Tips for Hiring the best PHP Developers for Web Development in 2024

The demand for PHP developers has significantly increased in the last decades, and the usability of the programming language has made it the most preferred technology for developers worldwide. According to research, in 2021, PHP empowered 79.1% of websites across the world and ranked as one of the top 10 well-known programming languages in the tech arena.

This may be why a wide array of businesses are willing to develop their web application using PHP. They are looking for well-versed developers who can build robust, scalable, and user-oriented web apps. Is it a big deal? Of course! It’s a daunting task as there is a large pool of PHP developers, and you have to choose your preferred one from this group. You may find it more complex if you are not friendly with technology.

In this article, we are going to give you an innovative idea for How to Hire PHP Developers for your next PHP development project. But let’s explore the basics first.

PHP From Market Perspective

PHP is the most popular programming language with 45% of software share worldwide, while PHP 5.6 is considered the most decent coding language.

These stats suggest that PHP is ever-growing and the most popular server-side programming language, which will have a long-lasting impact on the software industry. As you understand PHP’s market share, let’s explore what developers mainly use programming languages from around the world.

No doubt, JavaScript is the top programming language, but PHP is gaining the attention of developers from across the globe by 22%. The traction is growing day by day, and the image given below is the testimony.

So, are you all set to explore how to hire PHP developers and how much will it cost you? Let’s explore one by one.

Must-Have Skills of PHP Developers

Project quality depends on the skills and expertise of the developer. You hire PHP developers, and you might believe your job is done. But, it involves plenty of things such as writing codes, testing, bug fixing, code maintenance, and more. A skilled PHP developer should have a better command over working on various projects and the ability to deal with complexities, which demands excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Furthermore, the developer must collaborate with other developers in a team to create applications and resolve issues whenever required. Besides that, developers must know the PHP frameworks, including Laravel, Codeigniter, Symfony, Joomla, etc.

A good PHP developer must have these skills

• Knowledge of control systems (Git/ SVN)
• Knowledge of PHP programming language
• Command on OOPs (Object-oriented programming) Concept
• Good knowledge of HTML / CSS/ and JavaScript
• Good knowledge of CMS (Joomla/ Drupal/ WordPress)
• Effective business communication skills
• Able to deal with multiple projects
• Familiar with development tools, frameworks, and libraries

Roles And Responsibilities For PHP Developers

These developers are expected to perform numerous tasks and take responsibility when it comes to web development. Let’s look at some of them!

• Development and deployment of web applications
• The accomplishment of the projects within the deadlines
• Resolving compatibility issues of various platforms, software, or program versions
• Addition of features to existing applications
• Working with cooperation with stakeholders and team as per the requirements
• Improving skills by keeping themselves updated with trending programming technologies

Types of PHP Developers

The types of developers can be divided into three categories: their experience, knowledge, and expertise. Before looking for a developer, measure your requirements and what suits you the most.

Beginner-level

This is the first and starting phase of developers where they begin their journey of web development career. As these developers are new in their tech career, they possess the basic knowledge of programming language and can develop some functionalities. They can perform better in a team of skilled developers. Working with experienced developers can be an opportunity for beginner-level developers to learn and develop their skills and capabilities. These developers can fit into medium and straightforward projects. You can expect them to know PHP and HTML programming languages, work with CMS, have knowledge of at least one major PHP framework, and PHP function and MVC design pattern.

Mid-level

If your requirement outweighs these skillsets, you better go with mid-level developers.

This is another type of developer that possesses more knowledge than beginner-level developers. Because they have worked on various projects, they have developed projects in their portfolios and can build web apps. These developers don’t require proper guidance and can work on projects independently. You can expect these developers to have- knowledge of multiple PHP frameworks, implementation of various databases, code troubleshooting, the ability to add back-end features intending to improve the application’s performance, and so on.

Experts

In case you feel your project demands some more skilled PHP developers, you should go with expert-level developers.

This is the best category of developers. They are experts and competent enough to use the latest development technologies and practices and work expertly in specific areas. Experts are sufficient to analyze the requirements of the projects and suggest practical ways to make the application more effective and secure. They also give suggestions on which feature to add and enhance the product’s security code. They possess expertise in advanced technology, including PHP for IoT and machine learning; experts are expected to understand multiple PHP frameworks better.

Experts are upper-class PHP web developers and can work expertly; hence, if you feel the project requires a vetted developer, they can be a better choice.

