PHP is one of the most widespread and omnipresent programming languages right now. Generally, PHP is used to develop both static wells as dynamic websites. With the help of PHP, you can make customizable and very aesthetic looking visually attractive websites with ease. Almost every famous website is made using PHP nowadays. This makes PHP one of the most popular programming languages in the current time.
It has been around now for a while but still manages to dominate the space of web development. That is why irrespective of how small or massive the project is, PHP continues to remain the unrivaled choice of almost every organization that is looking for a customizable, scalable, and robust application or website. Yahoo, Wikipedia, Flickr, MailChimp are some of the most popular websites which are built in PHP and still continue to conquer the Internet & inspire.
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor Programming Language. Despite being old, continuous evolutions and updates made it an industry-changing language, and now millions of websites are using this language. Websites made with PHP are rich in functionality, features and are visually pleasing too.
Hence, you need to be extremely careful while selecting and hiring a PHP developer. He needs to be highly skilled, professional, efficient in coding, and communication. However, you cannot just hire any top-tier developer. You need to take care of how much he will charge and what requirements he will fulfill.
Hence, this article will tell you about how much PHP developer costs and how to hire one.
The Benefits Of PHP
Open Source
PHP is basically an open-source framework that is completely free to be downloaded and used. It thus unburdens you from the need of paying or buying any additional software. It also makes the process of development very simple, easy, and fast. What makes it even better is their massive and significant community of PHP developers that constantly share code libraries, upgrades, and a lot more.
Cost-Efficient
The cost of the development of a website gets pretty low with PHP. This is because, unlike other languages, PHP has a plethora of integrated solutions that do not require any initial charges.
Scalability
Massive giants like Wikipedia, Yahoo, Facebook, and many others are live examples of how PHP can scale businesses to great heights. All of this establishes both the scalability as well as the flexibility of PHP.
Versatility And Speed
The code that is developed on PHP can very easily run on each and very significant platform and also work seamlessly with the platforms like UNIX, macOS, Linux, and Windows. It also has the ability to support significant web servers like the Apache, Personal Web Server, Microsoft Internet Information Server, and the servers like Caudium, iPlanet, and Netscape as well as the web browsers with an unmatchable speed.
Next, we will talk about the crucial points you should keep in mind when hiring a PHP developer.
Important Points To Consider When Hiring A PHP Developer
Technical Expertise
The first and foremost important thing that is crucial to keep in mind is that the prospective PHP developer must be someone that has a wide knowledge of various technical aspects such as the content management systems (CMS), Ajax, CSS/CSS3, HTML/HTML5, Javascript, etc and also have exposure to the latest trends in terms of technology. The developer should also have expertise when it comes to an understanding of the requirements of your business.
Being an entrepreneur or webmaster, it is quite possible that you might have goals that you might wish to implement in an application or website but do not have an exact idea of the budget, the scope of the task, and the time required to get it done. In such a case, a developer with a good amount of experience will be able to help you and also manage your project within the given budget.
There is no doubt on the fact that you will come across numerous PHP developers when you search for them on Google but what matters is choosing the one that is right for your business needs. That can be measured by the efficiency with which they have completed their previous tasks.
Domain Knowledge
A good PHP developer needs to be someone who is on top of the latest trends in technology like web development, designing, and industry experience. The developer also should have an idea about the latest things going on in the industry and how to use them in order to impress or catch the target audience. Engaging, friendly, and attractive information is needed in order to grab the attention of the audience for an eCommerce or any other website category.
other projects in hand. This is because it can very much affect the efficiency and the probability of delivering a task within the given timeframe.
Work Portfolio
It is imperative to check the portfolio of the PHP Developer you are thinking to opt for. Also, make sure to have a word with the previous client of the developer before you take up the service. Looking at the Portfolio will give you a clear picture of the previous works of the developer and how good they are in this domain.
Communication Skills
Communication, as we all very well know, is a way with which we can represent our thoughts. An ideal developer needs to be someone who is a good speaker as well as a listener. Your prospective developer needs to have vital traits like the capacity of understanding your requirements, good temperament, and the ability to justify the actions.
Ability To Adapt New Challenges And Learn Quickly
An ideal developer is, most of the time, a self-learner who believes in doing research in order to get alternative solutions for your requirements. When you ask them questions, you will come across the fact that they are pretty much open when it comes to learning and adopting the new technologies. The next important quality to look for is the ability of the developer to put the research into implementation.
Development Process
In order to get good results, it is best to have an idea about the communication options and the development processes followed by the developer you are looking for. The developer must be ready to work in an Agile and Scrum methodology. Being agile and implementing scrum is a key aspect of the development process of any leading IT firm where the focus is on communication and collaboration being done in the right way. This generally encourages a controlled project management process that promotes frequent inspection and adaptation. It also encourages a leadership philosophy that promotes teamwork. Scrum helps in a significant rise in productivity and reduction in time to benefits as compared to the traditional waterfall processes. Thus, the ideal developer must be in tune with the latest development processes which will in turn benefit the company and their clients both.
Ability To Work In Different Time Zones
The prospective candidate should possess the ability to work in various time zones. This is the primary issue faced by many when outsourcing a project of web development. More often than not, a candidate wishes to work in their time zone, and on the other hand, the client wants the developer to be working in their time zone. Chances are things can get pretty complicated when working in various time zones. So it is best to keep in mind to ask your developer if they can work in alignment with your time zone. You will probably get the consent of the candidate to work according to your time zone if you ask them beforehand.
Where To Find The PHP Developers?
