PHP is one of the most popular general-purpose scripting languages used for web development. It was designed to help programmers come up with dynamic interactive websites quickly and efficiently.
In this article, you are going to learn about the top 15 PHP project ideas for beginner, intermediate, and advanced developers. You will also learn how PHP projects can help you master key technical skills, get practical experience, and create a perfect portfolio that will get you hired.
5 Skills That PHP Projects Can Help You Practice
Each time you complete a PHP project, you gain practical experience and your coding skills improve. If you make a mistake, you’ll learn from it and become a better developer. Even when you do everything right on the first try, there is always room for improvement. With time, you will advance from a beginner to an expert PHP developer. To do that, you need to focus on the following five skills:
- Composer. Every PHP developer benefits from using Composer, a dependency manager for PHP classes, libraries, and functions. Using Composer, you can speed up the development process. Since you will use Composer during most of your projects, mastering it is essential.
- Programming. The more projects you complete using PHP, the better you’ll get at coding and programming in general. Completing PHP projects will help you improve your JavaScript skills as well as other front end technologies like CSS and HTML.
- Design Patterns. There are currently 23 commonly used design patterns in the software engineering industry. Popular PHP projects help you master these design patterns which allow you to provide repeatable solutions to common problems during development. Design patterns greatly cut down on total development time for projects.
- PHP Best Practices. PHP best practices are a set of guidelines and regulations promoted in the development community. These guidelines aren’t fixed in stone: they may change and new ones are sometimes added. By taking time to complete projects, you will master these best practices and remain in the loop when changes are required.
- PHPUnit. Testing is just as important as coding when it comes to PHP development. PHPUnit is a programmer-oriented testing framework. It is currently the most popular framework used by PHP developers because it offers a range of features like mocking objects, logging, and code coverage analysis.
Best PHP Project Ideas for Beginners
If you have just started and you only have a foundational knowledge of PHP, you should start with straightforward projects for beginners that can be completed within a few hours. You can complete most of these projects with little resources and without help from other developers. For some great project ideas for PHP beginners, check out the list below.
Content Management Module
- PHP Skills Practiced: Programming, PHP best practices, PHPUnit
This is a simple tool with a dashboard, automation tool, and database. Business owners typically use these tools to automate and manage content marketing campaigns across social media and search engines. Apart from PHP, you will need a fundamental knowledge of MySQL, content management systems (CMS), and object-oriented programming.
Question and Answer Survey System
- PHP Skills Practiced: PHP best practices, PHPUnit
Q&A surveys are used to collect data from users or prospective customers during market research. In this project, you will be creating a Q&A survey application using MySQL, Apache HTTP server 2.2, or any other database management technology along with PHP. You don’t need advanced coding skills to complete this project. One of your main goals should be ensuring that the application is simple and easy to navigate.
Defect Tracking System
- PHP Skills Practiced: PHP best practices, PHPUnit, design patterns, programming
Organizational web pages usually come with defect tracking systems. These are also called bug trackers and they are used to track application bugs during software development projects. A defect tracking tool can also be used for project management, allowing the software development team to trace and destroy bugs before the final launch.
Chatbot for Edutech Websites
- PHP Skills Practiced: Programming, PHPUnit, composer, design patterns
In just a few hours, you can create a chatbot for an education site or any site for that matter. For this project, you will need a fundamental knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning, not just database servers and PHP. The chatbot should be able to answer common questions and learn from new data it receives.
Fake Review Identification System
- PHP Skills Practiced: PHPUnit, programming, PHP best practices, Composer
Online sellers often abuse review systems by paying random websites to write positive reviews of their products. You can design a fake review identification tool that spots these fake reviews. You will need MySQL, Apache Server 2.0, and Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.0 for the successful completion of the project.
Best Intermediate PHP Project Ideas
Intermediate PHP developers have graduated from the beginner level but are not yet fully experienced in advanced PHP programming. If you have advanced to this stage, you will need to complete more complicated projects than the basic options listed above. Find below a list of popular PHP projects that will help you become a professional PHP developer.
Ad Dispenser Server
- PHP Skills Practiced: PHPUnit, programming, PHP best practices, Composer
An ad dispenser server can be implemented on a website for ad display automation. You can design it to make sure that ads are displayed to a user based on the keywords they search. This paves the way for targeted advertising and increased conversions. You will need Apache HTTP server 2.2 installed to create the ad dispenser.
Movie Recommendation App
- PHP Skills Practiced: Design patterns, PHPUnit, Composer, PHP best practices
Similar to how the ad dispenser project above displays advertisements, this project should have a database that offers movie recommendations. The software should be able to make movie recommendations to users based on what they have watched in the past. Think of how movie streaming platforms like Netflix offer personalized experiences to subscribers.
Predictive Model for User Behavior
- PHP Skills Practiced: PHPUnit, programming, PHP best practices, Composer
This web app is perfect for performing market research. It should predict the behavior of online users by studying their history. Some knowledge of artificial intelligence and machine learning is required for this project. This software for predicting user behavior can be applied to an ecommerce site, blog, or any application that relies on returning visitors.
Image Processing and Generation
- PHP Skills Practiced: PHPUnit, programming, PHP best practices, Composer
You can create an attractive web application by modifying images using PHP along with the GD Graphics Library, ImageMagick, Exif, and Gmagick. The web page should be able to process different image sizes, from thumbnails to full-size.
