PHP Development

Powering the web since 1995, still going strong

PHP: The Internet's Backend Workhorse

PHP runs 77% of all websites with known backend languages. WordPress (43% of all websites) uses PHP. Facebook started with PHP and still uses it extensively via HHVM. Slack, Wikipedia, Tumblr, Mailchimp: all PHP. Despite what tech Twitter says, PHP isn't dead or dying. Modern PHP (8.x) is fast, type-safe, and has features that compete with newer languages: enums, union types, named arguments, JIT compilation, async support.

PHP's dominance comes from maturity and ecosystem. Shared hosting providers support PHP universally. Deployment is straightforward: upload files, no compilation needed. The ecosystem provides solutions for every problem: payment processing, image manipulation, PDF generation, email sending, OAuth, whatever you need. Laravel, Symfony, and WordPress provide frameworks and CMS options that accelerate development dramatically.

We build new PHP applications with modern frameworks (Laravel, Symfony) and maintain existing PHP systems. Whether you need a custom web application, WordPress customization, API development, or legacy PHP modernization, we leverage PHP's strengths while avoiding its historical pitfalls. Modern PHP development looks nothing like the spaghetti code of 2000s-era tutorials.

Our PHP Services

Laravel Development

Laravel is the most popular PHP framework, and for good reason. Elegant syntax, comprehensive feature set, vibrant ecosystem. Laravel provides routing, authentication, database ORM (Eloquent), queue workers, scheduling, caching, file storage, and more. The framework handles boilerplate so you focus on business logic. Laravel's documentation is excellent, the community is huge, and packages exist for nearly everything.

Features:

  • β€’ Eloquent ORM
  • β€’ Blade templating
  • β€’ Authentication & authorization
  • β€’ Queue & job processing
  • β€’ Testing suite

Best For:

  • β€’ Web applications
  • β€’ RESTful APIs
  • β€’ Admin dashboards
  • β€’ SaaS platforms
  • β€’ Enterprise systems

Ecosystem:

  • β€’ Nova (admin panel)
  • β€’ Forge (deployment)
  • β€’ Vapor (serverless)
  • β€’ Livewire (reactive UI)
  • β€’ Sanctum (API auth)

WordPress Development

WordPress powers 43% of all websites. While often used as a CMS, WordPress is actually a flexible PHP framework. We build custom themes, plugins, and complete WordPress-based applications. Custom post types, REST API endpoints, admin interfaces, membership systems, e-commerce (WooCommerce): all possible with WordPress development.

Services: Custom theme development, plugin creation, WooCommerce customization, headless WordPress (using WP as API), performance optimization, security hardening, migrations.

Legacy PHP Modernization

Many businesses run critical systems on old PHP codebases: PHP 5.6 or 7.x on servers approaching end-of-life. Legacy code often lacks structure, tests, and security updates. We modernize legacy PHP: upgrading to PHP 8.x, refactoring procedural code to object-oriented, adding tests, implementing security best practices, and improving performance.

Approach: Gradual refactoring, not complete rewrites. Add tests first, then refactor with confidence. Update dependencies, fix security issues, improve performance. Result: maintainable codebase running on supported PHP versions.

API Development

PHP excels at building RESTful APIs. Laravel and Symfony provide routing, validation, authentication (JWT, OAuth), rate limiting, and API resources out-of-the-box. We build APIs for mobile apps, SPA frontends, third-party integrations, and microservices. PHP's performance with OPcache and proper caching rivals Node.js for most workloads.

Technologies: Laravel API resources, Sanctum authentication, API documentation with Swagger/OpenAPI, rate limiting, versioning, caching strategies.

Modern PHP Features

PHP 8.x Improvements

PHP 8 brought massive improvements: JIT compiler (2-3x performance boost), union types, named arguments, attributes (annotations), nullsafe operator, match expressions, enums (PHP 8.1), readonly properties. Modern PHP feels like a different language compared to PHP 5.

Key Features:

  • β€’ JIT compilation for performance
  • β€’ Union and intersection types
  • β€’ Named arguments
  • β€’ Attributes (metadata)
  • β€’ Enumerations

Composer & Ecosystem

Composer is PHP's package manager with over 300,000 packages on Packagist. Need OAuth? Guzzle for HTTP? Carbon for dates? PHPUnit for testing? Monolog for logging? All available via Composer. The ecosystem rivals npm and pip in breadth and quality.

Popular Packages:

  • β€’ Guzzle (HTTP client)
  • β€’ PHPUnit (testing)
  • β€’ Monolog (logging)
  • β€’ Doctrine (ORM)
  • β€’ Symfony Components

Type Safety

Modern PHP supports strict types, return type declarations, property types, and static analysis tools like PHPStan and Psalm. These catch bugs at development time instead of production. Type-safe PHP is nearly as robust as TypeScript or Go for preventing type errors.

Type Tools:

  • β€’ PHPStan static analysis
  • β€’ Psalm type checker
  • β€’ PHP CS Fixer (standards)
  • β€’ Rector (automated refactoring)

Async PHP

PHP now supports async programming with frameworks like ReactPHP, Swoole, and Amphp. Build WebSocket servers, concurrent HTTP requests, long-running processes. Not necessary for most web apps, but available when needed for real-time features or high-concurrency scenarios.

Use Cases:

  • β€’ WebSocket servers
  • β€’ Real-time applications
  • β€’ High-concurrency APIs
  • β€’ Background workers

PHP Frameworks Comparison

Laravel

Full-stack, batteries included, huge ecosystem. Best for most projects.

Ease: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | Power: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

Symfony

Enterprise-grade, highly configurable, component-based. Laravel uses Symfony components.

Ease: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜† | Power: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

CodeIgniter

Lightweight, simple, fast. Good for small projects or developers new to frameworks.

Ease: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜… | Power: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†

Slim

Microframework for APIs. Minimal, fast, flexible. Similar to Flask or Express.

Ease: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜† | Power: β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜†β˜†

PHP Best Practices

Use PHP 8.x

Always use the latest stable PHP version (8.2+ as of 2024). Older versions lack security updates, performance improvements, and modern features. PHP 7.x reached end-of-life.

Composer for Dependencies

Never copy-paste code or download ZIP files. Use Composer for all dependencies. Lock versions with composer.lock for reproducible deployments. Keep dependencies updated.

Enable OPcache

OPcache caches compiled PHP bytecode, dramatically improving performance. Essential for production. Configure properly: increase memory, enable file timestamps validation only in development.

Use Type Declarations

Add type hints to function parameters and return types. Enable strict_types. Use static analysis tools (PHPStan, Psalm). Catch bugs before production.

PSR Standards

Follow PSR-1, PSR-4, PSR-12 coding standards. Use PSR-3 for logging, PSR-6/PSR-16 for caching, PSR-7 for HTTP messages. Standards ensure code interoperability.

Security Practices

Use prepared statements (never concatenate SQL), validate/sanitize input, use CSRF tokens, hash passwords with password_hash(), keep dependencies updated, disable error display in production.

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