How to hire a PHP or CodeIgniter developer in India
For PHP work, India is one of the most popular hiring markets in the world. Developers there have built and maintained a huge number of business applications in CodeIgniter, Laravel and WordPress, often for clients in the UK, US and Europe. That makes it a practical choice for ongoing PHP work, as long as you pick carefully and set up the collaboration well. Below: pay, hours, CodeIgniter takeovers, interview checks and a plan for the first months. For the general role, see our page to hire PHP developers; for other engineering roles in the country, our software engineers in India.
Pay in India
According to PayScale data for India (updated July 2026, 108 salary profiles), PHP developers earn an average base salary of about 4.8 lakh rupees a year, and most earn between roughly 2 lakh and 10 lakh. Expect juniors near the lower figure and seniors who design systems and lead upgrades near the upper one. Through DigiWorks, the developer’s salary and our fee appear as two separate figures, so you always know where the money goes.
Making the time difference work
India sits five and a half hours ahead of UTC and does not change its clocks. A UK company therefore shares a long block of the working day with an Indian developer, slightly less in the British summer. US companies usually settle on a fixed overlap at the start of their day, and agree that the developer writes a short handover at the end of theirs. Put the window in writing before the first day so nobody has to guess.
Taking over a CodeIgniter application
Plenty of hiring here starts with an existing CodeIgniter app whose original developer has moved on. The right approach is slow at first: run the app locally, map the database and the key user journeys, add tests around the parts that bring in revenue, and only then change code. If the app is on CodeIgniter 3 or an old PHP version, plan the upgrade as small releases rather than one big switch. Some teams take the chance to move to Laravel, which a developer with both skills can do one module at a time while the old code keeps running.
Stay on CodeIgniter or move to Laravel?
There is no single right answer. Staying on CodeIgniter 4 makes sense when the application works, the team knows it and the changes ahead are modest. Moving to Laravel pays off when you plan years of new features, need its larger package ecosystem, or struggle to find people for an older codebase. Ask candidates which they would choose for your app and why. A thoughtful answer that weighs cost, risk and timing is a good sign; an instant “rewrite everything” is not.
Interview checklist
- Projects: which CodeIgniter or Laravel applications did they work on, and what did they own?
- Queries: how do they write database queries that include user input?
- Upgrades: what was the hardest PHP or framework upgrade they did, and what went wrong?
- Writing: ask them to write a short end-of-day update during the call.
- Overlap: which hours can they keep, and how did they handle time zones with past clients?
- Setup: is their internet reliable, and what is their backup if power goes out?
Questions that separate candidates
- You inherit a CodeIgniter 3 app with no tests. What happens in your first week?
- How do you keep your manager informed when they are asleep for most of your day?
- Describe a live bug you fixed under pressure. How did you track it down?
Listen for specifics: real projects, tools and decisions. Vague answers without examples are a warning sign.
Junior, mid-level or senior
A junior can take on well-defined tickets if someone senior reviews their code. A mid-level developer can own features from the database to the screen. If this person will be your only PHP developer, or the application needs an upgrade plan, choose a senior who has done a takeover or migration before.
A short paid task
Give your final candidates the same small paid task based on your real code, such as a form with validation and a safe database insert in CodeIgniter 4. Keep it to a few hours and read the written notes as closely as the code.
The first months
During week one, share the repository, a staging copy and the error logs, and ship one small fix together. During the first month, hand over a module and settle on a daily update format. By month three, the developer should be planning work with you, suggesting improvements and reviewing changes from the rest of the team.
Common mistakes
- Choosing purely on the lowest rate.
- Leaving shared hours vague.
- Allowing edits directly on the live server.
- Scheduling releases on Indian public holidays.
Building a wider remote team? Read our remote software engineering hiring playbook.