Hire CodeIgniter developers expertly trained on AI and product thinking
Hire dedicated CodeIgniter developers from a senior bench built and run by a four-time tech founder. Since 2017, Full Scale has placed 500+ PHP engineers in the Philippines for SaaS, fintech, e-commerce, and healthcare teams, including legacy CodeIgniter 3 maintainers and modern CodeIgniter 4 builders. Every engineer is pre-vetted on real MVC, query builder, and CI architecture problems and ready to start in 7 days.
namespace App\Controllers;
class OrderController extends ResourceController
{
public function create()
{
$order = $this->orders
->insert($this->request->getPost());
return $this->respondCreated($order);
}
}CodeIgniter and PHP teams trusted by SaaS scale-ups and enterprises
Previously founded VinSolutions ($150M+ exit) and Stackify
Full Scale started with PHP, and CodeIgniter has been part of that the whole time
Here is the part most people miss about Full Scale: the company exists because we were looking for PHP developers years ago and ended up hiring some in the Philippines off Upwork. Upwork itself turned into a giant headache. The Filipino PHP developers were amazing. That contrast was the wedge that became this company, and PHP has been at the center of it ever since. CodeIgniter has been part of that PHP bench from day one because that is what a lot of real PHP work in the US actually looks like.
I will be honest about my own position here. I have not personally written CodeIgniter code in production. My experience is on the staffing and engineering leadership side, not the framework side, and I want to be straight about that rather than pretend otherwise. What I have done is hire hundreds of PHP engineers, watch them work on CodeIgniter codebases as well as Laravel, Symfony, and bespoke PHP, and build a vetting process that screens for the engineers who actually understand the framework they are writing in.
People ask me whether PHP is dead more often than they ask about CodeIgniter specifically. PHP is in great shape, and CodeIgniter apps are not going anywhere because rewriting a working business in a new framework is almost always the wrong call. Whether you should upgrade CI3 to CI4, migrate to Laravel, or keep shipping features on what you already have is a real question and the answer depends on your codebase. Our engineers have done all three and we will give you a straight read on which one fits your situation.
AI-powered CodeIgniter engineers, trained on Product Driven principles
Most CodeIgniter teams adopting AI are shipping more code without shipping better software. The test suite starts failing for reasons nobody can explain, and engineers whose only skill is typing faster end up costing more in cleanup than they save in keystrokes.
Full Scale CodeIgniter developers are trained on something different: the Product Driven approach from Matt's book, combined with the full modern AI toolkit (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor). They think first, type second, and use AI for the parts where judgment doesn't add value. That combination is rare, and it is what CodeIgniter teams should actually be hiring for in 2026.
Product Driven engineering
Our engineers are trained on the five pillars from Matt's book: Vision, Focus, Clarity, Ownership, and Courage. The result is CodeIgniter developers who push back on bad product decisions, ask whether a ticket should exist before writing the migration, and own the outcome of what ships. They are not order takers.
Read Product Driven, the bookAI as a thinking partner
Every PHP engineer on our bench works with GitHub Copilot, Claude, and Cursor every day. They use AI to explore options, scaffold the boring parts (controllers, models, migrations), generate tests, and review their own pull requests before a human ever sees them. Judgment stays with the engineer, the grunt work moves to the machine.
AI without product thinking is just a slop machine, and the PHP engineers I want on my team don't get caught by that. They reason about the controller, the model, and the data layer before they reach for Copilot, and they use AI for the parts where judgment doesn't matter. That's who we hire and train at Full Scale, whether they're working in CodeIgniter, Laravel, or anything else in the PHP world.
How Full Scale runs dedicated teams at AMC Theatres
AMC is one of our Fortune 500 clients, on a different stack from CodeIgniter. The reason this video is here is the engagement model. The way we staff, vet, and run dedicated CodeIgniter teams works the same way at every scale.
Full Scale built and ran a dedicated engineering team that operates as a real extension of AMC's product organization. Watch the case study video for the full story.
Dedicated CodeIgniter developers, starting at $35 an hour
That rate is fully loaded: a senior CodeIgniter engineer in the Philippines working full-time on your project, with payroll, benefits, HR, and equipment all handled by Full Scale. The same role hired locally in the US costs $130K to $180K a year, and the math is what drives most of our clients to call.
- Full-time, dedicated CodeIgniter engineer
- Pre-vetted by senior PHP reviewers
- Works your hours, your tools, your codebase
- Payroll, HR, equipment, benefits handled by us
- US-based account manager you can escalate to
- 30-day replacement guarantee if it isn't a fit
Full Scale has made the Inc. 5000 four years in a row and is Great Place to Work certified. We have been staffing PHP teams since 2018, and pricing isn't why most clients stay with us, it's just the easiest reason to call the first time.
