How to hire a PHP developer: skills, questions and costs
PHP developers are easy to find and harder to choose well, because experience ranges from small WordPress tweaks to large, carefully built applications. This guide covers what to test, which questions reveal real experience, what affects the price and how to start a new developer on the right foot. For broader server-side work, also see our back-end developers and API developers.
What a PHP developer works on
PHP is a server-side language that powers a large share of the web, from content sites to SaaS products and online shops. W3Techs reported in October 2026 that 69.2% of websites whose server-side language it could detect use PHP, and that most of those run PHP 8. In practice, a PHP developer might build a new Laravel app one month and modernize a decade-old system the next, so it helps to know which of those you need.
What to test
- Modern PHP: types, enums, readonly properties and the other features of PHP 8.
- One framework in depth: Laravel or Symfony for new work, CodeIgniter or WordPress if that is what you run.
- Databases: clear schemas, safe queries and indexes that keep pages fast.
- Security: prepared statements, output escaping, CSRF protection and safe file uploads.
- Testing: PHPUnit or Pest, and static analysis with PHPStan or Psalm.
- Upgrades: moving code to newer PHP and framework versions without breaking production.
Questions worth asking
- A page got slow after a release. How do you find out whether it is PHP, the database or something else?
- How would you upgrade an application from PHP 7 to PHP 8 without downtime?
- Show me how you prevent SQL injection in this query.
- When would you choose Laravel over Symfony, or the other way round?
- Tell me about legacy code you improved. What did you change first, and why?
Good answers are concrete: tools, steps, examples from their own work. Be wary of anyone who would rewrite everything from scratch before understanding the current system.
Example job post
A short, concrete post works well: “We are hiring a PHP developer to maintain and grow our Laravel platform. You will build features and APIs, write tests with Pest, keep our MySQL queries fast and help upgrade older parts of the code. You will work with a front-end developer and our product lead. Must have: Laravel in production, PHP 8 and SQL. Nice to have: Livewire, Redis and experience with legacy CodeIgniter code.” Our software engineer job description template has a longer version.
What affects the price
Seniority moves the price most: a developer who can plan an architecture or lead a risky upgrade costs more than one who adds pages to a stable app. Framework depth matters too, and so does experience with the type of system you run, such as e-commerce or multi-tenant SaaS. Location affects price as with any remote hire. At DigiWorks, the developer’s pay and our fee are shown separately.
Choosing the right level
A junior PHP developer can handle well-defined tickets in a codebase that already has clear patterns and a senior reviewer. A mid-level developer can own features from database to API. If the developer will be your only PHP person, or the code needs an upgrade plan, choose a senior who has done that before and can explain the risks in plain words.
Hosting and deployment
Ask how the candidate deploys PHP today. A good answer covers Git-based deploys, a staging copy that matches production, database migrations that run safely, and a quick way to roll back. Developers who still copy files to the server by hand will need more support.
A paid trial task
Ask your final candidates for a few hours of paid work close to your real code: for example, an endpoint with validation, a database query and tests. Give everyone the same brief and read the pull request for clear structure, safe SQL and useful tests.
Freelance or dedicated
A freelancer suits a single plugin or fix. When your business depends on the application, a dedicated developer pays off, because they understand your data and history and can plan improvements instead of patching around them.
The first three months
In week one, give access to the code, a staging copy of the site and the error logs, and ship one small fix. In the first month, hand over one area of the application along with its tests. By the third month, your developer should plan work with you, review other developers’ code and propose the next upgrade or clean-up.
Mistakes to avoid
- Running a PHP version that no longer receives security fixes.
- Editing code directly on the live server instead of through Git and a staging copy.
- Building SQL queries by joining strings with user input.
- Choosing a developer only on price for a system your business depends on.
Building a wider remote team? Read our remote software engineering hiring playbook.