How to hire a freelance PHP Developer?
Hiring a freelance PHP developer is a cost-effective solution for you if you are looking to streamline operations and access top-tier talent without the expenses associated with managing an in-house team. In-house development teams can become exorbitant, from recruitment and training to managing salaries, benefits, and overhead. As PHP remains in the top 10 most used programming languages in 2024, many businesses are now choosing freelancers.
In this blog, we will walk you through the process of hiring a freelance PHP developer, explore the key benefits of opting for freelance or remote PHP talent, and address common challenges businesses face in this engagement model. Additionally, we will showcase how Global Squirrels simplifies the process, helping you find PHP developers and manage them effectively for a productive and seamless working relationship.
How do freelance PHP developers help your business?
Freelance PHP developers play an essential role in shaping the modern web development landscape by offering specialized services that utilize the PHP programming language. This gives you dynamic and secure web applications.
Web development
A freelance PHP developer creates dynamic websites and web applications by writing server-side code. These platforms are interactive, user-friendly, and in alignment with business goals, and they ensure it. For companies seeking cost-effective and skilled solutions, hiring a remote PHP developer can streamline web development projects.
Database integration
When you hire PHP developers, you gain expertise in integrating databases like MySQL into applications. They create efficient schemas and write queries that make use of and retrieve data smoothly without causing any backend difficulty.
API integration
Freelance PHP developers frequently work with APIs to incorporate third-party services into web applications. The integration increases functionality and user experience, allowing businesses to deliver value-added features faster.
Troubleshooting & maintenance
A remote PHP developer ensures that your applications run smoothly by performing regular debugging, troubleshooting issues, and maintaining existing code. It is important that you receive this ongoing support to help minimize downtime and keep your applications running.
Performance optimization
Performance is critical in web applications, and freelance PHP developers excel in identifying bottlenecks, implementing caching mechanisms, and improving speed and efficiency. Hiring a remote PHP developer ensures your application remains competitive and user-friendly.
Security implementation
Web development is non-negotiable when it comes to security. When you hire PHP developers, you benefit from their focus on protecting applications against vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other threats.
Benefits of hiring freelance PHP developers
Access to global talent
Engaging a freelance PHP developer gives businesses access to a diverse talent pool worldwide. This global reach allows companies to find PHP developers with specialized expertise that may not be locally available while benefiting from fresh perspectives and innovative solutions.
Focus on core business functions
When you hire PHP developers for specific tasks, your internal teams can focus on core business priorities like strategy, marketing, and customer relations. Delegating PHP development to remote PHP developers ensures productivity and allows your team to concentrate on what matters most.
Expertise & quality
Many freelance PHP developers are highly skilled in frameworks like Laravel. With their specialized expertise, they produce high-quality code, abide by practices, and develop secure and scalable applications as per your needs.
Challenges of hiring freelance PHP developers
Compliance issues
Being compliant when working with international freelance PHP developers can be a significant challenge, especially with tax regulations like the W-8 BEN form. It is this kind of form, however, which, if not correctly prepared, usually results in errors for non-U.S. freelancers who want to claim tax treaty benefits and who wish to establish their foreign status. Submissions that are incomplete or incorrect could penalize businesses, place a burden on them to pay more in withholding taxes, and miss out on tax treaty benefits.
Freelancer commitment challenges
Freelancers, including those specializing as freelance PHP developers, often work on short-term engagements and are free to move on at any time. If you hire PHP developers, this lack of long-term commitment can result in lost time and resources spent on onboarding and training. However, freelancers who stand out are often juggling multiple clients and, therefore, may experience delays, inconsistent quality, and misaligned expectations. Without formal agreements, keeping a remote PHP developer focused and aligned with project goals can be difficult, adding complexity to project management.
High costs of wire transfers
Paying offshore freelancers, like a freelance PHP developer, via wire transfers can be costly, averaging $75 per transaction, excluding exchange rate margins and admin time. If you are looking to find PHP developers or manage a remote PHP developer, these recurring costs strain budgets and create inefficiencies. Additionally, they are time-intensive in dealing with tax withholdings for freelancers, and delays and errors in payments can make freelancers unhappy and unproductive, which also complicates the relationship.
How does Global Squirrels help you hire PHP developers who meet all your business requirements?
Global Squirrels, as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, allows you to find, hire, and manage freelance PHP developers who meet all your business requirements. Our platform handles all HR functions, including timely payments, performance management, timesheet and task management, and compliance with local and international tax and labor laws.
Let us discuss this in more detail and see how our platform eliminates all your challenges.
- Our platform ensures that your business will not face any legal risks. This is because Global Squirrels pays attention to all the local and international labor and tax laws by prioritizing and analyzing them. Our platform ensures that the freelancers you hire fill out all the required forms, such as the W-8BEN. In any case, any forms that need to be submitted to the IRS will be done by our platform.
- Global Squirrels ensures that the freelance PHP developer you hire is dedicated to your business. This is done with the help of our freelancer hiring plans, where our platform auto-generates freelance offer letters that include clauses that require them to work exclusively for your projects. This guarantees that the freelancer does not work on any other project during this period.
- You can rest assured that your freelancer will be paid on time as our platform offers a secured payment system that is processed through a federally regulated electronic network.
Freelancer Purple plan
Ideal for businesses that have already sourced a freelance PHP developer, this plan streamlines the onboarding process and handles all administrative tasks. We cover it all, from managing payments to compliance with labor and tax laws, tasks and timesheets, performance monitoring, and contracts. The Purple Plan ensures your remote PHP developer works efficiently while you focus on your core business operations.
Freelancer Orange plan
Looking to hire PHP developers? The Orange Plan helps you find PHP developers tailored to your business needs. You specify the job title, budget, skills, education level, and your desired hiring countries. We deliver pre-screened and background-checked profiles of top candidates within 2-5 working days. Once you have found and interviewed your preferred candidate, our platform will take over all HR functions, including payments, compliance, and performance monitoring.
Are you ready to hire top freelancer PHP developers? Request a demo today!
