Vetted engineers with verified commercial track record in PHP
Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
Full-Stack Developer, Fractional CTO — Websites, Apps, Servers, Databases, AI, SEO & QA
Full-stack developer working across the entire stack — websites, apps, servers, databases, AI integrations, SEO, and QA. Languages & Core: writes code in JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, PHP, Go, and Rust. Architects scalable systems for large-scale projects. Frontend & Interfaces: builds websites and web applications with React and Next.js. Crafts responsive interfaces with Tailwind CSS, Radix UI and Shadcn, adds smooth animations with Framer Motion, and interactive charts with Recharts. SEO Audit & On-Page Optimization: semantic keyword research, resolving technical indexing issues, and optimizing page load speeds. Structures page architecture, meta tags, and multi-language support (i18n). Copywriting & Content Strategy: writes technical articles, drafts precise content briefs for writers, and develops content plans. QA & Testing: full-cycle testing for websites, web services, and Android apps — manual QA for UI/UX and business logic, plus automated testing with Jest, Vitest, Playwright and E2E. Backend, Cloud & Databases: complex API integrations of any scale. Builds servers with Node.js (Express, Fastify). Works with PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB, ORMs (Prisma, Drizzle), and cloud infrastructure (Supabase, Firebase, Cloudflare). Browser Extensions & Automation: develops Manifest V3 browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and other browsers. Builds web scrapers for complex data extraction using Puppeteer and Playwright. AI & Intelligent Agents: builds custom AI agents and integrates LLMs from OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude via API, including Claude Code setups. Servers & DevOps: Linux (Ubuntu) and VPS administration — setup, updates, real-time monitoring, secure process isolation, Nginx, PM2, and CI/CD deployment via GitHub Actions. Telegram Bots: develops advanced Telegram bots (Telegraf, Grammy) integrated with AI, payment gateways, Google Sheets, and crypto exchanges. Desktop Applications: builds cross-platform software for Windows and macOS using Electron and Rust. Additional expertise: site development and customization with WordPress and Astro.
Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine
Senior Backend Engineer | AI Engineering | PHP, Python, LLM Applications
Senior backend engineer working across PHP and Python, with a growing focus on AI engineering: building LLM-powered application features on top of existing backend systems and APIs.
PHP Developer
PHP developer with hands-on experience building and maintaining custom web applications and e-commerce back-ends. Comfortable owning a project end-to-end, from database schema to deployment.
Traditional IT consulting agencies routinely bill $140 to $240 per hour for backend PHP development. Much of this fee covers overhead: business analysts, delivery managers, and corporate sales retainers. When an internal application suffers from deadlocks or needs a major framework upgrade, communicating through account managers adds days of latency.
Hiring an independent senior PHP developer through ProofDevs pairs you directly with the engineer profiling execution bottlenecks, writing automated PHPUnit tests, and optimizing database transactions.
| Engagement Metric | IT Consulting Agency | ProofDevs Independent Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly Rate | $140 – $240 / hr | $45 – $95 / hr |
| Engineering Seniority | Often junior/mid engineers behind senior sales leads | Vetted senior engineers with shipped production track records |
| Contractual Lock-in | Multi-month minimums and discovery retainers | Direct hour tracking or fixed milestone agreements |
| Communication Path | Client → Account Manager → PM → Developer | Direct technical communication with the engineer |
| Code Delivery | Staged deliveries subject to scope change fees | Direct pull requests to your Git repository |
Modern PHP (PHP 8.2 and 8.3) operates with strict typing, JIT compilation, fibers, and constructor property promotion. However, many enterprise organizations struggle with legacy procedural codebases built a decade ago on PHP 5.6 or 7.x, where deprecations prevent hosting on supported cloud infrastructure.
Senior backend developers execute phased modernization strategies: encapsulating legacy scripts into domain-driven services, introducing automated regression suites, and transitioning monolithic services to modern Laravel or Symfony foundations without downtime.
For high-throughput systems, engineers leverage asynchronous runtimes like Laravel Octane (powered by Swoole or RoadRunner), keeping applications resident in memory to serve tens of thousands of requests per second.
Senior PHP developers rely on strict PSR coding standards, Composer dependency management, and static analysis tools like PHPStan (level 8+) or Psalm. They write defensive backend logic that prevents transaction deadlocks, manages memory usage during large CLI batch jobs, and enforces data consistency.
Architecture Rule: The N+1 Eloquent Query Pitfall
Lazy loading relationships within nested loops generates hundreds of unnecessary database queries per request. Senior PHP engineers enforce strict eager loading (`Model::with()`) and configure automated query detectors in CI/CD to prevent database performance degradation.
Backend tasks require predictable scoping. Below are historical timeline benchmarks for standard commercial PHP engineering tasks.
Verified PHP engineers on ProofDevs set their rates between $45 and $95 per hour based on framework specialization and backend architectural experience. Clients retain 100% intellectual property ownership of all source code, unit tests, Docker configs, and deployment scripts.
You will receive matches with available senior PHP engineers within 2 to 4 hours of submitting your technical requirements.
Rates range from $45 to $95 per hour, set directly by each independent engineer based on their experience with Laravel, Symfony, or legacy modernization.
Yes. Codebase audits, adding automated regression tests, and executing phased zero-downtime upgrades are standard workflows for our senior engineers.
Yes. Profiles indicate specialization in Laravel (including Horizon, Octane, and Livewire), Symfony components, or standalone PHP architectures.
You own 100% of all Git repositories, commit histories, CI/CD pipelines, and configuration keys upon milestone approval.