The reason offshore CodeIgniter works here
You can also hire dedicated developers in the Philippines across every other stack we staff, with the same vetting bar, retention numbers, and engagement model that CodeIgniter clients get.
English-fluent by default
The Philippines is the third-largest English-speaking country in the world. Standups, code reviews, and customer calls work the way they do with any US team member.
Real time-zone overlap
Most of our CodeIgniter engineers work US business hours with 4-8 hours of real-time overlap with East and West Coast teams, so decisions happen live during shared hours rather than crawling through 24-hour async handoffs.
Deep PHP and CodeIgniter talent pool
Cebu and Manila produce tens of thousands of CS and IT graduates a year, and PHP has been one of the country's top three working languages for the better part of two decades. CodeIgniter has been a default training framework here for a long time.
Cultural alignment with US teams
Filipino engineers grow up on US business norms, US TV, and US tech culture, so agile rituals, direct feedback, and collaborative workflows feel familiar from day one. These teams integrate fast rather than needing constant management.
Writing PHP is not the same as knowing CodeIgniter
Anyone who finished a basic PHP course can write a CodeIgniter controller. Building a CodeIgniter app that holds up in production, or modernizing a CI3 legacy codebase that has been running for ten years, requires a different bench entirely. When you outsource CodeIgniter development or hire offshore CI developers, this is the gap that decides whether the project ships. Here is what we test for, and what most offshore staffing companies skip.
Architecture knowledge, not just syntax
Junior developers ship controllers. Senior CodeIgniter engineers reason about model boundaries, library and helper organization, service classes in CI4, and when MVC needs a layer above it before the next feature gets bolted on.
Query Builder that doesn't melt your database
We test for the N+1 query problem in CI's Query Builder, proper joins, batch processing for large datasets, and when to drop into raw SQL. Sloppy query code is the single most common cause of CodeIgniter performance problems we see, especially in legacy CI3 codebases.
Deployment beyond "FTP to the server"
Real CodeIgniter deployment expertise covers Docker, CI/CD pipelines, environment-aware config, queue workers via supervisor or third-party packages, and observability. Most offshore PHP shops never get past the cPanel mental model with CodeIgniter projects.
Legacy upgrades and migrations without the breakage
Moving from CodeIgniter 3 to CodeIgniter 4, or migrating off CI entirely to Laravel, is more than a find-and-replace. Engineers on our PHP bench have worked on production upgrades and replatforms across PHP frameworks, which means they know which packages and patterns break at the namespacing rewrite and how to stage the work.
Security done right
Real security work in CodeIgniter covers Shield auth flows in CI4 (or custom auth in CI3), CSRF protection, XSS filtering, input validation, mass-assignment protection in CI4 entities, and OWASP basics. CodeIgniter has reasonable defaults but they only help if your developer knows how to configure them.
Production debugging skills
A senior CodeIgniter engineer should be able to read the Debug Toolbar, profile a slow request with Xdebug or Tideways, and reason about why a long-running script is leaking memory. Most offshore PHP developers have never used these tools on a live CodeIgniter app.
Hire dedicated CodeIgniter developers for the work that actually matters
Most CodeIgniter hiring conversations skip past the actual project. What kind of CodeIgniter work do you need done? A new CI4 build, a CI3 modernization that has been deferred for years, an API layer rewrite, a migration to Laravel, or a slow-query fix that has been open for six months? As a CodeIgniter development company that bills for engineering hours rather than fixed-bid projects, our developers ship across all of it. Here are the CodeIgniter development services we get hired for most often.
Custom CodeIgniter application development
Custom CodeIgniter development means greenfield builds on modern CodeIgniter 4 using controllers, models, entities, filters, and services. We start with a real domain model rather than a CRUD scaffold, so the resulting codebase survives the first 18 months without a rewrite.
Read our offshore PHP guideCodeIgniter SaaS development
CodeIgniter SaaS work is multi-tenant architecture, subscription billing integrations, role and permission management, audit logging, and webhook handling. The unglamorous stuff that B2B SaaS lives or dies on. Our PHP bench has shipped SaaS platforms across CodeIgniter, Laravel, and bespoke PHP at every stage from seed to public scale.
CodeIgniter API development & system integration
We build REST APIs with CodeIgniter's RESTful resource controllers and Shield-based auth, contract testing in CI, and proper response negotiation. Third-party integrations get retry logic, idempotency keys, and queued background jobs, which gives you an API layer your downstream consumers don't curse at.
