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What do such websites like Facebook, Yahoo, Wikipedia, and MailChimp have in common? Of course, all of them are really popular, and I bet most of us use at least one of these sites quite often. But there is also one more thing — they all are built with PHP programming language. Actually, not only these sites — nearly 82 percent of all websites existing today are powered by PHP.
In this article, we’ll talk about PHP developer rates and try to figure out how much the service of a PHP web development company costs. But before diving into hard numbers, let’s briefly outline the reasons why PHP became so popular.
Main advantages of PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language that allows for the creation of highly dynamic and interactive websites. It has numerous advantages. Here are the most important of them:
- Versatility. With PHP, it’s possible to develop web solutions of any kind — from the simplest websites to the most sophisticated ones. It also runs on all existing platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS) and supports the most common SQL engines, as well as such databases as Oracle, Postgres, and ODBC.
- Open-source language. PHP is free to download and use. This is one of the reasons why there are a lot of developers working with it, so it’s always easy to find professionals and scale your web development. On top of this, PHP web development is a cost-effective choice since you don’t need to pay for the technology. Actually, it’s one of the most optimal options in terms of prices because PHP development will cost you less than, let’s say, Python, Ruby, or Node.js development.
- Custom development. It’s quite obvious that the investment in web development can yield the results you expect only if a website or web application matches your business needs. With PHP, your desires are not limited by any predefined options, so you can literally build whatever you want.
- High processing speed. PHP allows for a rather high processing speed and, thus, websites built with PHP load faster than websites built with other programming languages. How important is this? Well, 53 percent of Internet users abandon websites if a loading time exceeds 3 seconds to Google Research. I believe this number speaks for itself.
- Scalability. One of the most important features of any solution nowadays is scalability. Because let’s be honest: no matter if you own a newborn startup or established enterprise, it’s essential that your business grows and thrives. And PHP programming language gives you such an opportunity since web development services based on this language are capable of handling increased traffic and can be easily extended if needed.
We have a separate article about PHP development in which we discuss why it’s a wise choice in more detail. You can read it here.
PHP web developer hourly rates
First of all, it’s worth mentioning that the community of PHP developers is indeed large and active, so you’ll never have problems finding programmers whose hourly rates and expertise meet your expectations.
Speaking about numbers, the range is rather wide since the prices depend on many factors (e.g. geographical region where developers are located, expertise, the complexity of a project, and features to be included in a product).
Also, an hourly rate will be higher if you decide to hire a PHP developer from a development agency and lower if you go with freelancers. Yet, in the latter case, you should be aware of all the risks associated with contracting independent software engineers, for example, missed deadlines, so-called spaghetti code, and low-quality of deliverables.
The USA is the most expensive country in terms of custom PHP development, with the national average for the annual programmer’s salary of $102,954. At the same time, the approximate annual earnings of PHP developers from Asia constitute around $9,000.
A global average PHP developers hourly rate varies between $61 and $80 (see below):
You may wonder, how can one find a golden mean if the difference is so significant? Well, if you hire a PHP developer from Eastern Europe, you’ll make the right decision for your custom web development. Software engineers from this region offer the most favorable price/quality ratio.
PHP Website Development Cost in Ukraine
A great advantage of Ukraine as a country for PHP development outsourcing is the large talent pool in the software development area.
On average, PHP developers rates in Ukraine range from $35 to $45. So, as you may see, the prices are even lower than average hourly rates worldwide. For example, if your goal is to develop custom web portal, the PHP website development cost may vary between $100,000 – $150, 000 depending on its complexity and the seniority level of hired PHP web developer.
As with any software development, the price for the website built with PHP depends on the number of time programmers need to spend to build it. So the general rule is the following: the more complicated your web app is, the more it will cost you. It’s hard to tell more accurately since all projects require a different number of hours. But to give you a hint, here are the examples of custom web app development projects completed by Altamira:
- Auxyn is a professional social network platform for music lovers and musicians. It allows users to find music artists, listen to their tracks, and negotiate with bands their performances at different events. Hours spent on custom PHP development: 600+
- Surf&Yoga is a sports web platform that helps surfers and yoga-lovers find an instructor. It shows the list of destinations where such services are available, as well as a calendar with instructors’ schedules, so users can book pieces of training and pay for them. Hours spent on custom PHP development: 800+
Here, at Altamira, we chose PHP as one of our main technologies, and we are highly specialized in it. Our team has great experience in custom PHP development and, besides the projects mentioned above, we have successfully created numerous other custom PHP-based web solutions.
Final thoughts
If you need to create highly interactive and reliable website software development, custom PHP development is your best choice for the back-end. Not only does this language allow for custom web development, but it is also the most cost-effective option.
Among other things, you can easily find professionals whenever you need them since a lot of programmers work with PHP development services. So you’ll encounter no problem with scaling your project and hiring developers to complete your web app development if additional resources are needed.