The most prevalent method of hiring a PHP developer is by hiring from a place that receives profiles of developers in bulk. Such recruiters maintain a substantial database of candidates that are looking forward to taking up the task. The recruiters then shortlist the CVs, review them, and then send you the relevant ones for your job.
The other most common way is by consulting with the online portals that are designed in such a way that it connects the recruiters and the seekers. These portals prove out to be pretty helpful because the seekers can post their portfolios in detail. This way, the recruiters can go through the profiles. Seekers can narrow down the results by using the filters.
Platforms like StackOverflow, LinkedIn, Topal, Upwork, etc are a few amongst the well-known portals for hiring super-skilled PHP developers with a significant pool of incredible professionals. The platform has both individual developers and also the agencies to offer in order to get the website developed.
Cost Of Outsourcing PHP Developers In India?
Opting for outsourcing the PHP developer is an option that is generally preferred in cases where you have budget constraints, and you want to cut the costs down. As compared to full-time employees, freelancers usually cost very less as they don’t really require additional costs like workplace bonuses, resources, funds, etc.
For the web-based projects, the recruiters mostly opt for developers in countries like India as recruiting developers from locations like Europe, the UK, and the US costs very much. Statistics states that the average rate of a PHP developer is approximately 50 to 60 dollars per hour.
You can also cut a lot of costs by hiring professionals from an agency in comparison with the other platforms. Portals like freelancer, fiver, Upwork, etc provides a considerable pool of developers that can get your work done without extra costs.
Traits Of A Good PHP Developer
An ideal PHP Developer will go beyond the basics of writing, testing, and the maintenance of code on your webpages. They have the capability of working on projects that come with varying levels of difficulty. For this, it is imperative for a PHP developer to have great problem-solving and analytical skills. Moreover, an ideal PHP developer can collaborate with numerous other developers that are skilled and create various apps as well as troubleshoots it anytime it is needed.
The developer should also possess hands-on knowledge of the significant PHP frameworks like Joomla, CakePHP, Kohana, Symfony, Zend, CodeIgniter, Yii, Laravel, etc.
To make it easy for you, we are listing an essential skill checklist that an ideal PHP developer should possess:
– In-Depth Know-How Of PHP Programming Language
– Working Experience With MySQL/SQL Databases
– Know-How Of CSS and HTML
– Know-How Of JavaScript
– Good Idea Of Control Systems Like Git and SVN
– Working Experience With The Frameworks like YII2, Symfony, Laravel
– Hands-On Experience With CMS Like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
– Idea Of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
In the next section, we will be talking about the factors that determine the costs of hiring a developer.
Factors That Determine The Cost Of Hiring A PHP Developer
Scope Of The Project
The first and foremost factor that determines the cost of hiring a PHP developer is the difficulty as well as the scope of the project. If your PHP project is basic and simple in nature, then it won’t cost you much. But if your project of PHP development is demanding and complex, then it will need much more budget. Thus it is important to figure out the complexity of the project before you can determine the cost.
Time too plays a crucial role when it comes to the determination of the cost you will incur in the project. This will also prove out to be helpful in the determination of payments in different phases of development. With this, you can also decide if you should opt for developers with hourly wages or the ones that work with the fixed price on a contract basis. To put it in perspective, suppose you are looking for a developer that can develop social media apps then it can take a few months to get done with. In that case, it is imperative that your job description can clearly depict the scope of your project.
The Location Of The Developer
The other crucial factor to look for when hiring a PHP developer is their location, as it can determine the cost of your project. Along with the change in the geographical area, there is a change in the salary of the developer. The developers of Canada and the US charge the highest. If you opt to hire a developer from Canada or the USA, then the average cost will be around $120 to $250 per hour. But if you opt to hire a developer from the European countries and specifically from the countries in western Europe, then you can expect a medium-range cost. Hiring from the UK or Australia will cost you around $100 to $180 per hour.
India is known to be a hub of talented developers. When you hire a PHP developer in India, the average cost is pretty low, ranging from $20 to $50 per hour. All in all, India proves to be the best place to hire a PHP developer as they have the potential of delivering quality work really quickly.
The Level Of Experience Of The Developer
When you are looking to hire a PHP developer, it is important to check the expertise level as it is one of the crucial factors to determine the cost of the project of PHP development. An expert would often charge a lot more as compared to the developers that are on the beginner or intermediate level. This is because of the in-depth knowledge and expertise they hold in PHP development. All in all, it is best to opt for a PHP developer on the basis of the difficulty level of the project.
Other than the experience, what also matters is the type of experience. A PHP developer possesses different expertise levels and skillsets. They have knowledge of various frameworks and technologies like MySQL, APIs, and JavaScript, as well as various different things that can be a factor of influence on the charges and work. A professional of Senior-level may know different languages that enable them to design a complete application right from square one.
Wrapping It Up
If you are looking for top-tier PHP development services, especially the custom PHP development service, it is best to opt for a PHP developer that is reputed and well-known. In the US, you might have to end up spending around $9670 to $10000 for a project that is around a month-long. Opting for these services in countries like the Netherlands, Ukraine, or India can get you the same services at relatively lower costs. All in all, there are a plethora of options available to choose from for your next project.
Zestminds is a leading PHP Web Development Company working hard to serve their client-base. You can connect with us if you are looking for experienced developers that can aid your project. Simply send us an email at contact@zestminds.com, and we will revert back as soon as possible. We have a bunch of learned and experienced designers that will be building your dream website just as you need. Connect with us to take the discussion ahead and get to know more about things further in detail.
