PHP & Laravel Development

Laravel and PHP
your team can build on

We build Laravel applications and APIs, and bring older PHP up to date one part at a time, so your business keeps running while the code improves.

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You’re in good company

A few of the companies we’ve worked with.

When each change takes longer than the last

Many businesses run on a PHP application written years ago, often by people who have since moved on. It works, so it stays. Over time each change takes longer than the last. Some parts have no tests, the automated checks that show when a change breaks something, and nobody wants to touch them. And the version of PHP it was written for, one of the language’s yearly releases, reaches its end of life and gets no more security fixes. Each of these is easier to sort out before the next urgent change.

What we build

Laravel is a framework built on PHP: a ready-made structure for what most applications need, from sign-in to background work. We build on it the way its documentation sets out, so the next Laravel developer finds things where they expect.

  • New applications

    Built in Laravel from the start, with sign-in, permissions and tests in place before the first feature goes live.

  • APIs

    The way other software talks to your application, with sign-in for each app that calls it and limits on how often it can.

  • Admin panels and internal tools

    Screens your team uses to find, check and correct records, each person seeing only what their role allows.

  • Background work

    Emails, imports and reports handed to a queue, so they run in the background and nobody waits on the page, and regular tasks run on a timetable kept in the code.

  • Connections to other systems

    Your application kept in step with the systems around it, such as payments, accounting or a CRM, with each failed call tried again rather than lost.

  • Older PHP made safe to change

    Tests put first around the parts that change most, then those parts tidied where they stand, so changing them carries less risk.

  • Moves to Laravel

    Older PHP, with or without a framework, moved to Laravel a part at a time while the rest keeps running.

  • Version upgrades

    PHP, Laravel and the packages your application uses, the ready-made code it builds on, moved up a version at a time, with your tests run at each step.

  • A faster application

    Slow pages traced to their cause, such as a heavy database query or work that could run in the background, and the biggest causes fixed first.

Bringing older PHP up to date, a part at a time

An older PHP application rarely needs rewriting all at once. We start with tests around what it does today, so a change that breaks something shows up before it goes live.

Then each part is improved where it is, or rebuilt in Laravel and switched over while the rest keeps running, and its old code comes out once the new version has proved itself in daily use.

PHP itself moves up too. For each version, the PHP manual publishes a migration guide listing the changes that can break older code, and asks for them to be tested before production switches over, so we move one version at a time and run your tests at each step.

One older PHP applicationMove the plan along to switch each part over.

The application stays live throughout

Kept on supported versions of PHP and Laravel

PHP and Laravel each bring out a new version about once a year. PHP supports each one for four years, the last two with security fixes only. Laravel fixes bugs in each for 18 months and security issues for two years, and lists the PHP versions each one runs on, so one upgrade can call for the other.

Your packages follow release plans of their own. We keep all of it on supported versions, plan each upgrade well before its version’s support ends, and run your tests before any upgrade goes live.

Start with a review of your application

The review covers its PHP and Laravel versions and how long each is supported, its packages, which parts have tests and which have none, its slowest pages and database queries, its security basics, how changes go live, and the parts nobody wants to touch. You get a written review under three headings, Keep, Fix and Rebuild, and a proposal for the first step.

Not on Laravel yet? The review works the same way for older PHP, with or without a framework.

Questions worth asking

  1. Should we rewrite our application from scratch?

    Usually not. Rewriting a whole application in one go usually means months of work that only pays off on the day you switch, with most of the risk arriving that day. A part at a time carries less of it, and where a rewrite is the better choice, we’ll say so.

    Legacy Modernization

  2. Why Laravel?

    Laravel’s documentation covers much of what most applications need as part of the framework: sign-in, background work in queues, scheduled tasks, checks on incoming data and testing. That means less custom code to write and look after, and an application another Laravel developer can pick up.

  3. Our application isn’t built on Laravel. Can you still work on it?

    Yes. We work on older PHP with or without a framework: tests first, then each part improved where it is or moved to Laravel, as the plan above shows.

  4. Can you take over our existing application?

    Yes. We start with the review above, agree the order of the work with you, and leave the parts that work as they are.

  5. Which PHP version should we be on?

    One that php.net lists as supported, ideally one still in active support, which gets bug fixes as well as security fixes. Which one fits depends on your packages and your Laravel version, since Laravel lists the PHP versions each of its releases runs on.

  6. Can you add tests to code that has none?

    Yes. We start with tests that record what it does today, so every change after that can be checked against them.

    QA & Test Automation

  7. Do you work on WordPress?

    Yes, though not on this page. WordPress is built on PHP, but building sites on it is a different kind of work.

    WordPress Development

  8. Can you make our application faster?

    Yes. We start with how it performs for the people using it, trace what slows it down, from the screen to the database, and fix the biggest causes first, so every fix is measured, not assumed.

    Performance & Optimization

  9. Who hosts it?

    Hosting and the platform beneath your application are a service of their own.

    Cloud, DevOps & Security

  10. How do you keep it secure?

    We keep PHP, Laravel and your packages on supported versions and apply their security fixes, and use the protections Laravel’s documentation sets out, such as checks against forged requests and permission rules set in the code. What we build also gets threat modeling, code review and checks in every build.

    Application Security

  11. What does it cost?

    It depends on how much of the application the work touches and how much of it already has tests. Before any work starts, you get a written proposal: the scope, the price or rate, and how you pay.

    Pricing

  12. Can you add Laravel developers to our own team?

    Yes. We introduce Laravel and PHP developers matched to your application, working in your time zone, and you choose who joins.

    Hire Laravel Developers

Laravel is a trademark of Laravel Holdings Inc. Webair isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Laravel or the PHP Group.

Let’s build it better

Tell us what your application does and what it needs next. We’ll suggest the first step.

Thanks, we’ll be in touch soon.

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