How to Hire PHP developers? – The Complete Guide

PHP- A recursive acronym, it stands for PHP Hypertext Processor. Originally it stood for Personal Home Page (PHP). PHP is an interpreted scripting language used to create dynamic web applications. PHP is widely used by developers as a compelling language with libraries that allow them to interact with databases, communicate with other web servers, alter images, content, and much more.

PHP has been included as part of the standard industry web server configuration referred to as the LAMP stack since the late 1990s. Its ubiquity, open-source roots, and ease of use make it a natural fit for the web. We have laid out a detailed guide on why you should hire PHP developers and how to do so effectively so that the digital transformation reflects on the quality of the project and improves your business sales.

What makes the PHP language so popular?

According to recent statistics, PHP is used by 78.9% of websites with a known server-side programming language. This suggests that almost 8 out of 10 websites that you visit on the internet are using PHP in some way or another. If you think about it, it is not that surprising as the most popular content management system, WordPress uses PHP too. Given that WordPress powers over 34% of all the websites on the internet, PHP is incredibly popular.

Why do you need to hire PHP developers?

A group of hired PHP developers is capable of performing their work with the highest optimization. The best part about these developers is that they are dedicated to functioning all together and exclusively for your projects. They know exactly what to do and how to perform the assigned work as they are highly experienced and adequately trained to perform all required tasks.

Instead of involving your time in the project, you can simply hire PHP developers online to perform their job and focus on other aspects of your business like branding the products, promoting them, marketing, and many more.

This not only helps raise the overall standards of business but also helps attain a greater focus altogether.

Here are a few benefits of hiring dedicated PHP developers:

• Greater focus on other aspects of business
• Proven to be cost-effective
• Easy to handle
• Variety of skills
• Wide range of networks
• Diverse experience and expertise
• Quicker response to emergencies

When is the use of PHP recommended?

PHP was initially rolled out in 1995, and with the advent of PHP, websites have become more dynamic, responsive, and faster to create.

Here are a few reasons to use PHP to develop your digital presence:

• PHP is lightweight, easy to use, and cannot be read by the end-user so that you can use it for secure web applications.
• PHP is commonly supported, so you don’t have to upgrade to an advanced hosting option such as VPS or dedicated hosting to support your website.
• PHP is an excellent choice for commercial projects because of its lightweight syntax and quick onboarding.
• PHP for website development is much cheaper than other back-end technologies.

What to know before hiring PHP developers?

You can simply choose PHP to build a fully functional website for your business. To build a fully functional website in PHP, you can take the assistance of PHP development services providing company. No matter what framework or database you choose, there are some factors that you should vary before hiring PHP programmers as follows:

Portfolio and reference check

You must first check out the company’s portfolio to get an idea about its past projects or clients. Proper market research before hiring PHP developers helps you determine their capabilities and domain expertise. You need to make sure that the projects your chosen company has completed in the past are relevant to your project and align with your present requirements.

Also Read: The Importance of the Market Research Before You Get a Mobile App or Web App Developed

Understand the execution process

Every company or developer has its own methodology and execution process that they follow for project development. The working and hiring process of each developer has different processes. It is always helpful if you understand and talk about their execution process, documentation and workflow in the context of your project and its needs.

Pre-decide the hiring model

The hiring model you decide on should simply suit your budget with no compromise in the quality of your project.

There are three main hiring models to hire offshore PHP developers:

• Dedicated model
• Hourly based model
• Fixed model

Backup plan or support for an emergency

Before hiring PHP coders, make sure they have an active support system so that you can get a timely resolution for any emergency or project-specific queries. Excellent customer service reflects a company’s serious approach towards its clients. Ask them questions if they provide support via email, phone or skype. This will help you determine the quality of its customer support services and post-maintenance services.

Where to find PHP developers?

A good PHP developer goes beyond writing, testing and maintaining code for web platforms and works on projects of different levels of complexity. Choosing a well-skilled PHP developer is crucial for your business success. There are various places where you can find and hire PHP programmers as such:

Freelance- Freelancers are independent developers found on platforms such as Toptal, LinkedIn, Career builder and Upwork

In-house- In-house developers are employees of your company that work from your office, you can do that with the help of staffing organizations at no extra cost.

Outsourcing Companies– Outsourcing is when you’re leveraging the development of your software to a company through communities on Stack Overflow, Github, etc.

• Search for PHP web developers on traditional job portals such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Career Builder, Monster, etc. to receive suitable leads.
• Hire PHP programmers with the help of staffing organizations at no extra cost.
• PHP developers have a huge community on GitHub, Stack overflow, and other platforms. Make use of these communities and hire PHP developers through research.

Skills to look out for

Technology is vast, and so many tools, platforms, frameworks, and databases are coming out in the market. A modern skilled developer should know how to integrate the latest technologies and other technical PHP knowledge in a project to make an outstanding product or software.

