Freelance Laravel Developer UK
Hire a freelance Laravel developer in the literal sense: one senior engineer, UK-based, UK hours, who will read the codebase and stay on the hook for production.
Freelance here means you can name the person
A lot of “hire a Laravel developer UK” results are agencies with a Laravel case study from 2019, or marketplaces that will swap the engineer mid-project. This page is the commercial offer for working with Oliver Burton directly.
The work is Laravel as an application platform: HTTP, queues, jobs, billing, APIs, and the integrations that surround a real business. It is not a generic web-development menu with Laravel listed among six other frameworks.
What freelance Laravel work looks like in practice
Greenfield still happens — a product API, an internal operations tool, a billing service that should never have been a spreadsheet. More often the brief is mixed: keep production up, add the integration that sales already promised, and stop the PHP version rotting.
If the previous developer has left, start on Laravel Rescue rather than a feature list. Features on an unreproducible app are how you buy a weekend incident.
How this differs from an agency bench
There is no account manager translating. There is also no illusion of infinite capacity. If the work needs a team, I will say so rather than staff it with fiction.
Proof without theatre
Selected, anonymised work lives in case studies. No fake client counts. No aggregate star ratings. Education is listed on the profile because it is real: MSc Web Applications Development (University of Plymouth), BSc Computer Science (Nottingham Trent University).
UK-based, UK hours, existing applications welcome
Work is remote by default, in UK time. Occasional on-site is possible when the job needs it: a kickoff, a warehouse floor, or a handover with the last person who still has the keys. The default is Git, a call when it helps, and a named engineer who will still be the same person in six months.
Full-stack Laravel — APIs, admin, and the front-end you already have
Most Laravel applications that earn money have an admin, a customer portal, or a Vue, Livewire or Inertia front. I work across that: Eloquent and queues, REST APIs and Laravel Sanctum, Blade/Livewire or an inherited React/Angular SPA, Redis, Horizon, and the Laravel Forge or CI deploy path you already run. The constraint is the live product, not a stack fashion list.
Internal tools, SaaS billing, and the unglamorous domain
Typical briefs: an internal operations tool that replaced a spreadsheet; a SaaS billing path on Stripe that must not double-charge; an admin staff actually use; an API a mobile app or ERP has to trust. Greenfield still happens. Inherited production is more common.
Process
- Scope the actual job Build, takeover, upgrade, or retainer. Mixing all four in one quote is how projects go silent.
- See the repo or the constraints composer.json, hosting, and whether money moves through the app. A call without artefacts is optional.
- Written edge What is in, what is out, what depends on a third party, what happens if the previous developer never replies.
- Work in the open PRs, notes, and a deploy path you can still use if I am hit by a bus.
Questions that usually come up
What does a Laravel developer do?
On this practice it means owning a Laravel application as a product: domain logic, APIs, queues, billing, integrations, deploys and the unglamorous operational work that keeps it supportable. It is not u201cbuilding a website in PHPu201d.
Can you take over an existing Laravel application?
Yes. Takeover is a large part of the work: access inventory, local reproducibility, production stabilisation, then a written risk map. See Laravel Rescue.
Do you work with applications built by other developers?
That is the default. Inherited, abandoned, agency-built, freelance-built and AI-rushed codebases are all in scope, provided we can get enough access to run the app.
Can you work with our internal development team?
Yes, as a senior counterpart: pairing on upgrades, reviewing PRs, owning a bounded workstream, or covering production while they hire. I will not pretend to be a ten-person bench.
Do you offer Laravel support retainers?
Yes, for applications that are already in production and need a named engineer. See Laravel Support and Laravel Maintenance.
Can you upgrade an old Laravel version?
Yes, including multi-version jumps, with tests first and package compatibility as the usual bottleneck. See Laravel Upgrades.
Can you integrate Laravel with our ERP, CRM or accounting software?
Where the integration is a real data-flow problem (webhooks, queues, idempotency, failure modes), yes. I do not mass-produce connector pages for products I have not implemented.
How much does a Laravel developer cost in the UK?
It depends on whether you are buying a bounded piece of work, a takeover, or a retainer u2014 not a day-rate from a comparison table. There is no fake price list on this site.
Do you provide fixed-price Laravel development?
Yes when the edge of the work is knowable (an upgrade path, an audit, a defined integration). Takeovers often start as a time-boxed discovery because the repo is the specification.
Can you audit an AI-generated or rapidly built Laravel codebase?
Yes. Those codebases often boot and even look tidy while missing characterisation tests, webhook verification, and an upgrade story. An audit is usually the right first engagement.
Do you work remotely, and in UK hours?
Remote is the default, in UK working hours. Occasional on-site is possible when a kickoff, warehouse floor, or a handover with the last person who still has the keys actually needs it. Written record first; a call when it unblocks something.
Do you work with Livewire, Inertia, Vue or the TALL stack?
Yes, where the product already uses them or they are the honest fit. I also inherit React and Angular front-ends that already talk to a Laravel API. The constraint is the live application, not a stack fashion list.
Can you work on Laravel Forge, Envoyer, AWS or our existing hosting?
Yes. Support and deploys follow the hosting you already have u2014 Forge, Envoyer, GitHub Actions, a VPS, AWS u2014 rather than a mandatory platform move. Hosting migrations are a project, not a silent extra on a retainer.
Are you inside or outside IR35?
For a genuine business-to-business engagement with a written scope, this is typically outside IR35. Status still depends on how the work actually runs (control, substitution, mutuality). It is confirmed in writing per engagement, not as a website badge.
Do you build SaaS products, internal tools and admin dashboards?
Yes u2014 billing, portals, operations tools, reporting, and the admin staff actually use. Many of those start as a spreadsheet or a half-finished Filament/Nova screen. If production is already live and unowned, start with rescue rather than a feature list.
How soon can you start?
It depends on current retainers and whether production is on fire. A takeover or incident can start as soon as access exists. A defined build is usually booked, not started the afternoon of the first email. Ask.
Do you write automated tests (Pest or PHPUnit)?
Yes, on the paths that lose money, lock users out, or talk to Stripe/ERP webhooks. Pest or PHPUnit, whichever the repo already uses. A green suite that never hits HTTP is not coverage.
Qualification
Discuss your Laravel project
Name, work email, and a short description of the application is enough. No discovery call theatre before I know whether I can actually help.
- UK businesses with a real Laravel (or legacy PHP) application
- Build, support, rescue, upgrade or integration work
- Reply from Oliver Burton, usually within one working day