Fintech back-office in London
A payments-adjacent startup needed its Laravel admin panel moved off shared hosting onto a Docker VPS with a private database, to satisfy a partner's EU data-residency requirement before a compliance review.
Laravel & PHP Development in the UK
Programming Services · United Kingdom
Laravel & PHP development in the UK covers APIs, back-office systems and WooCommerce stores built and operated by the 4hosting team, on our own cPanel and VPS infrastructure. We write the application, patch and upgrade it, and hand over documentation your own developers can pick up at any point.
- Laravel, Symfony and WooCommerce delivered end to end
- Runs on cPanel (LAMP) or Docker on VPS
- PHP version upgrades and security patches included
- cPanel 1h/month from Advanced; VPS 1–8h/monthIncluded hours
- Frankfurt, in the EUData centres
- EUR, VAT 20% broken out on every invoiceBilling
- Free white-glove migration, typically under 24 hoursMigration
01
What we build
We build APIs, admin back-offices and e-commerce sites in Laravel or Symfony, and we take over WooCommerce stores that have grown past what a shared plan can carry. Where a codebase is still on PHP 7, we plan and run the migration to PHP 8, updating dependencies and rewriting deprecated calls without breaking existing integrations. Every handover includes the repository, environment files and a short runbook so a future developer, internal or external, understands the deployment without asking us first.
- New APIs and back-office panels in Laravel or Symfony
- WooCommerce catalogue, checkout and payment gateway work
- PHP 7 to 8 migration with dependency and syntax updates
- Queues, scheduled jobs and third-party integrations
02
Where it runs
Smaller Laravel and WordPress sites run comfortably on cPanel, with daily backups and Let's Encrypt SSL already part of the plan. Once an application needs queue workers, a message broker or a staging environment that mirrors production exactly, we containerise it and move it to a VPS in Docker, where deployments are repeatable and rollback is a single command. Both routes sit in the same Frankfurt data centre, so the choice is about the application's shape, not about where it lives.
03
UK context
UK teams building on Laravel or WooCommerce usually need to show a payment provider or an enterprise customer that infrastructure sits inside the EU, and that a GDPR-aligned data processing agreement is in place, which ours is. Invoices carry EUR pricing with UK VAT at 20% broken out as a separate line, and support runs in English. When a store or an internal tool is still running on PHP 7 or an unsupported WordPress theme, that is usually the first thing we flag before doing any new feature work.
04
How the included hours get used
The monthly hours on cPanel and VPS plans are the ones our Laravel and PHP clients spend most often on version upgrades, security patches after a CVE disclosure, and integrations with payment or invoicing providers. You request the work from the client panel under Programming Services, propose a deadline, and we deliver against it. Hours do not roll over month to month, so most teams plan a migration or a larger refactor for a quieter month and keep routine patching for the rest.
How we work
Request from the panel
You open a request under Programming Services, describe the Laravel or PHP task and propose a deadline that fits your release schedule.
Scope and timeline
We confirm the approach, estimate the hours against your monthly quota, and tell you upfront what falls outside it and gets billed separately.
Delivery
We build or migrate the code on a staging copy, run it against your test suite where one exists, and deploy once you have signed off the result.
Handover
You receive the repository, environment configuration and a short runbook covering deployment, rollback and where the queue workers or cron jobs live.
Use cases
WooCommerce retailer in Manchester
A homeware retailer's Black Friday traffic was timing out on cPanel; we moved checkout and catalogue caching to Redis on VPS and kept the store on PHP 8.3 with tested plugin compatibility.
Professional services firm in Leeds
A legal services provider needed a client intake system built in Symfony with document uploads and audit logging, integrated with their existing invoicing tool over an API.
Technology stack
- PHP 8.3
- Laravel
- Symfony
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- MySQL
- Redis
- Nginx
- Docker
Every subscription includes monthly DevOps, CyberSecurity and Programming hours: 1 h from the cPanel Advanced plan up, 1–8 h on VPS, 5–10 h on dedicated servers depending on the plan, and 10 h on GPU servers. Hours are requested from your client panel, don't roll over to the next month, and anything above the quota is accepted and billed separately.
Frequently asked questions
Can Laravel or WooCommerce run on shared cPanel hosting?
Yes, for most sites cPanel with LiteSpeed and a MySQL database is enough, and it comes with daily backups and free SSL. We move a site to a VPS with Docker once it needs queue workers, a message broker, or a staging environment that exactly mirrors production.
Do you handle PHP 7 to PHP 8 migrations?
Yes. We audit the codebase and dependencies first, flag deprecated syntax and unsupported packages, run the upgrade on a staging copy, and only switch production over once your test suite and a manual pass both come back clean.
What does a Laravel developer's time cost in the UK?
We don't quote day rates; the monthly hours already included in your plan cover most upgrades, patches and integrations, and anything beyond that quota is billed separately by the hour rather than as a fixed agency day rate.
Is our infrastructure UK or EU data-resident?
Our data centre is in Frankfurt, inside the EU. We provide a GDPR data processing agreement and standard contractual clauses on request, which covers the UK-or-EU-residency requirement most UK buyers ask about.
Can you take over an existing Laravel or WordPress project?
Yes. We start with a short technical audit of the repository, dependencies and hosting setup, agree what needs fixing first, usually security patches or a version upgrade, and take over routine maintenance from there.
How is WooCommerce different from a custom Laravel build?
WooCommerce is faster to launch and easier to hand to a non-technical team for day-to-day catalogue and order management. A custom Laravel build makes sense once you need workflows, integrations or performance a plugin-based store can't give you.
Talk to us about your PHP or Laravel project
Tell us what you're running today and what needs to change. We'll scope the work against your plan's included hours and give you a clear delivery date.