A "Laravel developer" who has only ever built CRUD admin panels takes your Shopify-app or API-integration project and learns OAuth, webhooks and HMAC on your budget. The auth layer is where it breaks.
Hire a Laravel developer who shipped a live Shopify app to a 50-year jewelry brand.
Independent Laravel developer building the custom backends that sit behind ecommerce — embedded Shopify apps, REST and GraphQL APIs, AI quote engines, SaaS MVPs. Laravel 12, clean service-layer architecture, your repo, your IP, no agency markup.
Book a 20-min scope call → See selected work
◆ Laravel 12 · Shopify embedded apps (kyon147/laravel-shopify) · OpenAI · 6+ years shipping production work
What goes wrong with the typical Laravel hire.
Five patterns I clean up after on Laravel projects that stalled or shipped fragile. The fix is rarely "more developers" — it's one engineer who has actually shipped the kind of app you need into production.
Fat controllers, business logic in Blade, no service layer. It runs in the demo and becomes unmaintainable by month three — the exact CodeIgniter-era mess you were trying to escape.
No queues, no jobs, no rate-limit handling. The integration hits a third-party API synchronously inside the request, and the app times out the moment traffic or catalog size grows.
Migrating a live, billing, token-bearing app gets treated like a greenfield rewrite — and merchants get logged out, billing state is lost, or webhooks silently stop firing during cutover.
No tests on the money paths. Pricing logic, quote calculation, billing webhooks — the parts where a bug costs real revenue — ship with zero coverage.
What you get when you hire me on Laravel.
I build Laravel from scoping through launch and post-launch monitoring. Production-grade by default: service-layer architecture, queued jobs, tests on the critical paths, and a README that explains the integration points. Everything below is in scope unless we trim it on the scope call.
- ◆ Embedded Shopify apps on Laravel 12 — OAuth, embedded auth, billing middleware, webhook lifecycle and ShopModel conventions via kyon147/laravel-shopify. App Bridge + Polaris admin UI.
- ◆ Shopify App Proxy storefront patterns — HMAC signature validation, Liquid-compatible responses, PostRobot add-to-cart events, line-item properties wired back to the cart.
- ◆ REST and GraphQL APIs — versioned, authenticated (Sanctum / Passport / token), rate-limited, documented, and consumable by a Next.js / React / mobile front-end.
- ◆ AI quote engines and chat backends — OpenAI / Anthropic function calling, RAG over your catalog or docs, structured quote output, every conversation stored for the sales team.
- ◆ Third-party integrations done with queues — Stripe, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, ERPs, payment gateways — async jobs, retry/backoff, idempotency, no synchronous calls inside the request.
- ◆ Legacy rewrites without downtime — CodeIgniter / raw-PHP → Laravel 12, preserving live operations, billing state and access tokens through cutover (this is exactly the Stuller migration).
- ◆ SaaS MVPs — auth, teams/roles, billing (Cashier + Stripe), dashboard, the core feature loop — shipped lean in 6-10 weeks so you can put it in front of customers.
- ◆ Tests on the money paths — Pest / phpUnit on pricing, quote calculation, billing webhooks and auth. Feature tests against a real app boot, not mocked-to-meaninglessness.
- ◆ Deployment + ops — Dockerized, GitLab/GitHub CI/CD, queue workers, scheduler, error tracking (Sentry/Flare), so it runs unattended after launch.
- ◆ 14 days of post-launch monitoring + iteration. Bugs in delivered scope fixed free.
Three ways to work together.
Most Laravel projects fit one of these. If yours doesn't, I quote inside 48 hours after a scope call.
From $2,400
- One scoped feature, integration, or API surface
- Service-layer architecture, not fat controllers
- Queued jobs for any third-party calls
- Pest/phpUnit on the critical path
- README + 7 days post-launch support
From $6,000
- Embedded Shopify app, API platform, or AI quote engine
- OAuth / billing / webhooks (Shopify) or auth + rate limiting (API)
- 2-3 third-party integrations via queued jobs
- Polaris or custom admin UI matched to the workflow
- CI/CD, Dockerized deploy, error tracking
- 14 days post-launch iteration
From $15,000
- Multi-tenant SaaS or App Store-grade Shopify app
- Teams/roles, Cashier + Stripe billing, usage metering
- GraphQL or versioned REST API for a headless/mobile front-end
- RAG / AI layer if the product warrants it
- Full feature + integration test coverage, PHPStan
- 30 days post-launch support + retainer option
How a typical project ships.