Hire API engineersCodeIgniter cloud deployment & DevOps
We deploy CodeIgniter on AWS, DigitalOcean, and Kubernetes, with Docker images, environment-aware configuration, queue workers under supervisor, and Sentry or New Relic for observability. That's the full production stack, with no "we FTPed it" shortcuts.
CodeIgniter 3 to 4 upgrades and Laravel migrations
We run CodeIgniter upgrade and migration projects, from CI3 to CI4 with the namespacing and PSR autoloading rewrite, or from CodeIgniter to Laravel when the application has outgrown the framework. We know which patterns translate cleanly, where the breakage lives, and how to stage the cutover so business doesn't stop.
Read our PHP development guideCodeIgniter performance & debugging
Our CodeIgniter performance work covers the built-in Debug Toolbar, Xdebug and Tideways profiling, query plan analysis on slow MySQL endpoints, OPcache tuning, and caching strategy across page, fragment, and data layers. These are skills most offshore CodeIgniter shops have never developed, so hire us when your app is slow and nobody knows why.
Eight CodeIgniter specializations, one staffing partner
Most CodeIgniter teams need more than one role. Hire dedicated PHP developers, senior CodeIgniter engineers, API specialists, CI3 legacy maintainers, and CodeIgniter DevOps from a single vetted bench. Mix and match seniorities as the project requires.
Backend CodeIgniter Engineers
Senior backend devs handle controllers, models, libraries, and helpers for your application. They work fluently in CodeIgniter 4 and legacy CodeIgniter 3, with strong instincts for where MVC needs a service layer above it.
Full-Stack CodeIgniter Developers
End-to-end engineers pair CodeIgniter on the backend with Bootstrap, Vue, or Alpine on the front. They ship features from the migration to the UI without handoffs to a separate team.
CodeIgniter API Engineers
Engineers in this specialization design REST APIs with CI4's resource controllers, Shield auth, versioned endpoints, and contract testing. They are used to clean separation of concerns from day one.
CodeIgniter Cloud & Deployment Engineers
AWS, DigitalOcean, and Kubernetes specialists own deployment, queue scaling, and the observability stack end-to-end. They write the Terraform too.
CodeIgniter DevOps Engineers
DevOps work on these teams covers CI/CD on GitHub Actions or GitLab, containerization, infrastructure as code, and observability with Sentry, New Relic, or the ELK stack. They make CodeIgniter releases boring in the good way.
Performance & Security Engineers
When production gets weird, these are the engineers you call. They run Xdebug and Tideways profiles, query plan reviews, OPcache tuning, and security audits across CSRF, XSS, and the OWASP top ten.
Legacy CI3 Maintainers
Specialists who keep older CodeIgniter 3 codebases healthy: security patching, dependency upgrades, MySQL version migrations, and feature work without breaking the parts that already pay the bills.
CodeIgniter QA & SDET
Our automation engineers write unit tests with PHPUnit, browser tests with Codeception or Cypress, and API contract tests against CodeIgniter services. They build the test pyramid you wish you had.
CodeIgniter expertise tuned to your industry
As a PHP development company that has been around for nearly a decade, we have placed dedicated CodeIgniter developers into nearly every industry that runs PHP. Domain knowledge cuts onboarding time in half, so we match developers to projects where they have already shipped real code.
SaaS & Scale-ups
B2B SaaS on CodeIgniter is more common than people think, especially for products that started in the CI3 era and grew into real revenue. Engineers on the bench have shipped multi-tenant architecture, billing integrations, role and permission systems, and audit logging on both CI3 and CI4 codebases.
From modern CodeIgniter 4 APIs to legacy CI3 modernization
Whether you want to hire PHP developers for a greenfield CodeIgniter 4 build, hire CodeIgniter cloud engineers for an AWS deployment, or outsource CodeIgniter development on a legacy CI3 system, the bench covers every layer of the CodeIgniter stack. Pick what you need. We will match a CodeIgniter developer fluent in it.
Hire dedicated CodeIgniter developers, two ways
Most clients start with a single dedicated CodeIgniter developer and grow into a full team. Either way, you get full-time engineers who sit on your standups, work your hours, and ship code against your roadmap. Both options are staff augmentation at the core: dedicated, long-term engineers embedded in your team rather than freelancers, shared resources, or a project shop on the side. See the full breakdown of how we hire dedicated CodeIgniter developers across every engagement we staff. When the same engineer should own both the CodeIgniter API and the frontend, hire a full stack developer from the same bench.
Dedicated developer
A full-time engineer who sits on your standups and works only on your product.