Here is a checklist of required technical skills that a PHP developer should possess:

• Knowledge of HTML and CSS
• Sound knowledge of LAMP
• Good understanding of JavaScript
• Experience with frameworks like Laravel, Symphony and Codeigniter
• Exposure in CMS such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla
• Strong object-oriented programming approach
• Control system skills such as GitHub and SVN
• Working with MySQL and SQL databases

Roles and responsibilities of PHP developers

Initially, PHP developers wear the shoes of a back-end developer. Web technologies involving JavaScript, HTML, and CSS typically handle the front-end development of any web platform. On the other hand, PHP is responsible for server-side web application logic. So, the PHP developers are responsible for building back-end components and connecting the application to web services. They also support the front-end technologies by efficiently integrating their work into the project.

The integration requires that the PHP developers are familiar with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. In Particular, they are required to work closely with HTML. PHP developers should have a solid understanding of how UIs are built so that the coordination with the front end runs smoothly and a fully functional website can be developed.

5 Key Steps to Hire PHP developers

When hiring PHP programmers, businesses will need to consider several factors to avoid exceeding their project budgets and build effectively secure web solutions.

Let us walk you through a detailed step-by-step guide on how to hire dedicated PHP developers:

Step-1: Categorize levels (Choose the level of PHP developers as per your project requirements)

The first and foremost step is to determine the level of developers you need aligning with your project requirements.

There can be three possible categories in hiring PHP developers:

Beginner level

The beginner level is suitable when you are planning to hire a whole in-house team for your business. The beginner level PHP developer has just started PHP development so they can’t offer industry recommended practices and advice during the development

Mid-level

The mid-level is best suited when planning to work on an effective solution with a restricted budget. The developers in this range can deliver optimum results at considerably lower prices. With some industry experience and having worked on a few PHP solutions, they’ll offer quality work.

Expert level

When you need high industry experience, the expert level category is what you should aim for. The years of industry experience and skills in expert PHP developers give your project a competitive edge in the market. They tend to convert your innovative ideas into robust features strategically.

Step-2: List frameworks (List frameworks to improve development value)

After deciding the category of PHP developer, you need for your organization, the next step is to make a list of PHP frameworks. There are a bunch of frameworks suitable for different types of development projects. If you know the framework, it becomes much easier to search for development rates, expertise and skills that your development team should have. The knowledge of the tech stack narrows down your search for the developers and improves development value.

For instance, if you plan to create a software product in a short span of time, then raw PHP will be a suitable framework. If you are looking for something scalable, then the developer will utilize the innate qualities of Laravel, such as quick app development and hosting services in your project.

Other PHP frameworks provide a local development engine, templating engine, routing system, and much more. You need to keep in mind which framework is the most appropriate for your business requirements.

Here are some of the best frameworks you can choose from:

• Laravel
• Codeigniter
• Symfony
• CakePHP
• Zend
• Phalcon
• Slim

Step-3: Technical proficiency (Assess developers hold on technical proficiency)

Developers must be able to apply the technical skills and knowledge required in the project. The PHP developers should understand the technical difficulty and complexity of the work undertaken and perform the appropriately applied procedures, requirements, regulations and policies related to PHP development with sheer accuracy and reliability.

In the search for the best PHP developer what stands out the most is the developers’ ability to accomplish complex tasks in their area of expertise without supervisory assistance.

Here are a few things that should reflect in a PHP developers’ portfolio:

Experience levels

It is important that the PHP developer is mature and experienced enough to handle the project development requirements. It is not just the experience in terms of numbers that matters. PHP developers should also know your business domain.

If you have two choices to choose between a developer with a decade-long experience but not in your industry or a developer with less experience in your own industry, who would you rather choose? In such scenarios, your best bet would be to hire a developer with experience in your industry domain and multiple other business domains. The diverse experience shapes their business logic and programming understanding.

Knowledge base

As PHP is a strenuous technology, make sure the PHP developers you choose have technical knowledge and expertise. Check out if the programmer is comfortable with HTML, XML, MYSQL and so forth. Hiring Full Stack developers acts as a one-stop destination for you.

Here is a list of things that sets a PHP developers’ profile aside:

• Sound knowledge of other programming languages
• Comfortable with Composer, PSR, PHPUnit
• Grips with PHP practices and design patterns
• Solves hacking or security-related issues

Communication fluency

Communication may not be the first skill on your mind but it should be a priority item on your list. Communication is a must-have skill for developers. They should be able to be conversant with various modes of communication such as audio, video, web, email and telephonic conversations. Be sure that they know your purpose, requirements and intentions from your end of the project.

Step-4: Specify goals (Define a roadmap and specify goals for an optimal understanding)

After categorizing levels and determining PHP frameworks the next important step is to define specific goals incisively. This will help in shortlisting features and functionalities required for the project development.

For instance, make sure you discuss the purpose and goals of the entire process including upgrade, integration, CMS development, management, MVP design Development, web design and development, PHP cloud integration, API integration and other custom solutions in PHP.

Specifying goals and defining a roadmap gives an optimal understanding of the project scope. Once the development concludes proffer maintenance tasks and take add ons. The perplexity and glitches are reduced on both ends by creating a structured development approach.

