Offshore PHP Software Development: How to Choose the Right Provider for Your Business

Undoubtedly, offshore PHP software development’s popularity has moonshot in recent years as businesses seek to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

However, choosing the right PHP development team for your business can be daunting, with so many options available. With this in mind, we’ve put together a guide to help you navigate offshore PHP software development. We’ve compiled this detailed guide to choosing the right provider for your needs.

From understanding what PHP is and why it’s essential to find an experienced provider who understands your business goals, we’ll cover all the necessary information about offshore PHP development you need to make an informed decision. So whether you’re looking to outsource development work or seek advice on how best to approach the process, read on for our expert tips on offshore PHP software development.

What Is Offshore PHP Development?

Offshore PHP development is a term used to describe the practice of outsourcing software development services related to the PHP programming language.

This approach is increasingly popular as companies look for cost-effective ways to develop and maintain their web applications. By choosing offshore PHP developers, businesses can benefit from lower labor costs, higher productivity rates, and faster turnaround times compared to in-house teams. Ultimately, you have your dedicated offshore PHP software development team without bearing huge costs.

Additionally, offshore developers bring diverse skill sets and experience that may not be available locally. The growth of this industry highlights its importance in today’s digital economy, where businesses need customized web solutions that meet their specific needs while staying within budget constraints. Therefore, offshore PHP development offers an attractive solution for companies seeking high-quality work at affordable prices with quick project delivery timescales.

Why Is Offshore PHP Development Popular?

Offshore PHP development popularity is skyrocketing day-by-day. Most of us are probably hunched over the COST factor of the popularity of software development services. Yes, it is a big factor, but it’s not alone.

Furthermore, other factors make it popular, including the ability to have a wide range of expertise on one table, a quicker development process, and reducing the administrative burden of managing a local team. Companies can avoid the hassle of payrolls, benefits, and taxes by outsourcing to an offshore PHP software development team.

It is also true that offshore PHP development entails some challenges. These challenges include language barriers, cultural differences, time zone differences, and potential security threats. It’s important to carefully evaluate the benefits and risks before deciding on offshore PHP developers. With the right approach, offshore PHP development can be a valuable business asset.

Understanding the Benefits of Offshore PHP Software Development

For many businesses, leveraging offshore PHP software development can be a smart move that saves time and money. Including cost & time, let’s find out more benefits an offshore PHP development team brings:

1. Cost Savings: Using offshore PHP development services, businesses can hire skilled PHP developers from countries with lower labor costs. This results in significant cost savings without compromising the quality of the work.
2. Flexibility: Businesses can hire PHP developers part-time or full-time, as per their needs, through offshore PHP development, making it a flexible solution.
3. Quality Assurance: Offshore PHP development companies adhere to quality standards, ensuring high-quality work is delivered to clients.
4. Time-Saving: PHP development offshore reduces recruitment, training, and employee management time, allowing businesses to concentrate on their core competencies.
5. Scalability: Offshore PHP development allows businesses to scale their operations up or down as required without worrying about the infrastructure or human resources required.

Overall, offshore PHP software development services benefit businesses with an affordable and efficient method to get quality software products.

Pros and Cons of Offshore PHP Development

Offshore PHP software development services has both advantages and disadvantages. Some of the pros and cons of offshore PHP development are:

Pros:

1. Cost savings is the big advantage of offshore PHP development.
2. Access to a larger pool of talent with diverse skills and experience.
3. Faster time-to-market. This means a faster turnaround time.
4. Say shoo to payrolls and benefits that reduce administrative burden.
5. Increased flexibility in hiring part-time or full-time as your business requirements.

Cons:

1. Language and cultural barriers can be an issue when briefing your end-product goals.
2. Time zone differences create challenges for collaboration and lead to delays.
3. Quality concerns may arise due to misunderstanding & missing communication.
4. It can pose security risks if the team does not follow the required security protocols.
5. Offshore PHP development may face legal complexities that can be difficult to manage from a distance.

In short, offshore PHP software development can be a cost-effective and flexible option for businesses, but it also comes with challenges that must be carefully considered and managed to ensure successful outcomes.

Nearshore PHP Software Development Services

Offshore PHP software development can help businesses get a technological edge while staying within budget. With offshore developers, companies can access highly skilled developers for a fraction of the cost. Moreover, they can have access to top-of-the-line technology that may not be available locally. Yup, this is true.

But, there is an alternative to offshore PHP software development: nearshore. Fortunately, nearshore PHP software development is becoming the preferred choice over offshore development.