- Full-time CodeIgniter engineer assigned only to your project
- Works your hours, your tools, your codebase
- Joins your standups, reports to your tech lead
- We handle payroll, HR, equipment, retention
- Replace within 30 days if it isn't a fit
How to hire a dedicated CodeIgniter developer from Full Scale
We skip the 3-6 week recruitment cycle and the cold sourcing entirely. Our bench of remote CodeIgniter developers and PHP engineers in the Philippines is already built and vetted, and every step below has a named owner on our side.
Discovery call
30 minutes with our team. We learn your stack, your roadmap, the seniority level you need, and the version of CodeIgniter you're working in. We don't pitch on the call, we walk through what you actually need from a hire.
Engineer match
We pull 1-3 pre-vetted CodeIgniter engineers from the bench whose skills, seniority, and prior project experience line up with what you described. You see their full profile and their actual project history.
Technical interview
You interview the candidates the way you would interview any senior hire: live coding, system design, Query Builder gotchas, and architectural reviews. Pass anyone you don't believe in.
Contract & onboarding
Sign once. We handle every contract, payroll, equipment, and HR detail in the Philippines so you don't have an offshore entity to manage. You just get a developer.
First commit
Your developer joins your standups, gets repo access, and ships code in their first week. Our delivery managers stay involved to make sure ramp-up doesn't stall.
Full Scale vs the other ways to hire a CodeIgniter developer
Every hiring path has trade-offs. Here is how a dedicated CodeIgniter engineer from our CodeIgniter development company compares against the alternatives most teams consider first when they want to hire CodeIgniter developers.
| Feature | Full Scale | Freelancer / Upwork | Traditional offshore agency | US recruiter / FTE hire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-vetted senior CodeIgniter bench | ||||
| Time to first hire | 7 days | 1-3 days | 3-6 weeks | 6-12 weeks |
| Dedicated full-time, not shared | ||||
| 500+ PHP hires since 2018 | ||||
| Sits on your standups, your tools | ||||
| Long-term retention | 93%+ | low | varies | varies |
| Replace within 30 days if it's not a fit | ||||
| Handles payroll, HR, equipment | ||||
| US-based account management | n/a | |||
| Typical fully-loaded cost vs US | ~40-50% | varies | ~50-65% | 100% |
Real CodeIgniter engineers, named and vetted
A sample of the engineers we are currently staffing. You'll see real names and real backgrounds during your interview round.
Built and scaled multi-tenant SaaS platforms on CodeIgniter for fintech and SaaS clients. Strong in Query Builder optimization, Shield auth, and service-class architecture in CI4.
Backend-to-frontend feature delivery on CodeIgniter APIs paired with Vue and Alpine on the front end. Has shipped end-to-end on three production B2B platforms.
Distributed systems specialist with deep PHP background, including legacy framework upgrades and replatforms on AWS. Comfortable across CodeIgniter 3 and 4.
Builds CI/CD for CodeIgniter teams. Containerization, IaC, blue-green deployments, observability with Sentry, New Relic, and the ELK stack.
API-first PHP engineer who has shipped high-throughput services in retail and travel. Comfortable trading Query Builder for raw SQL when latency matters.
Builds out test pyramids and CI gates for CodeIgniter teams. Strong on contract testing for distributed services and BDD scenario coverage.
Engineer names are anonymized on this page. You'll see real candidates during your interview round.
The numbers behind a CodeIgniter staffing partner that actually works
From the people we actually staff teams for
Full Scale's development team was pivotal in elevating our facility management software. Their expertise turned complex challenges into seamless functionalities, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.
With Full Scale's developers, we transformed the commercial real estate landscape. Their team's proficiency in agile development and proactive communication accelerated our product release.
The team at Full Scale brought our vision to life with their development skills. They helped us navigate technical requirements with ease, resulting in a robust platform our users trust.
Deeper guides to PHP and CodeIgniter hiring
What is a PHP developer?
The PHP developer role, why companies still ship it, and where CodeIgniter fits.
Top PHP MVC frameworks
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Why companies still use PHP
The honest case for PHP in 2026, including CodeIgniter and Laravel codebases.
The complete guide to offshore PHP development
How to build a high-performing offshore PHP team without the usual mistakes.
PHP development: costs, hiring, scaling
Honest guide for CTOs whose PHP teams are slipping deadlines.
Hire dedicated PHP developers
The full PHP developer hiring page, including Laravel, Symfony, and WordPress.
Everything you wanted to know about hiring CodeIgniter developers
Hire a dedicated CodeIgniter developer who has actually shipped production CI before
Book a 30-minute discovery call with the team that supplies dedicated CodeIgniter developers and custom PHP development services from the Philippines. We'll learn what you're building, walk you through which dedicated CodeIgniter developers and PHP engineers are on the bench, and you'll meet candidates within a week. You won't get pressure or a sales pitch on the call.