I've just been asked if I can help find a PHP developer. For backend.

I guess some people do really like pain.

What's your excuse for hating php lol

@ScribeOfGoD I seriously don't hate it. Even I benefited from it using WordPress and wrote a couple of plugins using PHP.

But there are better alternatives to use in the backend than PHP.

There is nothing wrong with using PHP for your backend as long as you have capable programmers.

Php is actually very popular still.

And also, with every version, PHP gets better. Granted, there are other options, but for any serious ordinary web dev, it would be my first choice.

Woah there! No php-hating if you please.
Half of my coding world is Laravel and I love it.

@koes The difficult part is finding competent programmers who are willing to work with php.

PHP is just a huge fucking red flag, i don't mind using it for personal projects or opensource work but i would never apply for a job where i'd have to use PHP.
The average "enterprise" PHP codebase is a complete clusterfuck and the average "PHP developer" is about a competent as a lobotomized slug. (C# and Java devs might possibly be even less competent on average but it takes significantly more effort to fuck things up in those languages)

@ItsNotMyFault I get what you are saying. In all fairness codebases can be terrible in any language. I would happily apply for a PHP job is the version being used is 7 or higher. And if not, I would suggest to upgrade.