PHP development company

What PHP is today

PHP is an open source server-side language that has powered websites since the mid-1990s. WordPress, Drupal, Magento and countless custom business systems are written in it, and almost every web host supports it.

PHP has a reputation problem from its early years, when it was easy to write insecure, tangled code. Modern PHP is a different language: versions 7 and 8 brought large speed improvements, type declarations, better error handling and features such as enums and attributes. Paired with a framework like Laravel or Symfony and the Composer package manager, PHP today is a sensible choice for business web apps.

The real issue for many businesses is not PHP itself but old PHP: apps written ten or fifteen years ago on PHP 5, with no framework, no tests and one developer who understood them. Those apps still run the business, but they cannot be safely changed and often sit on PHP versions that no longer receive security updates.

Keep PHP, modernize it or move to something else?

We look at four options with every PHP codebase, and the cheapest one that solves the problem wins:

• Keep and maintain: the app is in reasonable shape on a supported PHP version. Fix bugs, add features, keep it patched.
• Upgrade in place: the code is decent but runs on an old PHP version. Move it forward version by version and replace dead libraries.
• Rebuild in a PHP framework: the code is tangled but the team and hosting are PHP. Rebuild section by section in Laravel or Symfony.
• Migrate to another language, such as PHP to Python: worth it when the business needs AI and data features Python handles better, wants one language across several systems, or cannot find people for its stack. It is the most expensive path, so it needs a clear reason.

PHP work we take on

• Custom PHP web apps and portals, usually built on Laravel.
• Upgrades from PHP 5 or 7 to a currently supported PHP 8 release.
• Takeovers of custom PHP systems whose original developer is gone, starting with a written review.
• Security fixes for old code: SQL injection, weak password storage, outdated libraries.
• Custom WordPress plugins and integrations when WordPress is staying but needs to do more.
• PHP to Python migrations, run in stages so both systems can work side by side during the move.

PHP development company, consultant or freelancer?

Hiring a PHP freelancer is common and can work well for small jobs on a clean codebase. Old custom PHP is a different story: before you hire a PHP freelancer for it, ask how they will test changes so fixing one page does not break three others.

A PHP consultant can audit an old system and recommend whether to maintain, upgrade, rebuild or migrate. That second opinion is valuable before committing to a big rewrite.

A full-time PHP developer for hire makes sense for businesses with steady work on a large PHP system and someone to manage it.

A PHP development company like Zoti gives you a full team (design, backend, front end, testing) and a project manager who owns the plan. Zoti's monthly plans start at $499/month, covering design, development, hosting and ongoing changes, with a written quote before any work starts.

How we take over an old PHP system

1. Secure access and backupsWe get the code, server, database and domain under your control and make full backups first.
2. Put it in version controlMany old PHP apps were edited live on the server. We fix that so every change is tracked.
3. Review and reportYou get a plain summary of security risks, PHP version issues and the options above, with costs.
4. Fix the urgent issuesSecurity holes and unsupported versions come first, with tests around the most important flows.
5. Modernize in roundsWe upgrade, rebuild or migrate one section at a time while the business keeps running.