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PHP is here to stay – Cad Crowd brings you closer to the most talented PHP developers in the country

PHP, despite being more than 29 years old, maintains a respectable place in the web development world of today. The open-source general scripting language holds its importance in modern web standards, and it's actually still used as a back-end programming language by a whopping 76% of all websites in existence. In fact, the only thing that has become irrelevant about PHP is its original definition. PHP used to stand for "personal home page," but since it no longer reflects everything that the programming language can do, PHP now refers to the all-encompassing "hypertext preprocessor" to better indicate its capabilities.

PHP is best known for its simplicity, compatibility, flexibility, and scalability. Whether you're developing e-commerce, personal websites, or custom web apps for any purpose, few web technologies are better than PHP. Of course, you can only utilize PHP to its full potential if you have competent programmers and developers to build the application on your behalf. Cad Crowd staffing agency has the resources and the network to connect you with some of the most talented PHP developers from all around the world. 

What you need to know about PHP

Similar to other scripting languages out there, PHP is essentially a tool that connects the database stored on the server side of a website or web app to the client side of it. PHP pulls the information from the database and presents it on the web page in HTML format. Here are just a few of PHP's praiseworthy highlights:

• No Compilation: PHP is a scripting language, which means it can be interpreted by other programs during runtime without requiring compilation. The interpretation can happen in either the back-end (server) or front-end (browser).
• Client-side and Server-side: as a front-end technology, PHP is often used in conjunction with HTML and JavaScript to generate dynamic web pages. PHP will interact with JavaScript for various asynchronous tasks that utilize AJAX, enabling web pages to update their contents without having to reload. That said, PHP really shines as a back-end technology thanks to its ability to manage and manipulate large volumes of data in an efficient manner.

Note: if you’re using PHP for the server side, you don’t actually have to use PHP for the client side; it’s just that interacting with the data using another language may cause issues. The most common front-end programming languages paired with PHP at the back-end are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

• Open-source: PHP comes with free, open-source libraries. In 2021, several major web technology organizations, including Laravel, Symfony, JetBrains, and Tideways (and a few others), created The PHP Foundation to help ensure that the language remains actively developed. It's also a good thing that PHP makes it easy for developers to add more functionalities to the language by using extensions written in C. Numerous extensions are available, adding support for Unix-based operating systems, Windows API, and basically all other popular compression formats.
• Speedy: if used in the most efficient fashion possible, PHP can reduce memory usage in the back-end, resulting in a lower server workload, nearly 4X faster performance than Python, and almost twice as fast as Ruby on Rails.
• Object-oriented: PHP has been reinforced with Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) functionality since version 5 (PHP 8.3 is the latest stable release). OOP basically gives “objects” the ability to contain functions and data, allowing for the creation of sophisticated and reusable applications.
• Simple: many programming languages claim to be beginner-friendly, and PHP actually does have simple syntax. Whether you’re hiring junior developers to utilize and improve existing frameworks or senior developers to build a web app from scratch, the simplicity ensures short development time.

PHP works on all major operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux. It also supports popular databases like SQLite, MySQL, and Oracle. You can run PHP on most servers, including Apache and IIS. 

Over the last 10 years or so, people have been questioning whether PHP is worth developing in light of many newer programming languages. This is a valid question, considering how some old technologies are now rendered moot (remember Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight?) when more advanced alternatives come to the surface. To some extent, PHP is like Java; both are old but persistent enough to stay as viable options among their younger, more sophisticated counterparts.

PHP is admittedly an aged web technology, and it lacks some features that otherwise come standard with the more recently invented programming languages. The good thing is that PHP turns out to be pretty stubborn and continues to evolve, maintaining great compatibility with new web developments and operating systems. As a matter of fact, the programming language has reached a stage of ubiquitousness to the point where developers might as well design something to work with PHP because it's actually a much more sensible decision rather than moving away from it entirely.

There’s little reason to stop using PHP simply because it’s a mature programming language. It’s a well-documented piece of web technology and well-supported by an active community of experienced developers. PHP has been around for 29 years, so it only makes sense if the programming language can now boast an extensive list of libraries, frameworks, and databases compatible with it.

PHP-based websites work with just about every CMS platform and can easily integrate with a wide range of add-ons to improve or extend the basic functionalities. Many of those add-ons are designed to make PHP faster and more efficient, delivering a dynamic and feature-rich user experience as expected by today’s standards. PHP remains in active development and gets even better with every new release.

