PHP Contracts

PHP
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring PHP skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited PHP over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 368 300 366
Rank change year-on-year -68 +66 -80
Contract jobs citing PHP 153 335 393
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.52% 0.77% 0.66%
As % of the Programming Languages category 1.54% 2.61% 1.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 262 282
10th Percentile £295 £263 £306
25th Percentile £350 £314 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £420 £425
Median % change year-on-year +1.25% -1.24% -5.56%
75th Percentile £500 £525 £500
90th Percentile £575 £575 £600
UK excluding London median daily rate £410 £419 £400
% change year-on-year -2.15% +4.69% -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 10 10
10th Percentile - £22.50 £24.47
25th Percentile £33.25 £28.44 £43.38
Median hourly rate £34.50 £62.50 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.80% -21.88% +128.57%
75th Percentile £35.75 £72.34 £85.00
90th Percentile - £72.50 £87.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £45.00 £48.74
% change year-on-year -22.22% -7.66% +14.67%

All Programming Languages
UK

PHP falls under the Programming Languages category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring coding skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for coding skills 9,942 12,854 20,901
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.01% 29.49% 35.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,743 9,130 15,092
10th Percentile £360 £350 £400
25th Percentile £419 £425 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £650 £675
90th Percentile £769 £760 £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £489 £500
% change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% +3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 245 485 471
10th Percentile £22.49 £31.25 £26.25
25th Percentile £33.91 £46.25 £50.00
Median hourly rate £62.50 £60.50 £60.70
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -0.33% +21.40%
75th Percentile £68.00 £70.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £78.75 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.87 £62.50 £62.50
% change year-on-year +2.20% - +26.21%

PHP
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing PHP as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for PHP in the UK

PHP
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing PHP.

Daily rate trend for PHP in the UK

PHP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PHP over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for PHP in the UK

PHP
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing PHP.

Hourly rate trend for PHP in the UK

PHP
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PHP within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -71 125 £425 +6.25% 514
Work from Home -21 76 £435 -3.33% 441
UK excluding London -40 65 £410 -2.15% 393
London -43 56 £423 +1.93% 131
Midlands +21 17 £435 +24.29% 83
South East +13 17 £363 -23.68% 72
West Midlands +19 13 £435 +216.36% 40
North of England -5 13 £413 +17.86% 169
East of England +38 8 £450 -5.26% 21
Yorkshire +10 8 £413 +25.00% 54
South West +33 6 £355 +1.29% 41
East Midlands +4 4 £400 +14.29% 42
North West -16 4 - - 107
Scotland +2 2 £417 +7.61% 4
Wales -16 2 £356 -30.83% 9
North East -1 1 - - 9