Facebook Application Development
- PHP Skills Practiced: Composer, PHPUnit, PHP best practices
The Facebook developer community is full of resources that make it easy for anyone with knowledge of AWS SDK for PHP to design and monetize a Facebook app. Many Facebook application developers create interactive games. You can try a chess game or go for something a little more unique like a horoscope app.
Advanced PHP Project Ideas
Once you are comfortable with intermediate-level PHP projects, you can try your hand at more challenging projects. The advanced projects below are great for experienced developers.
Ecommerce Site
- PHP Skills Practiced: Composer, programming, PHPUnit, PHP best practices
If you think you are ready to build a fully functional and interactive website from the ground up, you should consider creating an ecommerce site. It can be a clothing store or a marketplace that offers a variety of goods. It should feature product images and descriptions, shopping cart, login page, checkout page, and payment page.
Online Community
- PHP Skills Practiced: Programming, Composer, PHPUnit, PHP best practices
This isn’t as complicated as it might appear but it is an advanced-level PHP project. With advanced knowledge of PHP and some skills in other programming technologies, you should be able to create an online platform where people can meet and interact virtually. It doesn’t need to be as scalable as social media apps like Facebook but should have all the features of an online community.
WordPress Plugins
- PHP Skills Practiced: Composer, programming, PHPUnit, PHP best practices
You can create your WordPress plug-in from scratch and even monetize it. Think of a plug-in that would make things easier for WordPress users. It could be a search engine optimization plug-in, a grammar plug-in, or anything that would improve functionality and save time. Create the plug-in with PHP and test it out on your WordPress site.
Dynamic Website
- PHP Skills Practiced: Programming, Composer, PHPUnit, PHP best practices, design patterns
Since PHP is a server-side technology, it is an ideal scripting language for making user-friendly dynamic web pages. If you are wondering, a dynamic web page is the opposite of a static web page. The content of a dynamic site changes regularly. In other words, you should expect to see a different thing every time you visit the website. The change can be triggered by views, time, or interaction.
CRM System
- PHP Skills Practiced: Programming, Composer, PHPUnit, PHP best practices, design patterns
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a software program used by companies to manage interactions with customers. It should include tools for communication as well as for tracking sales and returning clients. You can create such a system with the PHP programming language, MySQL, and MySQLi. You will also need skills in front end development.
PHP Starter Project Templates
A PHP template is a pre-made website demo that you can import and use for your project. These source code templates save time during development since you don’t need to start from scratch. Some source code templates are customizable while others are rigid. You can check out the templates below to see which one might be suitable for your real-world projects.
- Apiato. This is an MIT-licensed template designed specifically for API-centric applications with PHP. The core framework has several useful features that allow you to build scalable API applications quickly and efficiently. The template supports data caching, automatic data pagination, and typecasting.
- Noise PHP. This template is as customizable as it gets. Its programmers refer to it as an empty skeleton that can handle new lines of code until you reach your goal. With this template, you do not need to write configs from scratch. There are Noise templates for other programming languages like JavaScript, C++, Go, and C.
- PHP Base Project. This ready-made template has everything you need for a PHP 7.4 project and includes StyleCI, Composer, CodeClimate, PHPUnit, and Travis. All you have to do is download the template, update it with the relevant information and publish it on GitHub or any other platform you choose.
- Recast.AI Starter PHP. This template is free software for anyone who wants to develop an AI chatbot with PHP. The template is licensed by Recast.AI and anyone with access can customize it significantly without copyright infringement. The template can be used with or without a bot connector.
- Laravel Starter. This is a Laravel 8.x template that can be used for any kind of PHP application. The template features Logviewer, Authentication, Application Backend, and Backup.
Next Steps: Start Organizing Your PHP Portfolio
Having a professional portfolio containing all of your PHP projects hosted on a website or GitHub is a good way to advertise your skills. Apart from submitting your portfolio to employers during job interviews, those seeking PHP developers may also stumble upon your portfolio online. A portfolio is also a good way to showcase your skills among your peers in the industry. Some tips that can help you design the perfect PHP portfolio are listed below.
Create a Custom Website
Your portfolio says a lot about your skills and your professionalism. Having a custom URL that contains your portfolio is one way to stand out. Choose a unique domain name that reflects your skills as a PHP programmer.
Organize Your Projects
How you organize your projects is important. Not every prospective employer will have the time to go through all the real-world projects in your portfolio, so it is important that you make your best work as visible as possible. If the hiring manager is impressed with the first few PHP projects in your portfolio, you will stand a better chance of being hired.
Add Non-technical Information
It’s true that your PHP portfolio is supposed to focus on your technical skills. However, there are other factors you should also consider. When building a website that will serve as your portfolio, don’t forget to add your information, testimonials, About Me page, and links to your social media profiles. Keep the description of your projects and non-technical information short and straightforward.
PHP Projects FAQ
You can build an ecommerce site, content management system, project management tools, WordPress themes, plug-ins, graphical user interface, and fraud detection tools with PHP. You can also use PHP to improve an already existing website by adding new elements.
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Yes, learning PHP is a great way to boost your resume in 2021 and beyond. This popular programming language is currently in high demand among web application developers. In addition, ZipRecruiter reports that the average salary for a PHP developer is $86,003. A great way to master this popular language is by attending a top PHP coding bootcamp.
PHP is not the same thing as WordPress. PHP is a popular programming language while WordPress is a content management system. You do not need knowledge of PHP to use WordPress. You can learn both or learn the most suitable option for your career goals.
Yes, PHP is similar to JavaScript. Both languages are open-source, object-oriented, and interpreted. However, while JavaScript is primarily used for front end web development, PHP is a popular language in backend development.
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