Step-5: Ensure quality (Ensure quality throughout the development process)

Last but not least the most important step to follow throughout the development process is to focus on the quality. It is vital to understand that PHP development involves multiple cross-functional teams.

If the core foundation of PHP development is weak then the stream of cross-functional execution will also be affected. Your PHP developer should ensure factors such as timely code delivery, reduced time to market and has negligible bugs to deal with.

Here are a few pro tips to ensure the quality of work:

• Evade querying clichéd questions
• Direct questions linked to past projects
• Evaluate the attitude
• Communication is the key
• Estimate knowledge skills and experience support

Common questions you should ask for hiring PHP developers (Non-Technical/ Technical)

This is the tricky part that practically determines the developers’ ability to work on your project. Instead of running this memory test ask the developers questions that would gauge whether the developer is the right suit for your business as well as PHP project needs.

Note to avoid asking cliché questions such as what is PHP or who is the father of PHP. We have prepared a distinctive list of questions you can ask to test your developers’ non-technical and technical prowess in PHP language:

Non-technical questions to find the best PHP Developers

The right PHP developer for your project is not just someone who knows all their algorithms, it is someone who communicates effectively and knows what it means to be part of the team. So before you make the final judgment call here are a few non-technical questions supporting the interview process:

Have you worked on projects with business goals like my own?

The potential developer won’t be able to work on your project if they don’t understand your business requirements and objectivities. You will need to make sure they understand what you are looking for and can execute a process centered around it.

Can I reach out to your past clients or references?

This gives you a more independent look at how well the developer has performed for clients in the past. It also gives you insights on how they handled the relationship throughout the process. Check their references that align with your industry as the feedback will be more relevant to your business.

What are the coding standards you follow?

It is important to know if the developer you are considering uses a standardized system including reusable libraries, components, frameworks, tools and development processes necessary for code maintainability.

Have you worked in a client-facing role before?

As the project proceeds, the developer might have to entail direct interaction or communication, sometimes in-person with a client. You need to make sure that the potential developer has experience interacting with clients and
people in service roles.

What is your approach with quality assurance (QA)?

Quality assurance is a critical part of the software development process. In its essence, QA is deeply intertwined and is the responsibility of developers involved in the process to track product quality as they evolve over time.

Technical questions you may ask PHP programmers

Are sessions in PHP different from a cookie? Where are they stored?

A session is a way to store information in variables that is to be used across multiple pages. The information is not stored on the end users’ computer browser, unlike a cookie. In PHP, by default, session data is stored in files on
the server.

What are the types of errors in PHP?

An error can be defined as a deviation from accuracy or correctness. Basically, there are four types of error in PHP as follows:

• Syntax error (Parse error)
• Fatal error
• Warning error
• Notice error

What are destructors and constructors in PHP?

Constructor and destructor are the member functions with the same name as their class. The former type of constructor helps in initializing an object. Conversely, a destructor is different from the constructor which deletes the
created constructor when it is of no use.

Is there any difference between the unlink and unset functions?

In PHP, unlink () acts as the drop operation that will completely delete files, whereas unset () is used to delete the file content for emptying it. Unlink () is a function used for file handling i.e., delete a file, while the unset () function is for variable management i.e., destroy a variable.

What is the difference between require and require once, include and include once?

The only difference between require and require once throws a fatal error if the file is not found, whereas include and include once only shows a message or warning and continues to load the rest of the web page.

How much does it cost to hire PHP developers?

There are many highly skilled developers in the market, thanks to the popularity of PHP. There are a lot of factors that influence the PHP developers’ hiring costs. So, instead of opting for developers abruptly, one should rely on factors such as qualification level, skills, expertise, and experience as well as location. The average cost to hire a PHP developer in the US is $80k-85k per annum.

As mentioned above the cost to hire PHP coders also depends on the category in which the PHP developer stands. For instance, hiring developers at the beginner level will cost around 50k, mid-level around $60-70k, and expert level around $80k. A similar trend applies for average hourly costs i.e. beginner level around $20, mid-level around $30-$40, and expert level developers around $40-50.

Why Hire PHP Programmers from Prismetric

There is no foolproof method to hire PHP developers, just the right amount of caution and evaluation goes a long way in your PHP web development endeavor. Prismetric helps to address all your business concerns with experienced PHP developers who are experts in custom web development, CRM development, backend, reporting web development, multitier architecture solutions, and much more.

• Robust experience in various industries
• Well versed QA analysts that ensure high quality
• Non Disclousure Agreements(NDAs) to protect your project
• Post maintenance and post-release services
• Clear and transparent communication throughout the process

Conclusively, the only disparity between a vision and reality is that it establishes a gap and the right strategy fills the gap. Conclusively, the only aperture between your vision and reality is the right strategy for your dream project execution. Request for a quote now to transform your vision into reality.

Winding-up

If your eyes are set on developing a dynamic website to boost your business, then PHP might just be the best choice of programming language for you. As it is easy to use, fast, and highly portable. As of 2021, PHP remains relevant and supports a lot of renowned websites. Therefore, building web applications with PHP is an optimal and effective solution for many businesses.