When it comes to software development, nearshore is the way to go! You’ll save time and resources and be able to collaborate easily with your developer team. Companies that opt for nearshore software development can also benefit from daily check-ins and discussions with the team when they are just a few hours away rather than overseas.

Nearshore PHP software development teams have the experience and knowledge-to-the-local-audience to create targeted software solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing systems. This ensures the solutions are optimized for performance, scalability, and usability. They can also help with other areas of programming, such as database development and programming in popular frameworks like CakePHP, Laravel, and CodeIgniter.

Due to lower labor costs and incentives in some countries, nearshore software development also offers dramatic cost savings. Companies can save up to 50% compared to hiring a local software developer. Furthermore, businesses benefit from reducing the language barrier, which reduces the need for hiring multilingual staff and allows them to manage information securely.

In short, nearshore software development services offers many advantages in the face of cost savings and top-notch quality. With nearshore professional developers, businesses can communicate more clearly to get an exact product.

Junior, Intermediate, and Senior PHP Developer: What Do You Need?

First, let’s clarify what kind of PHP developer you need, based on their seniority level, before understanding the factors of hiring PHP developers.

Junior PHP Developer

1. Junior PHP developers’ experience may vary between 0 to 2 years.
2. Time management, group collaboration, and efficient communication are must-haves.
3. Strong problem-solving, strategic planning, analytical thinking, and multitasking skill
4. Ability to write PHP code, perform testing and debugging.
5. Comfortable while using HTML and CSS languages.
6. Knowledge of how to implement front- and back-end interfaces
7. Solid programming and server-side process understanding

Intermediate PHP Developer

1. Intermediate offshore PHP software development team or agency should have 2+ years of experience.
2. A solid understanding of HTML, CSS, JS frameworks, jQuery, and XML OOP.
3. Knowledge of SOLID PHP principles and practical experience with MySQL, PostgreSQL, the Kanban process, code refactoring, and unit testing.
4. Ability to develop and maintain technical documentation and to work on projects of various sizes and scopes.
5. Effective team communication, task estimation & timely execution, and reporting to superiors.

Senior PHP Developer

Obviously, a perfect mastery of PHP is essential to exercise this profession, but other technical skills are expected:

1. Senior offshore PHP software development team should have 6+ years of experience.
2. Skills in other very useful languages that complement PHP, such as JavaScript, and other technologies, such as SQL, HTML, and CSS.
3. Be comfortable with CMS tools such as WordPress and/or the various PHP frameworks (Symfony, Laravel, CakePHP, Zend) and Apache
4. Experience in web development (standards, security, architecture, design)
5. Good command of English (especially in writing for documentation)
6. Knowledge of collaborative work platforms such as Gitlab or Github
7. Knowledge of good development practices, tests etc.

Let’s come to our core topic: how to choose the right offshore PHP developer for your business.

How to Hire an Offshore PHP Developer?

Without any delay, let’s know some factors to consider when hiring an offshore PHP developer:

1. Expertise and Experience

Verify that the offshore PHP software development team or agency have a proven track record of building PHP applications. Also, check out their portfolio of completed PHP projects.

1. Technical skills

Make sure the developers have the necessary skills and expertise in PHP, MySQL, and frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, Yii2 etc., as required for your project. Some developers may claim PHP expertise but may lack experience with specific frameworks.

1. Available talent pool

Choose an offshore PHP software development agency that has a large pool of PHP developers so they can deploy more resources for your project without any delays. This will ensure the timely completion of work.

1. Communication

As an offshore team, effective communication is important. Ensure there are no language barriers and you can communicate clearly about requirements, specifications, design details, issues, etc.

1. Cost-effectiveness

Offshore developers can often do the same work at a lower cost. But this is not the only factor. Balance lower costs with good experience, skills, and quality of work.

1. Management cost

Determine if managing an offshore team requires too many resources or if the agency handles all management requirements efficiently. Look for a reputable partner that can manage the remote team effectively.

1. IP rights

Discuss and decide in advance about the intellectual property rights of the developed applications and source code. Ensure there are no future disputes regarding ownership and usage.

1. Infrastructure

Make sure the offshore PHP software development team or agency has adequate infrastructure, tools, and technology platforms to collaborate and build the application effectively. Reliable internet connectivity is essential.

1. Backup and safety

Reputable agencies will have proper backup systems and safety measures in place to ensure continuity of work in case of any unforeseen issues. Discuss disaster recovery plans.

