Freelance PHP developer & DevOps consultant · Surrey, UK
Bespoke web apps, internal tools, APIs and payments, plus the hosting, deployments, monitoring and security that keep them running. One experienced engineer who can design it, build it, and keep it running.
01 / How I help
Whether you need a web application built, a manual process removed, or confidence your systems won't fall over, it usually falls into one of these.
Off-the-shelf software doesn't quite fit how you work, and bending your business around it costs more than it should.
Proof: I maintain open-source libraries for Stripe, SAML and Google SSO.
Stop doing by hand what a computer could do reliably, every time.
Proof: open-source tooling for AWS, Docker Compose and database migrations (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
Know about problems before your customers do, and know you can recover if the worst happens.
Proof: open-source tools for nftables firewalls and rate limiting.
02 / Examples of work
Client work is confidential, so these are anonymised. I'm happy to sign an NDA and go into more detail on a call.
Membership organisation · Payments
No platform taking a cut of every subscription
Member records in Excel files and dues chased by hand, replaced with a bespoke portal that takes payments through Stripe and works exactly the way the client wanted.
Read the case study: Bespoke membership portalResearch project · Mapping and search
Complex searches without writing a line of SQL
An old Microsoft Access database replaced with a searchable map, where users can find items by any combination of properties and areas, and staff enter data through a CMS that won't accept mistakes.
Read the case study: Geospatial analysis toolSoftware supplier · Deployment
Releases in seconds, not hours
Hours of error-prone manual releases replaced with deployments that take seconds, with each of the client's customers on their own server and security fixes rolled out to all of them within hours.
Read the case study: Automated deployments“Stuart created an entirely new, secure and affordable IT eco-system for our company. Complete with distributed deployment platform for our SaaS production systems, giving us global reach. His attention to detail and fast turnaround is impressive. An invaluable asset to us.”
03 / Working with me
04 / Pricing
I charge a flat hourly rate, billed to the minute, so you only pay for the time your work actually takes. There's no fixed scope to agree up front, so you're free to change your mind as the work goes on. The more hours you need in a month, the lower your rate.
Asking me for advice, or keeping an eye on your systems and resolving alerts as they come up.
£70/hour
Regular work, such as an ongoing project or looking after your systems month to month.
Let's talk
You need me full time for several months or more.
£45/hour
05 / Open source
I publish reusable PHP libraries that I build and use in real projects. A few highlights:
06 / FAQ
Yes. There's no minimum, so a small fix is billed only for the minutes it takes, and it's often the best way to start working together.
A flat hourly rate, billed to the minute. There's no retainer or monthly minimum, and the rate goes down in months where you need more hours. I'm happy to give a rough estimate before we start. If you need a detailed line-by-line breakdown, I can prepare one, but that time is billed like any other work. When I suggest a small piece of work myself, I'll sometimes offer a cap with it, such as "I think this will only take an hour, but I'll cap it at two in case something comes up".
Because it gives you the freedom to change your mind. A fixed price means agreeing a detailed scope before any work starts, and then every new idea or unexpected discovery turns into a debate about what was "in scope". That debate comes up on almost every fixed-price project, and the time spent writing and arguing over scope documents is time not spent on your system. Fixed quotes also have to include a buffer for risk, so you often pay for problems that never happen. With an hourly rate you can add, drop or rethink anything as you go, and you only pay for the work that was actually done.
Usually less than it looks. A salary pays for every hour someone is employed: holidays, sick days, meetings, training, waiting for the next task, and the ordinary gaps in any working day. On top of that come National Insurance, pension, equipment and recruitment. My invoice only has the minutes I spent working on your project, so a 10-hour invoice means 10 hours of focused work. For a lot of businesses that works out cheaper than a part-time hire, and you can stop whenever you like.
The hosting and infrastructure, yes, as long as it runs on Linux. I don't support Windows servers. I often start with a review of what's there, then fix the most urgent risks first. Whatever your system is written in, I can package it with Docker, set up automatic deployments and look after the servers, working alongside your own developers. On the code side, my focus is on building new applications, so taking over an existing codebase is something I'd look at case by case. If a system has fallen badly out of date, patching it often costs more in the long run than replacing it. If that's the case, I'll tell you honestly.
Often, yes. Email, file sharing, chat, passwords and VPNs can all run on hardware you control, for a fixed cost, with your data out of reach of the US CLOUD Act. It does need setting up properly and looking after, which is what I do. My self-hosting guide goes through each one.
PHP, using a modern MVC framework. That's usually Slim 4. It's small and rarely changes, so there's far less upgrade work over the years than with larger frameworks that bring out a new major version every year or two. I'm still happy to use Symfony or Laravel where they suit the project better. Styling is written in Sass (or Less), and when a page needs to do a lot in the browser, I write that in plain TypeScript. I don't take on projects in other languages, such as Python, Ruby, Go or Node.js.
Front-end frameworks such as React, and the build tools around them, go out of date quickly. They also pull in hundreds of third-party packages that each need security updates, leaving apps built on them needing costly rework just to stay current and safe. My pages are put together on the server and sent to the browser ready to use, so a site can be maintained for years.
No. You own the code, and it's documented so anyone can pick it up. For hosting, I can set everything up in your own cloud or hosting accounts, so it belongs to you from day one. Or you can host with me, which is usually better value and comes with automated backups and fast snapshots. Hosting on my servers can't be handed over, but if you ever want to leave, I can move you to your own accounts or build you a set-up like mine on dedicated servers, billed at my usual rate.
No. IR35 only applies to contractors who work through their own limited company. I'm a self-employed sole trader running my own business: I use my own equipment, organise my own time, and bill for the work done.
Describe the problem in a few lines. I'll reply within one working day to arrange a free 30-minute call.
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