Benefits of Hiring PHP Developers

More than 80% isn’t a big score? Yes, with more than 80% of the total market share, PHP has an enormous demand, and this is why there is a massive requirement for PHP web developers. There are numerous Benefits of Hiring PHP Developers;

let’s see what those are!

• Massive return on investment
• Programmers with quality and skills
• Better turnaround time
• Business-oriented strategy
• Better professionalism

How to Hire PHP Developers

As discussed above in detail, we are now aware of the essential skills of PHP web developers, their roles, responsibilities, types, and benefits of hiring them. Now we are going to discuss a step-by-step process of hiring PHP developers. Let’s know!

1. Measure Your Requirements

In the journey of hiring a PHP developer for your project, you need to measure the project’s requirements. Once you measure the project, you can better know what exactly your project demands, which enables you to select the right one for your project. This saves your time as well as unnecessary efforts and costs.

Whether you require core PHP developers or developers having expertise in open-source frameworks, probating the project thread barely gives you a great insight into what your project’s requirement is.

Besides that, build a clear project description and describe the exact goal. The more specific and detailed your project’s requirements and goals are, the more convenient it will be when hiring developers.

2. Check Technical Proficiency

Checking technical proficiency gives you complete access to the developer’s abilities and, up to some extent, ensures you how well your project will be. This includes-

• Evaluating coding skills
• Programming and analytical abilities
• Measuring the comfort level with Javascript, HTML, XML, and so on
• The comfort of dealing with security and hacking issues

Hiring a developer with these qualities and abilities can bring you a better quality result, so never forget to probate the developer from every facet.

3. Experience level

Experience matters the most, especially when hiring PHP developers, as your result depends on it to a massive extent. Working for years advocates a developer’s expertise but never guarantees that the developer will be the best suit for your project. Hence, don’t be dependent only on the working period but also measure their working domain whether they have any experience in your own domain or not.

A developer with a few years of experience in your own domain can be better than a developer with decades of expertise in another domain that is not relevant to you. So take steps wisely and go with one that matches your project. Furthermore, developers who have worked in multiple business domains can bring you massive success as they better understand development and business logic. Also, look at testimonials and case studies of the particular developer you are going to hire.

4. Measure Communication Skills

This is one of the crucial aspects of hiring a PHP developer, especially when hiring an offshore PHP developer. Make sure the developer you are going to hire can better communicate and understand your language. Gauge his communicating capabilities so that you both can interact with each other with no obstacles.

Besides that, another aspect that you must be careful about is making sure there is no cultural divide between you and the developer you are going to hire. A massive cultural chasm can affect your project by delaying the accomplishment time, which may cause you an immense loss of expense.

5. Ask Questions to Check technical Abilities

Organize an interview and ask these questions to clarify better the developer you are hiring to know they are well-suited for you. There are a few questions to ask in an interview-

• What is a session, and how is it different from a cookie?
• Where are sessions stored in PHP?
• How to enable error reporting in PHP?
• What are constructors and destructors in PHP?
• Differences between echo and print in PHP?
• What are the different types of errors available in PHP?
• How will you use HTTP headers in PHP?
• How to compare objects in PHP?
• Define- a sample of code showing the nested ternary conditional operator in PHP.
• Define the difference between the unset and unlink functions in PHP.

A must-read: Cost of Hiring a PHP Developer for Your Project

6. Where Can You Hire Well-suited PHP Developers From

If you have enough time, you can choose to find the PHP developers on the websites like GitHub and StackOverflow. On these websites, a wide array of developers come to share their knowledge, resources, and networks with compatible individuals. This makes these websites a perfect place to hire best-in-class developers.

But if you have limited time, you better prefer going to traditional job portals, including- Career Builder, Glassdoor, Monster, Linkedin jobs, and so on. And in the quest for top-notch and quality developers, we advise you to visit platforms such as Hired, GitHub jobs, Topal, and so on.

Conclusion

PHP is an effective solution for businesses worldwide to build scalable, robust, and well-functioning web applications. Companies feel it a bit complex to find a developer that can meet their business goals hassle-free, but in this article, we have put our optimal endeavor to resolve this issue. However, there is no fixed way to hire a PHP developer, but following these suggestions can prevent you from unnecessary obstacles when hiring a developer for your subsequent web app development. Go through this, grasp ideas, implement, and Hire PHP Dedicated Developers to get the next level of success.