Ways to Evaluate Potential Offshore PHP Software Development Team

Here are some tips for evaluating a potential offshore PHP software development team:

1. Check their experience

How long have they been building PHP applications? What kinds of projects have they completed? Evaluate references from past clients. Experienced teams will get the work done right.

1. Meet the key developers

If possible, meet (via video call) the lead developer and architects working on your project. Assess if they are the right fit in terms of skills, experience, communication skills, work style, etc.

1. Discuss architecture and best practices

How do they structure PHP applications? Do they follow modern design and development best practices? This will ensure high-quality and scalable solutions.

1. Check project delivery and quality

Ask for examples of projects delivered on schedule and budget with high-quality code that needed minimal rework or bugs. How do they ensure this for all projects?

1. Understand management processes

How do they manage projects, allocate resources, track progress, resolve blockers, and engage clients and stakeholders? Strong processes are important for success with remote teams.

1. Discuss challenges and solutions

Bring up some typical challenges of working with offshore development teams like time zone differences, remote collaboration, cultural nuances, etc. See how they have tackled such challenges in the past. Their insights will be valuable.

1. Negotiate and set expectations

Once potential PHP developers are shortlisted, negotiate price and other terms to get the best deal. Then come to an agreement on key expectations, workflows, communication protocols, timelines, and metrics to evaluate performance.

1. Review and monitor regularly

Even after hiring a team, keep reviewing their performance, quality of work, responsiveness, and adherence to agreed processes and timelines. Provide feedback and make changes as needed to optimize collaboration.

Where Can You Hire Offshore PHP Developers?

Here are some popular options to hire offshore PHP developers:

1. Dedicated offshore PHP software development companies

These are PHP focused agencies that have a team of permanent PHP developers. Some options are Brilliant Basics, Hyper Innovations, Inspired IDs, etc.

1. Freelance marketplace

Websites like Upwork, Toptal, Fiverr, Freelancer, Onbench, etc. have a large network of freelance PHP developers for hire. You can view profiles, view reviews, compare and hire the best suitable for your needs.

1. Managed offshore services

Some companies offer fully managed offshore PHP software development services. They handle the entire development process including resource allocation, management, monitoring progress, quality standards, etc. For example, ServiceDeck, Gateway Global Services, etc.

1. Individual freelancers

You can search for freelance PHP developers on websites like Freelancer or on their personal websites. But individual developers may lack good management and team support. Use them for smaller projects only.

1. Remote employee hiring

If required, you can hire remote PHP developers as employees and manage them directly. However, the hiring and onboarding process for remote employees can be complex. Cultural differences also play a role. This may suit you for scaling up an internal team.

1. Outsource to Low-Priced Countries

Countries like Hungary, Israel, Ukraine, etc. have many talented PHP developers at slightly lower costs than other western countries. You can hire individual developers or work with dedicated PHP development teams from these locations.

1. Use crowdsourcing platforms

Platforms such as TopCoder,crowdSPRING, and 99Designs can be used to hire PHP developers for freelance or competition-based work. But they may work on individual features, defects or mini-experiments rather than full-scale long-term projects.

1. PHP development marketplace

Some websites have listings specifically for offshore PHP software development teams or agencies on a global scale. One such platform for PHP developer providers is Chudovo. Here, you can find the best PHP software developers who are experts in their field and know how to develop complex software systems for better time-to-market delivery.

Certified engineers

Convenient rates

Fast start

Profitable conditions

Agreement with
EU company

English and German
speaking engineers

Contact Us

In short, there are many avenues to hire offshore PHP developers. Evaluate options based on your needs regarding time, cost, project scope, availability of skills, management requirements, and collaboration needs. Discuss with developers to understand their experience, work processes, and knowledge of PHP and relevant frameworks. Ensure good communication and set clear expectations for successful long-term partnerships.

Cost of Hiring Offshore PHP Software Development Team

The cost of hiring an offshore PHP software development team depends on several factors:

1. Experience and reputation: Teams with more experienced developers and a reputable presence in the market will charge higher rates. Well-known teams can cost 30-50% more than newer startups.
2. Available skills: Teams with scarce skills in niche PHP frameworks or technologies will charge a premium. Broader skills will have lower costs.
3. Location: Development costs are typically lower in countries like India, the Philippines, etc., compared to Western countries. Cost differences can be 30-50% or even more for the same level of skills.
4. Project complexity: Simple content websites or blogs can cost $50-100/hour, while complex enterprise SaaS applications with niche integrations may charge $150-300/hour or more.
5. Project duration: Short-term freelance projects on an hourly/daily basis will cost more than long-term dedicated teams. Retainers and long-term partnerships often get volume discounts.
6. Project requirements: Additional needs like UX/UI design, product management, QA testing, hosting, and support will increase the overall budget. Basic offshore PHP software development will have lower costs.
7. Team type: A team of permanent developers will usually cost more than freelancers. Hybrid teams with a mix of both permanent and freelance developers can offer good value.