Popular websites using PHP

Thanks to all its capabilities and compatibility features, it comes as a no-surprise that PHP is used as part of the web technology stack by some of the world’s most well-known companies and websites, for example:

• Wikipedia: when it comes to daily content updates, with the exception of social media sites, nothing comes close to Wikipedia, particularly the English Wikipedia. On average, the website receives two edits, big and small, per second. And the back-end programming is built on the scalability and stability of PHP.
• Facebook: every PHP code running on Facebook is converted into an intermediate language using HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM), developed by Meta. The social platform has more than 2 billion users.
• Yahoo!: while Yahoo! is no longer the search engine it used to be, it still serves about 700 million people monthly. Starting in 2002, the search engine (as well as the news portal) switched from a proprietary C/C++ system to PHP.
• Slack: a sophisticated communication platform, Slack has been very open about its use of PHP technology for its server-side development.
• Canva: Canva uses PHP to streamline template delivery and search results. As of October 2022, It had about 100 million monthly active users.

In essence, PHP is a general-purpose scripting language well-suited to all sorts of web-based tasks, from sending emails and collecting form submissions to generating interactive web pages and handling an entire eCommerce website.

Why hire PHP developers

The main point of hiring PHP developers is to have them write server-side codes for an application to ensure good performance and stability. You’ll improve your chances of achieving the goal only if the developers have the necessary skills, including but not limited to:

• PHP Frameworks: this actually goes without saying, but you may still have to mention it in your job requirement to prevent unqualified individuals from sending their resumes, adding the unnecessary to an already demanding screening process. Also commonly referred to as a "platform," PHP framework is written in the PHP programming language and reinforced with add-on features for the development process. There are several popular platforms, such as Symfony, Laravel, and CodeIgniter, designed to improve the application's overall performance and decrease load time on the server side. Just like every other web app development framework out there, they're merely tools and only as good as the developer utilizing them.
• HTML, JavaScript, and CSS: a working knowledge of front-end programming languages like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is mandatory. Remember that PHP is distinctly a back-end technology to handle form submissions, interact with databases, manage user sessions, and generate HTML content. If you want to build a complete website or web app, you need the PHP developer to have some level of expertise in front-end technologies, too. Even if you have another developer specifically for front-end development, the PHP developer still needs to have a basic understanding of client-side technologies to ensure good collaboration and streamlined project workflow.
• Content Management System (CMS): PHP's server-side scripting enables dynamic content, which in turn, allows for real-time web page customization and therefore enhances UX. Another major advantage of PHP as it relates to CMS is the seamless integration with databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle DBMS. Regardless of the volume of data in the back-end, PHP ensures an efficient management system. In addition, PHP also supports template engines (for example, Twig and Blade) to help simplify the separation of presentation and logic in various CMS platforms. Such a separation brings about flexible and easy-to-maintain codes. Even if you use a custom CMS platform, PHP offers comprehensive features for error reporting and debugging purposes. Developers can identify issues as they arise and fix them quickly, which means the website or web app has an optimized performance and minimum downtime.
• Database Languages: while seamless integration with database languages comes standard in PHP, it doesn’t help unless your developers actually understand database languages. 

And then, you also have to consider soft skills before making the decision to hire any developer. Apart from the usual traits such as dependable problem-solving abilities and good communication (which are always essential, of course), you want the developer to demonstrate good project management capability. Project management encompasses various skills such as being budget-conscious, multitasking, risk assessment, quality control, and leadership abilities. 

With Cad Crowd staffing agency, you have multiple options on how to approach your hiring needs. We can provide you with an entire team of PHP developers (including a project manager and DevOps engineer) to oversee progress, individual developers qualified for the job requirements, or even freelancers. Our recruiters take time to listen to your hiring necessities and make sure that you have the best possible custom solution for your specific needs. We can always tailor our services depending on the timeline, urgency, project-specific constraints, and budget.

Being in the business for 15 years has afforded us the rare opportunity to maintain a large database of website and web app developer talents worldwide. A good portion of our database is filled with programmers specializing in PHP and other back-end technologies so that we can tap into our list and deliver the most qualified candidates for the open position. If need be, we can reach out to active online communities and our network of recruiters scattered all across the country to discover both active and passive candidates on behalf of your hiring manager as well. Give Cad Crowd a call at your convenience any day of the week to discuss everything in detail, and we'll send you a free quote based on the information you provide.