Boolean search strings for PHP developers: Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, PHP 8 upgrades and the hospital and peso collisions

A PHP developer search works when it pairs PHP with the framework or platform the client runs (Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, Drupal, Magento) and a tool only PHP developers write, such as Composer, PHPUnit or a PHP 8 version. The three letters are not unique: CMS uses PHP for partial hospitalization programs in behavioral health, and PHP is the ISO 4217 code for the Philippine peso, so a bare php returns therapists and finance staff. As of November 2026, php.net lists PHP 8.2 to 8.5 as supported, with 8.2 security fixes ending December 31, 2026, which is why upgrade experience is worth a string of its own.

Below are ten strings by kind of PHP work, and what LinkedIn, Dice, GitHub, Packagist and Google support as of November 2026. For roles that span the front end too, see Boolean search strings for full stack developers; for the operators themselves, see Boolean search strings for recruiters.

Frameworks, platforms and versions that change what a PHP search finds

• PHP versions show how current the work is. php.net's supported versions page says each branch gets two years of active support and two more of security fixes only. As of November 2026 it lists 8.2 (security fixes until December 31, 2026), 8.3 (until December 31, 2027), 8.4 and 8.5 (released November 20, 2025) as supported. The end-of-life page shows 8.1 ended on December 31, 2025, 7.4 on November 28, 2022 and 5.6 on December 31, 2018, and php.net's news page says PHP 8.6.0 is planned for November 19, 2026.
• Laravel releases once a year. Laravel's release notes say major releases come every year (around the first quarter), list Laravel 13 as released March 17, 2026 with PHP 8.3 as its minimum, and give Laravel 12 security fixes until February 24, 2027. A profile still on Laravel 8 or 9 points to an application that needs an upgrade.
• Symfony has long-term releases. Symfony's releases page lists 8.1 (May 2026) as the latest stable version, 7.4 (November 2025) as the long-term support version, and 6.4's bug fixes ending in November 2026, as of November 2026. Enterprise teams often stay on an LTS, so ask which one the client runs.
• WordPress and Drupal set their own clocks. WordPress's requirements page recommends PHP 8.3 or greater and MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.11 or greater. Drupal's release schedule says Drupal 10 reaches end of life on December 9, 2026 and schedules Drupal 12 for the week of December 7, 2026, so Drupal upgrade work is in demand now.
• Certifications are optional. Zend's PHP certification page says the Zend PHP Certified Engineer exam covers topics through PHP 8.4, and the official Symfony certification site offers Symfony and Twig exams, as of November 2026. Put them in an OR block for roles that ask for them; never require one.

Ten Boolean strings by kind of PHP work

Swap in the framework, domain and metro from your own intake; these are examples. Search on the work, never on a term that stands in for age, sex, race, religion, national origin, disability or veteran status, including graduation years.

Laravel, Symfony and general PHP

1. PHP developer — LinkedIn general search
("php developer" OR "php engineer" OR "senior php developer" OR "backend php developer") AND php AND (laravel OR symfony OR composer) NOT ("partial hospitalization" OR recruiter OR instructor)

2. Laravel developer — LinkedIn Recruiter, Job titles + Keywords filters
("laravel developer" OR "php developer" OR "backend engineer" OR "full stack developer") AND laravel AND (eloquent OR livewire OR inertia OR horizon)

3. Symfony developer — Dice resume search
(symfony) AND (doctrine OR "api platform" OR twig) AND (php)

WordPress, Drupal and commerce

4. WordPress plugin developer — LinkedIn general search
("wordpress developer" OR "wordpress engineer" OR "php developer") AND wordpress AND ("custom plugins" OR "plugin development" OR gutenberg OR "rest api") NOT ("web designer" OR blogger OR recruiter)

5. Drupal developer for an upgrade — LinkedIn general search
("drupal developer" OR "drupal engineer" OR "php developer") AND drupal AND ("drupal 10" OR "drupal 11") AND (migration OR upgrade OR upgraded OR "custom modules")

6. Magento or Adobe Commerce developer — Dice resume search
(magento OR "adobe commerce") AND (php) AND ("custom modules" OR extensions OR backend)

Upgrades, quality, GitHub and X-ray

7. Legacy PHP upgrade — LinkedIn general search
("php developer" OR "senior php developer" OR "backend engineer") AND ("php 5" OR "php 7" OR "zend framework" OR codeigniter) AND ("php 8" OR laravel OR symfony) AND (migration OR migrated OR upgrade OR upgraded)