Scope call (20-30 min)
You walk me through the product, the integration surface, and where the budget lives. I tell you on the call whether Laravel is the right tool and whether I'm the right fit.
Spec doc + fixed quote
Within 48h: a spec doc with the data model, API/auth design, integration points and a fixed-price quote with a delivery date. NDA-ready.
Build + weekly demo
Code in your repo from day one. Daily Loom updates, weekly demo on a staging URL. Tests written as I build the money paths, not bolted on at the end.
Ship + 14-day support
Deploy with CI/CD, queue workers and monitoring. Live walkthrough, written handoff doc, 14 days of iteration so it doesn't go quiet after launch.
Questions clients ask before hiring.
No fluff — the specifics buyers want before booking a call. If yours isn't here, ask on the call.
What kind of Laravel work do you specialise in?
Backends behind ecommerce and lead-gen: embedded Shopify apps, REST/GraphQL APIs, AI quote engines and chat backends, third-party integrations, and SaaS MVPs. The common thread is integration-heavy, production-grade Laravel — not brochure-site CRUD. My flagship is a live Laravel 12 Shopify app for Stuller, a 50-year jewelry brand.
Have you shipped a real Shopify app on Laravel?
Yes. I rebuilt Stuller's Shopify integration from a legacy CodeIgniter codebase to Laravel 12 without merchant disruption — OAuth, embedded auth, billing middleware, webhook lifecycle and ShopModel conventions via kyon147/laravel-shopify, plus an App Proxy storefront pattern with HMAC validation and three product paths (simple, configurable, certified stones). Live stores, billing state and access tokens stayed intact through cutover. The full write-up is on the blog at /shopify-plus-iframe-catalog-migration-stuller/.
Can you migrate a legacy PHP / CodeIgniter app to Laravel without downtime?
Yes — this is one of my niches. The discipline is: re-implement core logic in Laravel services and controllers while keeping the merchant-facing flow stable, align model conventions to the package so live data keeps working, and detect/handle re-auth paths explicitly (401 detection) so tokens and billing survive cutover. I did exactly this for Stuller with zero merchant disruption.
Do you build AI features on Laravel?
Yes — OpenAI and Anthropic function calling, RAG grounded in your catalog or docs, conversational quote engines that return structured output and log every conversation. I shipped an AI Quote Engine on Laravel + OpenAI that asks the right follow-ups and hands a structured quote to the sales team. See /ai-quote-engine-wordpress/ for the productized version of that work.
Do I own the code?
Yes — full IP transfer on final payment. Code lives in your repo from day one (your GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket, or mine to start if you don't have one). Dockerized, CI/CD configured, documented — your next developer can pick it up without calling me.
How do you keep the codebase maintainable?
Service-layer architecture (logic out of controllers and Blade), form requests for validation, queued jobs for every third-party call, typed code, and Pest/phpUnit on the money paths. Platform-tier work also gets PHPStan static analysis. The goal is that the app is still clean to extend a year after I hand it over.
Where are you based and how do hours overlap with the US/UK?
Anantnag, Kashmir (UTC+5). I work US-friendly hours by default — typically 7am-3pm ET — with full overlap on the UK morning. Daily Loom updates, weekly demo call, async-first otherwise. NDA-ready, contracts via DocuSign.
Do you take a deposit?
50% to start, 50% on launch, via wire, Wise, or Stripe Invoice. Projects over $20K can be milestone-billed. For Fiverr clients, full upfront via the platform per Fiverr's rules.
Related pages & posts.
CodeIgniter → Laravel 12 Shopify app for Stuller
A live app migrated to Laravel with zero merchant disruption.
Open →AI Quote Engine (Laravel + OpenAI)
Conversational, RAG-grounded quoting backend.
Open →Hire a Shopify Developer
The storefront side of the same builds.
Open →Next.js + Shopify Headless
When the Laravel API feeds a React front-end.
Open →Selected work
Stuller, GemFind, AI builds, migrations.
Open →
Spec your Laravel build
in a 30-min call.
Tell me what the backend has to do — the Shopify app, the API, the quote engine, the SaaS. I send back a spec doc and a fixed quote inside 48 hours.