Hire PHP Developers — Laravel, Symfony & WordPress

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Hire PHP Developers — Laravel, Symfony, WordPress & WooCommerce

PHP powers a significant portion of the web — WordPress, WooCommerce, Drupal, and custom Laravel/Symfony applications across every industry. CimpleO builds PHP backends and web applications with the frameworks and practices that produce maintainable, secure, and performant systems.

What We Build

Laravel Applications Full-stack Laravel applications with Eloquent ORM, queue workers (Horizon), scheduled tasks, broadcasting via Pusher or Soketi, and REST or GraphQL APIs. Filament for admin panels. Cashier for subscription billing. Livewire for reactive UI without a JavaScript framework. Authentication via Sanctum or Passport.

Symfony Applications Enterprise applications using Symfony’s component-based architecture. Dependency injection, Doctrine ORM, Symfony Messenger for event-driven architecture, and API Platform for REST/GraphQL API generation. Long-term stability and explicit control over every layer.

WordPress Development Custom themes and plugins — not page-builder stacks. Block themes (Full Site Editing), Classic themes, and hybrid approaches. Custom post types, taxonomies, and meta fields. WordPress REST API for headless setups with Next.js or React frontends. ACF Pro for flexible content layouts without plugin lock-in.

WooCommerce Custom WooCommerce plugins for complex pricing rules, custom checkout flows, subscription products, and ERP/PIM integrations. Performance tuning for high-traffic stores. See WooCommerce Performance Services for specifics.

Drupal Development Custom Drupal modules, theme development, multi-site configurations, and complex content workflows. Drupal for high-traffic publishing platforms and enterprise content management where WordPress hits its limits.

API Development & Integration PHP REST APIs with proper error handling, versioning, rate limiting, and OpenAPI documentation. Third-party integrations: payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal), shipping providers (UPS, FedEx, DHL), CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot), and ERPs.

Legacy PHP Modernisation Upgrading PHP 5.x/7.x codebases to PHP 8.x, introducing Composer, adding type declarations, refactoring procedural code into classes, and adding test coverage — incrementally, without rewriting everything at once.

Stack

  • Frameworks: Laravel 11, Symfony 7, Lumen, Slim
  • CMS: WordPress (6.x), Drupal 10, Joomla
  • eCommerce: WooCommerce, Magento 2
  • ORM: Eloquent, Doctrine
  • Testing: PHPUnit, Pest, Laravel Dusk
  • Cache: Redis, Memcached, OPcache
  • Queue: Laravel Horizon, Symfony Messenger, RabbitMQ
  • DevOps: Docker, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Nginx, PHP-FPM

Engagement Models

Fixed-scope project: defined deliverables, agreed timeline. Right for greenfield applications or specific feature builds.

Staff augmentation: a senior PHP developer embedded in your team. Useful for velocity bursts or specialist coverage.

Legacy modernisation retainer: ongoing incremental improvement of existing PHP codebases.

For full-stack web development with React frontend, see Web Development Services. For WooCommerce performance, see WooCommerce Services.

Get a Scope

Tell us your framework, what needs building, and your timeline. We’ll respond within 24 hours.

Contact us

Frequently Asked Questions

Laravel or Symfony — which PHP framework should we use?

Laravel for most web applications and APIs — elegant syntax, built-in auth, queues, and a rich ecosystem (Livewire, Filament, Cashier). Symfony for enterprise applications where you need fine-grained control, long-term stability, and explicit dependency management. Both are production-proven; we recommend based on your team's background and the application's complexity profile.

How much does PHP development cost?

A Laravel REST API with auth and business logic: $15,000–$40,000. A custom WordPress theme with plugins: $8,000–$25,000. A full web application with admin panel and integrations: $30,000–$100,000. Dedicated PHP developer retainer: from $6,500/month.

Can you work with our existing PHP/Laravel codebase?

Yes. We join existing PHP projects regularly — legacy codebases, abandoned agency projects, and actively maintained applications that need additional capacity. We assess honestly before committing: if something is cheaper to rewrite than extend, we say so.

Do you develop WordPress plugins and themes?

Yes. Custom WordPress themes (not page-builder templates) and plugins built to WordPress coding standards. We build things that pass the plugin repository review and hold up to security audits. For WooCommerce specifically, see our WooCommerce performance and maintenance service.

Can you migrate from PHP/MySQL to a more modern stack?

Yes, and we often advise against full rewrites in favour of incremental modernisation. Upgrading PHP version, introducing Composer dependency management, adding typed return values, and extracting services from monolithic controllers — these improve the codebase without the risk of a full rewrite. We'll tell you which approach makes sense for your situation.

Do you handle PHP performance optimisation?

Yes — OPcache configuration, PHP-FPM tuning, query optimisation with EXPLAIN, N+1 elimination at the ORM layer, Redis for session and object caching, and Blackfire.io profiling for bottleneck identification. Most PHP performance problems are database problems in disguise.