Álvaro
Data Scientist
“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”
Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Build your career as a PHP Developer
Projects where the web server is you: which API gets sustained, which legacy gets modernised and who answers when the inherited web breaks. Shakers connects you with teams whose business already runs on PHP and needs exactly your stack.
Going independent with PHP in Spain usually starts in an English marketplace or the forum thread debating whether the language still pays. Neither tells you how project collaboration works in Spanish, with defined scope and an identifiable company.
What follows is not a study route: it is what gets touched on a real brief, what you are asked to prove and where your territory ends.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
+3,000
Tech projects published on Shakers
+90
Tech, Product and Data specialisms are part of Shakers
6 months
Average length of a project with Shakers
4.7/5
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Amelia
AI Agent Developer
“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”
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Luz
Backend Developer & Data Engineer
“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”
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Rubén
Software Developer
“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”
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Alejandro
AI Developer
“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”
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Toño
Product Designer
“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”
Join ShakersWhat you can build as a PHP Developer at Shakers
A PHP Developer builds and maintains the server of the web with the language that powers most sites: APIs and custom systems with Laravel or Symfony, inherited CMS and stores such as WordPress or PrestaShop, and MySQL as the database. Much of the craft is legacy: modernising the old application the business cannot retire. The boundary: interface design belongs to the frontend, administering servers to DevOps, and when the brief adds both layers, the role is full stack.
You touch the server of businesses that already run on PHP: APIs and custom systems with Laravel or Symfony, inherited CMS and stores and the legacy nobody dares to touch. What separates a senior: modernising without breaking, with tests, separate environments and planned migrations, and documenting the handover so the client continues alone.
PHPLaravelSymfonyMySQLWordPressBladeLivewirePHPUnitComposerRESTPrestaShopDrupalJoomlaVueJavaScriptDockerGit
LaravelSymfonyCustom APIsLegacyWordPressMigrations
Free to join, no hidden fees
How Shakers works for talent
Create your profile
Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.
Get your certification
We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.
Match with projects
We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.
Software Engineering projects that live up to your expectations
Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.
Projects that fit you
Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.
Opportunities that come to you
Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.
You build. Shakers handles the rest
Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.
What a PHP Developer delivers at Shakers
The brief arrives with the symptom
The internal web nobody maintains, the home-grown CRM or the inherited store that fails: a concrete PHP problem, not a list of technologies.
Servers that hold up on their own
Documented APIs, updated frameworks and legacy modernised in phases. The client carries on without night calls.
The ecosystem is the craft
PHP and MySQL at the base, Laravel or Symfony as the workshop, Blade and Livewire when the server view is due, and PHPUnit to test the inherited.
Systems told, not tutorials
Having taken PHP to production and knowing how to tell it: which framework, what you migrated, what you tested and what you changed after the first real user.
What gets modernised and what gets rewritten
Prioritise by risk: which module slows the business, which debt blocks the requirement and what can wait. Maintaining legacy is also deciding.
Where your brief ends
You build and modernise the web server; you do not administer infrastructure nor design interfaces. If it asks for full stack or DevOps, you say so at kickoff.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
Is PHP dead or is there still work in Spain?
Alive and measured: 559 active job ads in Spain mention PHP and 683 LinkedIn jobs publish the title. The debate about its death lives in English; the Spanish market keeps publishing the craft.
How do you go independent with PHP in Spain?
With demonstrable work and a channel in Spanish: the marketplace makes you bid against the world and the visible route mixes other countries. Certification opens the door the personal site does not.
What does a PHP Developer do every day?
APIs and systems with Laravel or Symfony, inherited stores and CMS to maintain and old code modernised in phases. The migration that broke nothing was your best deliverable.
Is Laravel a frontend or backend framework?
Backend: it is the workshop where the PHP Developer writes services, APIs and queries. With Blade and Livewire it touches the interface the server renders, but the fine design layer is another craft.
What is better to specialise in, Laravel or Symfony?
142 ads mention Laravel and 136 Symfony: the market treats them as interchangeable. Laravel leads in digital product; Symfony, in large systems. Mastering the one of your typical brief marks your row.
How do you join Shakers as a certified PHP Developer?
You create your profile, pass the certification process and enter the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which PHP projects you take on.
The daily shape of the craft
The endpoint asked for today, the migration released tomorrow and the legacy that gets documented. Less fighting fashion and more software the business maintains without fear.
The tools are the craft
559 active job ads in Spain mention PHP: Laravel (142) and Symfony (136) are its daily workshop, according to Shakers market analysis (n=31,162, September 2026). The real brief is inherited: the internal web or the store nobody dares to touch.
How people get here
Two doors: whoever comes from WordPress and goes down into the language's code, and the generalist backend developer who adopts the LAMP stack. Both arrive with half the craft done.
What this role is not
You do not administer servers nor build the interface. Your product is the PHP in production: its APIs, its frameworks and its legacy. If the brief asks for other territory, you say so at kickoff.
Who you share a PHP project with
A web server is not held up alone: whoever applies the CMS, whoever covers both layers and whoever serves another runtime cross your path.
WordPress Developer
PHP is the language; WordPress, its majority application. When the brief lives in the CMS, the site belongs to whoever develops there: the classic boundary.
Backend Developer
PHP is a language; backend, the layer. When the project grows behind with no CMS or framework in between, the brief moves to their repository.
Full Stack Developer
The market publishes briefs of Laravel with React or Vue in the same package: when the project brings server and interface, this profile covers both layers.
Node.js Developer
The other runtime of the server: the JavaScript that runs behind. Same craft of APIs, different ecosystem; teams cross them in integrations.
Boundaries between these roles are agreed per project: the job title doesn't set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want projects where the web server is yours?
Pass Shakers certification and choose which PHP projects you take on.
