‘PHP is about as exciting as your toothbrush. You use it every day, it does the job, it is a simple tool, so what? Who would want to read about toothbrushes?,’ said Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of PHP. In 2022, this 30-year-old ‘toothbrush’ is still powering huge platforms such as Facebook, Wikipedia, MailChimp, or WordPress. Even though – popularity-wise – programming languages such as Python, Java, or JavaScript have outranked PHP, PHP is still the talk of the digital neighborhood. And for good reasons! If you are wondering which is the connection between Eastern Europe and PHP developers, this article makes an excellent starting point for exploring the Eastern European IT talent pool.
An introduction to PHP
PHP (i.e. Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose scripting language ideal for web development. What justifies its popularity and relevance today? Here are its main benefits:
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- Open-source, scalable, and outstandingly fast
- Embeddable into HTML
- Compatible with the main operating systems
- Supports most web servers and a wide variety of databases
- Access to a wide variety of frameworks: Laravel, CodeIgnite, Symfony, CakePHP, Laminas Project, etc.
- Ideal for server-side and command line scripting, writing desktop apps, generating dynamic page content, collecting form data, sending/receiving cookies, encrypting data, controlling user access, etc.
- Large-scale community support and extensive library
- Simple for newcomers, yet offering advanced features for professional programmers
Of course, not everything is rosy. Compared with other programming languages, PHP may lack versatility, security, or debugging tools. However, its prevalence is unquestionable. According to the PHP vs. Python report published by W3Techs, PHP is definitely stealing the show:
According to the same source, popularity- and traffic-wise, PHP still holds a relevant position on the market and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon:
Nonetheless, hiring a skilled PHP developer is no mean feat. In fact, according to a press release by Gartner in September 2021, IT executives place lack of talent availability as a more relevant barrier than security or implementation costs. And this is where Eastern Europe comes onto the stage, offering a quality IT crop ready for harvesting.
What makes Eastern Europe such fertile soil for IT specialists?
The Top IT outsourcing destinations of Eastern Europe: Market report published by N-iX, restates the obvious: the COVID-19 pandemic broke the barrier between local and global talent, allowing Eastern Europe to put itself forward as an extensive, versatile, and highly competitive tech talent pool. Countries such as Romania, Moldavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, or Poland have turned into hotspots for IT recruitment. Outsourcing to Eastern Europe has become a common practice among many entrepreneurs, regardless of their location. This practice has been fueled by the increasing number of software development companies located there:
Source: https://www.n-ix.com/it-outsourcing-destinations-eastern-europe-market-report/
Let’s take a look at some stats that the NiX report highlights. Given the war situation that currently affects Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus – making it difficult to hire IT talent in these countries, – we will only focus on EU Eastern European countries.
Poland
Poland boasts over 450,000 ICT professionals and produces over 17,000 ICT graduates each year:
Romania
The Romanian IT industry not only counts on the expertise of over 192,000 ICT specialists but, as the report highlights, the export of IT and software services represents 1.9% of the country’s GDP.
The Czech Republic
The Czech Republic boasts over 199,000 IT professionals and engineers and produces over 4,600 ICT graduates each year:
Hungary
Hungary boasts over 175,000 ICT specialists, managing to attract huge companies such as Deloitte, Nokia, Microsoft, or Siemens.
The stats speak for themselves. However, tech skills can only be achieved if they are based on a solid STEM-oriented educational system. Moreover, tech expertise needs to be supported by other essential skills such as English proficiency, the ability to integrate within a team, interpersonal skills, etc. For instance, no less than 7 Romanian universities are included among the best Computer Science institutions in the world. In Poland, there are over 500 universities that offer students the possibility to pursue a tech-related career. When it comes to English proficiency, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, or Bulgaria, rank among the first 30 most skilled countries. Additionally, apart from English, Eastern European developers generally speak 2-3 foreign languages, the most common ones being French, Russian, and German.
Eastern European developers offer a wide range of services. In NiX’s report, PHP ranks fourth:
Advantages of hiring a PHP developer in Eastern Europe
Now that we have seen some of the most relevant Eastern European countries to which companies from all over the world can turn to for IT sourcing, it is time to highlight the main benefits of hiring a PHP developer:
- Access to an impressive talent pool that ensures competency diversity
- Attractive quality-cost ratio
- Growing business environment geared towards cutting-edge innovation and versatility
- If your company is based in the U.S., Canada, or Western Europe, there will be minimum cultural discrepancies
Where should you look for skilled PHP developers?
Developing a powerful technology hub of the likes of Eastern Europe doesn’t happen overnight. It takes decades of constant effort. As a top-rated IT outsourcing company in Eastern Europe itself, Northell highlights four top outsourcing destinations:
Romania
Thanks to factors such as the high technical skills of its developers, governmental incentives, high English proficiency, etc., Romania has managed to attract prominent corporations such as Oracle or Microsoft.
Poland
Ranked 3rd in HackerRank, Poland is one of the most competitive outsourcing destinations in Eastern Europe.
Hungary
Hungarian developers are not only highly skilled in PHP but they have also managed to attract prominent companies such as Nokia, Siemens, or Deloitte.
Czech Republic
Offering a diverse talent pool, the Czechs are highly skilled in Java, PHP, and Ruby.
Key aspects to keep in mind before outsourcing to Eastern Europe
Finding and retaining talent – be it freelancers or development companies – is a complex process. Of course, each company has its own particular needs. And each project is a world of its own. However, there are several actions you can take to prevent future ‘tech headaches’:
- Clearly define your needs
Clearly defining your needs will help you determine if you need an expert, mid-level, or beginner PHP developer, thus allowing you to cut costs.
- Get acquainted with the local job market
Outsourcing in another country requires a deep understanding of the local job market. For instance, getting acquainted with the job search platforms the local IT talent uses to advertise itself. For instance, Romanian developers use platforms such as LinkedIn, Joberty, UpWork, or BestJobs to advertise their services and look for vacancies.
- You can use technical skills screening software to assess proficiency
There are various options available out there: HackerRank, Codility, CoderByte, WeCP, CodeSignal,Toggl, etc.
Wrap up
Around for over 30 years now, PHP doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. At least not in the near future. In fact, it keeps powering elite organizations such as WordPress, Slack, Wikipedia, MailChimp, or Facebook. Boasting fertile soil for tech development and innovation, Eastern Europe is coming forward as an attractive IT outsourcing market, providing businesses from all over the world with top-notch services at more than competitive prices.
