to find the right developer with the exact skills you need. LinkedIn also provides you with many other features where you can also check the previous works of the developer you want to hire.
Agencies
There are many agencies out there which help these big companies or any company with the job search. These agencies play an important role for both Job Seekers and companies. They will match the job seeker a job of their interest in the company they want to work with, on the other hand, these agencies check on the requirements of the companies or the recruiters and help them with the profile of a defined skill set. Well, that’s the biggest help when you want to hire a PHP developer you know the required skill set and you get it in the right place.
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PHP Developer Salaries and Freelance Rates
PHP is a very simple server-side scripting language that the beginners can easily learn and build a website in less time. But here we are discussing the cost of experienced developers. Developers’ salaries or hourly rates largely depend on their experience, skills set, project handling, and more. The cost of developers also depends on the location and hiring model. Developers from different counties have different pricing models.
For example– the average rate of experienced PHP developers in the US is around $70 per hours, whereas the Indian developers with the same level of experience and knowledge cost between $30 to $35 per hour.
If talk about the country-wise salary, the USA is the most expensive country where the annual salary of experienced developers is around $102,954. At the same time, approximate annual earnings of PHP software engineers from Asia constitute around $50,000.
Country-wise annual rates are given below-
Country Annual Salary
USA $102,954
United Kingdom $90,000
Australia $80,000
India $60,000
According to Payscale, the salaries of PHP developers are differentiated on the basis of their skills as follows:
Junior Developers: $50K
Middle Developers: $60K – $70K
Senior Developers: $80K
Average hourly rates
Junior PHP Developers: $20
Middle PHP Developers: $30
Senior PHP Developers: $40-$50
Based on the experience, global rates charged by PHP Developers-
Basic Development Knowledge In PHP-
Skills- Back-end fundamentals (RESTful API’s, Lambda functions), Databases like MySQL, Content Management Systems like WordPress and Technology stack like LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP).
Cost- $30-$35 per hour
Intermediate PHP Developer
Skills- Strong fundamentals, specialization in a back-end server environment like AWS (Amazon Web Services), specialization in Content Management System (CMS) and have strong knowledge of all frameworks of PHP such as Laravel, Codeigniter, Symfony, CakePHP, Yii, Zend, etc.
Cost- $50-$100 per hour
Full-Stack Developer
Skills- In-depth practical knowledge of front-end, back-end technology, database, third-party APIs/Services, MVP, and cloud solution.
Cost- $75-$100 per hour
Recap-
If you are very loyal to your work and want to build an interactive and dynamic website, then PHP is the best option for you. You can hire an experienced php developer for your in-house team on an average annual salary of $100,200. Or you can hire a remote developer on an average salary of $75,000. These are estimated costs, hiring a remote developer versus an on-site may differ as well.
The above rates may fluctuate depending on your hiring needs, whether you are looking for a developer for part-time, full-time, hourly basis or contract basis.