8. PHP developer who tests — LinkedIn Recruiter, Keywords filter
(php OR laravel OR symfony) AND (phpunit OR pest) AND (phpstan OR psalm)

9. Public GitHub accounts by language and city — GitHub user search
language:php location:"austin" type:user repos:>10

10. Public LinkedIn profiles by framework and metro — Google X-ray
site:linkedin.com/in "laravel developer" "vue" "austin" -jobs -recruiter

What LinkedIn, Dice, GitHub, Packagist and Google actually support

As of November 2026, LinkedIn's Boolean help page requires AND, OR and NOT in capitals, supports quotes and parentheses, gives OR the lowest precedence and does not support wildcards, so "php developer," "php engineer" and "senior php developer" each need writing out. LinkedIn Recruiter's Boolean page warns that too many facets in one query can cause a search result issue; put the titles in Job titles and the framework in Skills.

Dice's Boolean guide supports parentheses, quotes, AND, OR and NOT, fills in word endings automatically, and uses (php) AND (sql OR lamp OR linux OR apache) as its sample string for a Senior PHP Developer. That sample is broad on purpose; adding a framework block, as in strings 3 and 6, is what keeps the hospital and peso profiles out. Dice also warns that NOT drops anyone with the term anywhere in the resume, so keep exclusions short.

GitHub's user search documents language:, location:, repos: and type:user, and says language: matches users with a majority of their repositories in that language. PHP has one more public source. Packagist describes itself as the default Composer package repository, and each package page lists its maintainers with links to their Packagist profiles. When a client depends on a library, its maintainers are people who know that code better than anyone; treat them as leads and contact them about the role the way you would any other passive candidate. Google's search operators page documents quotes, site:, the minus sign and filetype:, but not OR, so string 10 uses none.

Narrowing by platform, hosting and seniority

The first question for a PHP intake is whether the client is building an application or running a site. An application team on Laravel or Symfony wants service design, queues, tests and APIs; a marketing site on WordPress or Drupal wants themes, custom plugins or modules, content migrations and page speed; a store on Magento or WooCommerce wants checkout, catalog and payment integrations. The three groups overlap less than their shared language suggests, so pick the group first and keep the others for a second pass.

Hosting is the second filter. Teams on shared hosting and cPanel write Apache and FTP; teams on modern infrastructure write Docker, AWS, Laravel Forge or Vapor, queues and CI pipelines. For seniority, look for "led the upgrade," "designed the API," "owned the release," "code reviews" and "mentored," over "maintained sites" and "made changes." LinkedIn's premium search filters page lists Years of Experience and Seniority Level only for Recruiter and Sales Navigator, as of November 2026. If the client will take strong backend developers from another language, the Python strings find the nearest neighbors.

False positives worth excluding with NOT

• Partial hospitalization programs. CMS's local coverage determination on Partial Hospitalization Programs says "Partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) are structured to provide intensive psychiatric care." Therapists, nurses and program directors in behavioral health write PHP next to IOP. Exclude "partial hospitalization," iop and "behavioral health."
• The Philippine peso. SIX, which its data standards page calls the official maintenance agency for ISO 4217 currency codes, lists PHP as the code for the Philippine peso. Remittance, treasury and payroll profiles use it; exclude peso and remittance if they appear.
• Site builders, for application roles. Many WordPress profiles describe page builders and themes rather than code. Require Composer, a framework, PHPUnit or "custom plugins," and exclude "web designer."
• Administrators who configure PHP. Hosting and systems administrators tune PHP-FPM and Apache without writing applications. Exclude "system administrator" for development roles; for that hire, use Boolean search strings for systems administrators.
• Students, for senior roles. Course projects list PHP and MySQL. Exclude "student" and "intern" when the client needs production experience.
• Recruiters and trainers. Exclude "recruiter," "talent acquisition" and "instructor."

A worked example: three passes on a PHP 7 upgrade search

An invented search, shown as it actually gets narrowed.

The framework block removed the collisions; the legacy block found the people who have done this exact job. On PHP searches, version and framework words do more work than the language name.

What a search cannot verify

A string can find someone whose profile names the right framework and versions. It cannot show whether their code is tested and secure, whether they designed the application or patched it, or whether a listed certification is theirs. Ask for a code sample or a walk-through of their last upgrade, then use the software engineer phone screen questions for the first call and the interview guide for software engineers for the technical rounds. If you are not technical yourself, how to interview for technical roles as a non-technical recruiter has questions that still separate the strong candidates.