PHP
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 16 (10.46%) CMS
2 15 (9.80%) Apache
3 14 (9.15%) WordPress
4 10 (6.54%) Drupal
5 6 (3.92%) Confluence
5 6 (3.92%) Tomcat
6 5 (3.27%) Moodle
7 2 (1.31%) IIS
8 1 (0.65%) Apache Solr
8 1 (0.65%) Joomla!
Applications
1 3 (1.96%) Trello
2 2 (1.31%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 3 (1.96%) Magento
1 3 (1.96%) Sage 200
2 2 (1.31%) Shopify
3 1 (0.65%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 43 (28.10%) AWS
2 19 (12.42%) Azure
3 14 (9.15%) SaaS
4 13 (8.50%) GitHub
5 9 (5.88%) Amazon ECS
5 9 (5.88%) IaaS
5 9 (5.88%) PaaS
6 8 (5.23%) Azure DevOps
7 7 (4.58%) GCP
8 6 (3.92%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 6 (3.92%) Amazon Lightsail
8 6 (3.92%) AWS Fargate
8 6 (3.92%) Serverless
9 5 (3.27%) Amazon Bedrock
10 4 (2.61%) Cloudflare
11 3 (1.96%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (1.96%) Cloud Functions
11 3 (1.96%) Figma
11 3 (1.96%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 3 (1.96%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.58%) DNS
2 4 (2.61%) Firewall
2 4 (2.61%) Internet
2 4 (2.61%) SMTP
2 4 (2.61%) SSL
3 2 (1.31%) HTTP
3 2 (1.31%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.65%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (31.37%) MySQL
2 18 (11.76%) MongoDB
3 11 (7.19%) Relational Database
4 10 (6.54%) NoSQL
4 10 (6.54%) SQL Server
5 7 (4.58%) PostgreSQL
6 4 (2.61%) RDBMS
6 4 (2.61%) Redis
7 3 (1.96%) Apache Cassandra
7 3 (1.96%) Cloud Spanner
8 2 (1.31%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (1.31%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (1.31%) DynamoDB
8 2 (1.31%) Oracle Database
8 2 (1.31%) Parquet
9 1 (0.65%) GIS
9 1 (0.65%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.65%) SQLPlus
Development Applications
1 34 (22.22%) Git
2 12 (7.84%) Jenkins
3 10 (6.54%) PHPUnit
4 7 (4.58%) GitLab
4 7 (4.58%) JIRA
4 7 (4.58%) Postman
5 6 (3.92%) Bitbucket
5 6 (3.92%) Selenium
6 5 (3.27%) Subversion
7 4 (2.61%) Appium
7 4 (2.61%) Bitbucket Server
7 4 (2.61%) CircleCI
7 4 (2.61%) Cypress.io
7 4 (2.61%) Gatling
7 4 (2.61%) JMeter
7 4 (2.61%) NeoLoad
7 4 (2.61%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (2.61%) SpecFlow
8 3 (1.96%) Visual Studio Code
9 2 (1.31%) webpack
General
1 44 (28.76%) Social Skills
2 19 (12.42%) Finance
3 10 (6.54%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (5.23%) Advertising
5 6 (3.92%) Public Sector
5 6 (3.92%) Retail
6 5 (3.27%) Banking
6 5 (3.27%) Legal
7 4 (2.61%) Marketing
8 2 (1.31%) Investment Banking
8 2 (1.31%) Korean Language
8 2 (1.31%) Law
9 1 (0.65%) Automotive
9 1 (0.65%) Local Government
9 1 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 92 (60.13%) Developer
2 38 (24.84%) PHP Developer
3 19 (12.42%) Full-Stack Developer
4 17 (11.11%) Senior
5 16 (10.46%) Software Developer
6 13 (8.50%) Support Engineer
7 10 (6.54%) Software Engineer
8 9 (5.88%) Symfony Developer
9 8 (5.23%) Architect
9 8 (5.23%) PHP Symfony Developer
9 8 (5.23%) Senior Developer
10 7 (4.58%) PHP Software Engineer
10 7 (4.58%) React Developer
11 6 (3.92%) DevOps Engineer
12 5 (3.27%) JavaScript Engineer
12 5 (3.27%) Moodle Developer
12 5 (3.27%) Senior Tester
12 5 (3.27%) Tester
13 4 (2.61%) Software Test Engineer
13 4 (2.61%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (26.14%) CSS
2 36 (23.53%) Laravel
2 36 (23.53%) React
3 32 (20.92%) HTML
4 24 (15.69%) Symfony
5 22 (14.38%) .NET
6 18 (11.76%) Vue
7 15 (9.80%) AngularJS
8 14 (9.15%) REST
9 12 (7.84%) RESTful
10 11 (7.19%) LAMP
10 11 (7.19%) Node.js
10 11 (7.19%) Tailwind CSS
11 9 (5.88%) Kafka
11 9 (5.88%) Web Services
12 8 (5.23%) Alpine.js
12 8 (5.23%) JSON
13 7 (4.58%) CSS3
13 7 (4.58%) HTML5
14 5 (3.27%) Yii
