PHP
PHP runs more of the web than any other server-side language. Modern PHP with JIT compilation, strict typing, and Laravel has matured into a real enterprise platform.
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The language that runs the web
Most PHP work arrives as an existing system: an e-commerce platform, a content estate on WordPress or Drupal, a line-of-business application built years ago and still in service. The ecosystem divides along a version line. Legacy 5.x and 7.x codebases sit on one side, modern PHP 8 on the other, and the distance between them is larger than the version numbers suggest.
Modern PHP is a typed, tooled language. Strict types, enums and readonly properties carry the modelling, PHPStan checks it statically in CI, and Composer manages and audits dependencies. The deployment model is request-scoped and shared-nothing: each request starts clean, which keeps operations simple.
PHP is the right base for web applications, e-commerce, content platforms and the APIs behind them. It is the wrong base for long-lived connections and sustained computation: WebSocket servers, streaming, heavy concurrent processing. Node.js or Go carry those workloads better, and PHP sits comfortably beside either.
PHP was used by 18.9% of respondents to the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey.
PHP ships one minor release each year, and each release receives two years of active support followed by two years of security fixes.
- Web Applications
- E-Commerce
- CMS Platforms
- REST APIs
Our PHP capabilities
PHP 8.x & strict typing
We write new PHP with declare(strict_types=1) as the baseline and hold codebases at PHPStan level 9 in CI, with union types, enums and readonly properties doing the modelling work. On legacy code the analysis level rises incrementally: a recorded baseline lets new code meet the full standard while existing findings are worked down file by file.
- PHP 8.3
- PHPStan
- strict_types
Laravel & Symfony ecosystems
Product builds run on Laravel, with Eloquent for data access, Horizon managing queues, and broadcasting pushing real-time updates to the browser. Where an architecture will not follow Laravel's conventions, Symfony components provide the same capabilities with finer control.
- Laravel 11
- Symfony
- Composer
API & headless architectures
PHP serves well as the back end behind a React or Vue front end, exposed through Laravel API Resources or Symfony's API Platform. The contract is an OpenAPI specification generated from the code, so front-end and back-end teams build against the same definition.
- API Platform
- OpenAPI
- JSON:API
Why Adaca for PHP?
Legacy PHP modernisation
Upgrade PHP 5.x and 7.x codebases to PHP 8.x incrementally, adding strict types and PHPStan analysis.
Laravel at enterprise scale
Laravel with Horizon, Octane for persistent workers, and horizontal scaling for millions of requests daily.
Security-first PHP
OWASP Top 10 protections with parameterised queries, CSRF tokens, CSP headers, and Composer audit.
Observability for PHP
OpenTelemetry tracing, structured JSON logging, and APM integration for request-level visibility.
CMS platform expertise
Custom WordPress and Drupal installations with multisite, custom plugins, and headless API integration.
PHP migration paths
When PHP is not the long-term choice, we plan incremental migrations behind API gateways.
How We Staff It
A PHP brief usually takes one of two shapes. Modernisation work needs engineers whose first skill is reading old code safely: establishing tests, raising analysis levels, and upgrading versions without halting delivery. Product work on Laravel needs full-stack engineers at home across Eloquent, queues and a React or Vue front end.
Engagements start at one engineer, and most PHP teams stay small: one or two people embedded in your process, working to your working day.
Common Questions
Should we modernise our PHP 5 or 7 system or migrate off PHP altogether?
Modernise, in most cases. The upgrade path to PHP 8 is well trodden: Rector automates most of the deprecated patterns, a compatibility pass covers the rest, and the application keeps shipping throughout. The performance and type-system gains arrive without discarding years of accumulated behaviour.
Migration earns its cost in two cases: an architecture with no seams left to work within, or a workload the request model cannot serve. Even then the move runs incrementally behind the live application, one capability at a time, with no big-bang rewrite.
Would you choose PHP for a new build today?
For a web product whose shape Laravel fits, yes. The conventions and the type system make a maintainable base, hosting is inexpensive, and the operational model is among the simplest of any stack. The language's reputation lags the language: PHP written today under strict types and static analysis behaves far closer to a statically typed stack than to the PHP of a decade ago.
How well does AI-assisted development work on a PHP codebase?
The public PHP corpus is one of the largest of any language and one of the most uneven. Decades of PHP 5 tutorials sit alongside modern PHP 8, so an unguided model will reproduce superseded idioms: raw superglobals, string-built SQL, logic inside templates.
What decides the outcome is the correctness signal the codebase gives the tooling. Under strict types, a high PHPStan level and a test suite in CI, generated code is checked mechanically and the era problem largely disappears. On an unanalysed legacy codebase, those guardrails have to be added first.
Do you take on PHP work when PHP is not what you would recommend?
Yes. Much of the PHP estate predates any recommendation anyone could make now, and keeping it secure, current and maintainable is skilled work we staff willingly. A brief for that work draws its shortlist from engineers we already employ or already know, usually within 48 hours, on terms of three, six, nine or twelve months chosen up front.