PHP Development Services for Custom Web Applications & APIs

Laravel is the most popular PHP framework, providing a rich ecosystem for building modern web applications: an expressive ORM (Eloquent), built-in authentication, queues, caching, broadcasting, and a powerful CLI (Artisan). It follows MVC architecture, has excellent documentation, and a massive community. We recommend Laravel for medium-to-large PHP applications because it provides structure that keeps large codebases maintainable over time, and because its ecosystem (Forge, Vapor, Nova) solves common infrastructure and admin panel needs without custom code.

PHP development costs vary based on complexity. A simple web application (5–10 features, basic API) typically starts from $8,000–$20,000. A mid-complexity Laravel application with user management, integrations, admin panel, and reporting ranges from $20,000–$60,000. Complex multi-tenant SaaS platforms or enterprise applications can exceed $100,000. We provide detailed fixed-price quotes after a discovery workshop — with full technical specifications so costs are predictable and scope is controlled.

Yes — legacy PHP migration and modernisation is one of our most common engagements. We typically encounter PHP 5.6 or 7.x applications with no framework, global variables, procedural code, and security vulnerabilities. Our approach: audit the existing codebase, map all functionality, then incrementally refactor or rebuild onto PHP 8 + Laravel, with a parallel test suite ensuring no functionality regression. We prefer incremental migration over big-bang rewrites to reduce risk and maintain business continuity throughout the process.

Yes — automated testing is part of our standard development process. We write unit tests for business logic, feature tests for API endpoints, and integration tests for critical user flows using PHPUnit and Laravel's built-in testing tools. Test coverage targets are agreed at project scope — typically 70–80% for business-critical code. CI pipelines run the full test suite on every code push. Test coverage significantly reduces regression risk, improves deployment confidence, and reduces maintenance cost over the application's lifetime.

Yes — third-party integration is a core part of most PHP projects we deliver. Common integrations include: payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net), CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho), ERPs (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics), shipping carriers (FedEx, UPS, Australia Post, Canada Post), email services (SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark), SMS providers (Twilio), and data warehouses (BigQuery, Snowflake). We design integrations with proper error handling, retry logic, and webhooks — not fragile synchronous calls that fail silently.

Security is built into our PHP development process from the architecture phase. We follow OWASP Top 10 mitigations: SQL injection prevention (prepared statements/Eloquent ORM), XSS prevention (output encoding), CSRF protection (Laravel middleware), authentication security (hashed passwords, rate limiting, 2FA support), file upload security (mime validation, virus scanning), and API security (token authentication, rate limiting, input validation). We conduct a security review at the end of every project before production deployment.

Yes — we offer dedicated PHP support and maintenance retainers post-launch. This covers: bug fixing and crash resolution, PHP and dependency version upgrades, security patching, performance monitoring and optimisation, minor feature enhancements, and database maintenance. We also offer dedicated development retainers if you need ongoing feature development. All support clients get a named account manager, monthly reports, and access to our support ticketing system with guaranteed response times based on issue severity.