Miscellaneous
1 8 (5.23%) Data Protection Act
2 5 (3.27%) Cyber Defence
2 5 (3.27%) Cyber Kill Chain
2 5 (3.27%) e-Learning
2 5 (3.27%) Legacy Code
2 5 (3.27%) VLE
3 4 (2.61%) Cloud Native
3 4 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (1.96%) Management Information System
4 3 (1.96%) Onboarding
4 3 (1.96%) Public Cloud
4 3 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.31%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.65%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.65%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (0.65%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.65%) PropTech
6 1 (0.65%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 16 (10.46%) Linux
2 8 (5.23%) Unix
3 5 (3.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.96%) Android
4 3 (1.96%) Apple iOS
5 2 (1.31%) Windows
6 1 (0.65%) CentOS
6 1 (0.65%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (28.76%) Agile
2 41 (26.80%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (20.92%) DevOps
4 31 (20.26%) Full-Stack Development
5 28 (18.30%) CI/CD
6 22 (14.38%) API Development
6 22 (14.38%) Design Patterns
6 22 (14.38%) OO
7 19 (12.42%) Project Management
7 19 (12.42%) Software Engineering
8 17 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
9 16 (10.46%) Scrum
9 16 (10.46%) Test Automation
10 15 (9.80%) Microservices
10 15 (9.80%) MVC
11 14 (9.15%) Computer Science
11 14 (9.15%) E-Commerce
11 14 (9.15%) Front End Development
12 13 (8.50%) Containerisation
13 11 (7.19%) Fintech
Programming Languages
1 67 (43.79%) JavaScript
2 42 (27.45%) Python
3 34 (22.22%) SQL
4 26 (16.99%) Java
5 18 (11.76%) TypeScript
6 17 (11.11%) Ruby
7 16 (10.46%) C#
8 6 (3.92%) Go
8 6 (3.92%) Perl
9 5 (3.27%) C++
10 4 (2.61%) Scala
11 3 (1.96%) PowerShell
11 3 (1.96%) R
12 2 (1.31%) Bash
12 2 (1.31%) Lua
12 2 (1.31%) PL/SQL
12 2 (1.31%) Rust
12 2 (1.31%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.65%) Dart
Qualifications
1 17 (11.11%) Degree
1 17 (11.11%) Security Cleared
2 16 (10.46%) SC Cleared
3 8 (5.23%) Computer Science Degree
4 7 (4.58%) CEH
5 5 (3.27%) CCSAS
5 5 (3.27%) CREST Certified
5 5 (3.27%) GIAC
5 5 (3.27%) GPEN
5 5 (3.27%) GWAPT
5 5 (3.27%) OSCP
6 4 (2.61%) AWS Certification
6 4 (2.61%) Azure Certification
7 3 (1.96%) CISSP
8 2 (1.31%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (1.31%) Cisco Certification
9 1 (0.65%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (0.65%) CISA
9 1 (0.65%) CISM
9 1 (0.65%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.54%) Accessibility
2 9 (5.88%) QA
3 3 (1.96%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.31%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.31%) GDPR
4 2 (1.31%) HIPAA
5 1 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.65%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.65%) SOC 2
System Software
1 24 (15.69%) Docker
2 2 (1.31%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.65%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.65%) Embedded Firmware
3 1 (0.65%) Firmware
3 1 (0.65%) VirtualBox
3 1 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 19 (12.42%) Kubernetes
2 15 (9.80%) Terraform
3 6 (3.92%) Ansible
4 4 (2.61%) Puppet
5 3 (1.96%) Packer
5 3 (1.96%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.65%) Grafana
6 1 (0.65%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 10 (6.54%) Oracle
1 10 (6.54%) Zend
2 9 (5.88%) Microsoft
3 6 (3.92%) Google
4 4 (2.61%) F5
4 4 (2.61%) SAP
5 3 (1.96%) Sage
6 2 (1.31%) Adobe
6 2 (1.31%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.31%) Sitecore
7 1 (0.65%) GoCardless
7 1 (0.65%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.65%) Splunk
7 1 (0.65%) Virgin Media
7 1 (0.65%) VMware