Legacy PHP modernization · Independent consultancy
Give me the PHP application everyone else is afraid to touch.
I modernize PHP systems that still run the business: version upgrades, framework migrations, refactoring and stabilization of inherited code. Incrementally, in production, without defaulting to a full rewrite.
- Experience
- Developing software since 2007
- Scope
- PHP 5.x → 8.x, Symfony, Laravel, custom frameworks
- Engagement
- Remote, B2B contract, EU time zone
Problems I solve
Does this sound like your application?
Most legacy PHP systems share the same symptoms. They are not a sign of a bad team. They are what happens to software that has been valuable long enough to outlive its original decisions.
- It runs on PHP 5.6 or 7.x, and hosting, security patches or a compliance deadline are forcing the issue.
- The people who wrote it have left. The current team maintains it carefully and changes it as little as possible.
- Every release breaks something unrelated, so releases are rare and large, which makes the next one riskier.
- There are no tests, little documentation, and one person who knows how deployment actually works.
- The framework is home-grown, forked, or no longer maintained, and modern libraries no longer fit.
- A full rewrite has been proposed, estimated, and quietly shelved. Probably more than once.
Services
Modernization work, scoped to the problem at hand
Engagements usually start with an assessment and continue with whichever of these the system actually needs. No step requires stopping feature work or freezing the codebase.
- Codebase assessmentA fixed-scope review with a written report, prioritized steps and estimates.
- PHP version upgradesPHP 5.x or 7.x to a supported 8.x release, without downtime.
- Framework modernization and migrationCustom, Zend, Kohana, Yii, CodeIgniter or old Symfony and Laravel to current versions.
- Refactoring and technical debt reductionTests first, then boundaries, injection and less duplicated logic.
- Stabilizing inherited codebasesMonitoring, reproducible environments and root-cause fixes for systems failing in production.
- Ongoing maintenanceRetained capacity from the person who already knows the codebase.
Contact
Tell me about the system
A few lines are enough: the PHP version, the framework, roughly how large the codebase is, and what is hurting right now. I read every message myself and reply with questions, not a pitch.