On average, you can expect to pay the following:

1. $75-$150/hour for a senior PHP freelancer.
2. $50-$100/hour for a mid-level PHP freelance developer.
3. $3,000-$10,000/month for a small team of 3-5 dedicated PHP developers.
4. $10,000-$30,000/month or more for a large dedicated offshore PHP agency or development center.

Note: All the rates are analyzed from Upwork or Onbench.

Does this help summarize what you can expect to pay for an offshore PHP software development team? Ping in the comments if you have any other questions.

25 Interview Questions for Offshore PHP Software Development Team

Here are 25 essential interview questions to ask Offshore PHP Software Developers:

1. What is PHP, and How is PHP different from HTML?
2. What are the PHP operators?
3. How do you declare variables in PHP?
4. How do you define constants in PHP?
5. What is variable scoping in PHP?
6. What is your experience with PHP frameworks? What do you know about frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, Zend, etc.?
7. What is the PHP version you are most comfortable working with? (PHP 5.x, PHP 7.x, PHP 8.x, etc.)
8. How would you handle premature optimization? Should you optimize code even before profiling?
9. Explain PDO and Mysqli. Which one do you prefer and why?
10. What are composer dependencies, and why are they important? How would you manage them?
11. Explain MVC architecture. Have you built any projects following this pattern?
12. What are the best practices for PHP validation and sanitation? How would you validate/sanitize user input?
13. Explain PHP namespaces. How do they avoid name collisions? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of namespaces.
14. What is the UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagram? Have you designed any UML diagrams for PHP applications? If yes, which ones?
15. How would you debug PHP applications? What tools do you like to use?
16. What is OOP (Object Oriented Programming)? Explain with relevant PHP examples.
17. What is the difference between functions, methods, constructors, destructors, etc.? Provide PHP examples.
18. How does a PHP session work? What are the different types of sessions supported? How to prevent session hijacking?
19. Explain the PHP autoloader and its register() function. Discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
20. What is the concept of refactoring? Why should you refactor your code? Discuss some common refactoring techniques with examples.
21. What are custom error-handling techniques? Explain them with examples. How does it work with try/catch blocks?
22. How does PDO implement prepared statements and query parameter binding? What are its advantages over MySQLi APIs?
23. Explain crawling and scraping techniques. Have you built any web crawlers in PHP? For what purpose?
24. What is the difference between file upload methods like move_uploaded_file(), copy(), etc.? What factors should be considered when uploading files?
25. What is the best approach to protecting against PHP XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks?

To Sum Up

Offshore PHP software development can be a fantastic choice if you’re looking to outsource work or keep costs down. However, it’s critical to find the right team for the job. One that really gets your vision and has a ton of experience building amazing web apps. By following our expert tips, you can find A+ PHP developer talent at affordable rates. Best of luck launching that web app of your dreams! Keep in touch and let us know if any other questions about Offshore PHP software development pop into your mind. Leave it below in the comments; we’d love to hear from you!

FAQ

Are PHP developers still in demand?

Absolutely! PHP devs are definitely still in demand. PHP is used by tons of companies to build websites and web apps people love. PHP developers are still needed to create dynamic, user-friendly websites and applications.

Which country is best for hiring offshore PHP software development team or agencies?

There’s no single “best” country for hiring an offshore PHP software development team. However, some countries, like Ukraine, Hungary, and Poland, are known for having tons of amazingly skilled PHP developers available at a lower cost.

Is offshore PHP software development team highly paid?

According to the job market, PHP developers can command a high salary based on their experience and skill sets.

Does PHP software have a future?

Absolutely. PHP has an amazingly bright future ahead! PHP powers so much of the web, from huge companies to tiny startups. As long as businesses want interactive content and developers need languages to build it, PHP will stay hugely relevant.

Which is better, Python or PHP?

It depends on your requirements. Choose Python for general programming tasks and data research, wherever choose PHP for web development.

If you need highly qualified PHP developers at the right price for your project, contact us now!