PHP migration · South Africa
PHP upgrade and migration services in South Africa
Mobile-first, low-bandwidth products with mobile money built in, from a senior team on overlapping hours.
Clarigo Infotech upgrades and migrates legacy PHP applications: PHP 5 and 7 to PHP 8, hand-written PHP to Laravel or Symfony, old CMS and framework versions to supported ones, or a full move to Node.js or another stack when that is the better long-term choice. We add tests first, then upgrade step by step, so the site or app keeps working throughout.
South African companies most often hire us for fintech, healthcare software and AI automation.
10+
Years of delivery
600+
Projects delivered
20+
Countries served
25-30
Days to a live MVP
Get a free consultation
Tell us what you need. A senior engineer replies within one working day.
Mobile-first and built for real conditions
African businesses need products that work on any phone and any connection, with mobile money and local payments built in.
Works on any connection
Lightweight apps and sites that stay fast on slow networks and older phones.
Mobile money and local payments
M-Pesa, Flutterwave, Paystack and card payments integrated.
Overlapping hours
Two and a half to four and a half hours from India, so most of the day overlaps.
Cost-effective delivery
Senior engineers at offshore rates with full code ownership.
What our PHP migration covers
PHP version upgrades
PHP 5.x and 7.x to PHP 8, fixing deprecated functions, extensions and incompatible libraries.
Framework upgrades
Old Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, CakePHP and Zend versions brought up to supported releases.
Legacy PHP to Laravel
Unstructured PHP code reorganised into a clean, tested Laravel or Symfony application.
PHP to Node.js or other stacks
A planned migration to Node.js, Python or another stack when it fits your team and roadmap.
Database and hosting
MySQL upgrades, query fixes, and a move from shared hosting to containers or the cloud.
Security and performance
Security patches, dependency updates, caching and profiling so the app is safe and fast.
How we approach PHP migration
Why PHP upgrades can't wait
Older PHP versions no longer receive security updates, and many hosts and libraries are dropping support. An upgrade closes known vulnerabilities and usually makes the application noticeably faster.
Tests before changes
Legacy PHP rarely has tests. We add them around the most important flows first, so we can prove the upgraded version behaves exactly like the old one.
Built for South African teams
Time-zone overlap
South Africa is three and a half hours behind India, so our working days overlap for most of your morning and early afternoon.
The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)
We design to POPIA's conditions for lawful processing: purpose limits, security safeguards and data-subject access, with data hosted in South African cloud regions when required. We sign NDAs before work starts.
Billing
Invoices in South African rand (ZAR) or US dollars. Typical senior rates are $25 to $49 (USD) per hour, or a fixed price for a defined scope.
Industries we work with in South Africa
South African companies use us for fintech, healthcare software and AI automation, designed to POPIA, with a strong daily overlap in working hours.
Mining
Mines invest in safety, monitoring and automation systems. We build the platforms, integrations and internal tools this sector relies on.
Financial services
Banks and insurers lead in mobile and digital channels. Custom software that fits how these teams already work.
Retail
National chains expand e-commerce and loyalty programmes. From internal tools to customer platforms, built and supported by one team.
Tourism and wine
Operators and estates sell to international visitors online. We build the platforms, integrations and internal tools this sector relies on.
Your working day with us
Our team's hours, in South African time
06:30–16:00
Monday to Friday
Overlap with your working day
09:00–16:00
About 7 hours every day
Daily stand-up
09:30
South African time, plus written updates every evening
Local platforms and setup
Local payments
Languages
Data hosting
AWS Africa (Cape Town), Google Cloud africa-south1 (Johannesburg) and Azure South Africa North, in your own cloud account, so data stays where your rules require.
How it works
1. Free assessment
We review your code, dependencies, infrastructure and data, then give you a written migration plan, risks and a fixed quote.
2. Plan and safety net
We add automated tests and monitoring around what exists today, so every change can be checked against the old behaviour.
3. Migrate in small steps
Module by module, with both versions running side by side where needed. You see progress in a demo every week.
4. Cut over and support
A planned switch-over with a rollback path, then the same engineers stay on to fix, tune and keep it current.
See what we've built
Try it yourself, free
Free browser tools from our team. No sign-up needed.
PHP upgrade and migration services: questions from South Africa
Do you work with companies in South Africa?+
Yes. Clarigo Infotech works with companies across South Africa, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, as part of clients in 20+ countries. South African companies most often hire us for fintech, healthcare software and AI automation. We work remotely from India with one in-house team.
What time-zone overlap do we get from South Africa?+
South Africa is three and a half hours behind India, so our working days overlap for most of your morning and early afternoon.
How do you handle the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)?+
We design to POPIA's conditions for lawful processing: purpose limits, security safeguards and data-subject access, with data hosted in South African cloud regions when required. We sign NDAs before work starts.
Which currency do you bill in, and what does it cost?+
We bill in South African rand (ZAR) or US dollars. Senior engineers typically cost $25 to $49 (USD) per hour, and fixed-scope projects such as an MVP in 25 to 30 days are quoted after a free consultation.
Can you build in English and Afrikaans and isiZulu?+
Yes. We build interfaces and content in English and Afrikaans and isiZulu, and test them with native speakers before launch.
Where will our data be hosted?+
Usually in AWS Africa (Cape Town), Google Cloud africa-south1 (Johannesburg) and Azure South Africa North, or wherever your data rules require. Everything runs in your own cloud account, so you stay in control.
Can you integrate PayFast or Yoco?+
Yes. We regularly integrate local payment methods such as PayFast, Yoco, Ozow (Instant EFT), SnapScan, Peach Payments, alongside card payments and subscriptions.
Can you upgrade PHP 5 or PHP 7 to PHP 8?+
Yes. We fix deprecated code, replace unsupported extensions and libraries, add tests and upgrade in safe steps.
Should we stay on PHP or move to another stack?+
Modern PHP with Laravel or Symfony is a strong choice for many apps. If another stack fits your team better, we plan that migration too. You get an honest recommendation after the assessment.
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