Our ServicesDevelopment
Custom PHP Development and Legacy Codebase Work
PHP is the language underneath most of what we have delivered. Forty-two of our forty-nine projects run on WordPress, which means custom plugins, theme code, WooCommerce logic and API integrations written in PHP every week. We also take on the codebases other developers left behind, where the first job is understanding what exists before changing any of it.
What You Get
Included as standard on every engagement — not an upsell list.
Backend logic written to standards, not to a deadline
Structured, namespaced code with sanitised input, escaped output, prepared statements and nonce-protected actions as the default rather than a hardening pass afterwards. A security reviewer, an auditor or your next developer can read it without needing us to translate.
Custom plugins and functionality inside WordPress
Most of the PHP we write lives in WordPress: bespoke plugins, WooCommerce logic, custom post types, admin screens and REST endpoints. We are straightforward that this is where our PHP depth sits, rather than claiming a framework practice we do not run.
Third-party APIs wrapped safely
CRMs, payment providers, booking systems, shipping carriers and LLM endpoints wrapped with authentication, transient caching, timeouts, retries and error logging. When an upstream provider has an outage, your site degrades visibly in a log instead of white-screening for customers.
Performance work at the query level
Slow PHP is usually slow queries. We profile the actual page, find the unindexed lookup or the loop firing one database call per row, and fix the cause rather than caching over it. Object caching and transients then keep the fixed version fast under real traffic.
Legacy code assessed honestly before anyone commits
We review structure, dependency versions, security posture and PHP version compatibility, then tell you plainly whether the codebase is maintainable as it stands, worth refactoring, or cheaper to replace. That assessment is written down before a direction is chosen.
Upgrades that survive the next PHP release
Deprecated functions, removed extensions and changed defaults are what break older PHP applications. We test against current PHP versions, fix the incompatibilities on a staging clone first, and hand you a written record of what changed and why it needed changing.
How We Deliver It
Stage by stage, with the approval points marked. PHP Development follows the same rhythm on every project.
Code review and scoping
We read what exists before proposing anything: structure, dependencies, database usage, PHP version and the security posture. You get a written assessment separating the work that is genuinely required from the work that would merely be tidy.
Environment and version control setup
Local and staging environments matching production PHP and database versions, the codebase brought into Git if it is not already, and a deployment path established so nothing has to be edited on a live server again.
Build against coding standards
Development happens in small, reviewable commits with WordPress or PSR coding standards enforced, input and output handling applied consistently, and translation-ready strings wherever the code produces user-facing text.
Testing across roles and failure states
We test each user role and permission boundary, the upgrade path, and what happens when an external service is slow or unavailable, rather than confirming only that the happy path works on a developer machine.
Deployment and documentation
A backup is taken, the release goes out through the deployment path rather than by hand, and you receive the repository, a README covering hooks, settings and known limits, and a changelog for the version shipped.
What You Receive
The concrete artefacts handed over at the end — files, access and documentation you keep.
- Custom PHP code delivered in a Git repository you own
- Written assessment of the existing codebase where one is being taken over
- Bespoke WordPress plugin or functionality package, installable and versioned
- API integrations with authentication, caching, retries and error logging
- PHP version compatibility fixes verified on a staging clone
- Query and performance profiling report with the fixes applied
- Developer README covering hooks, filters, settings and known limits
- Changelog, semantic version numbering and rollback instructions
Ideal for
If two or three of these sound like your situation, this is the right place to start.
- You need functionality no existing plugin or package actually provides
- A PHP codebase was inherited and nobody currently understands it
- Your host is warning you about an unsupported, end-of-life PHP version
- An integration between WordPress and an internal system needs building
- Pages are slow and the cause is queries rather than images or scripts
- You want code a security reviewer or an acquirer can read without excuses
Tools we use
Standard, portable tooling. The licences, accounts and source stay in your name, so nothing here is a reason you cannot leave.
- PHP
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- MySQL
- MariaDB
- ACF
- Composer
- WP-CLI
- WordPress REST API
- Git
- Kinsta
- Hostinger
- Cloudflare
Related Services
Work that usually runs alongside this one:
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions we get asked most about PHP Development.
Ready to start on PHP Development?
Send us the brief — or just the problem. You will get a written scope, a timeline and a fixed price, usually within one working day.