CodeIgniter Development · Gloucester · Gloucestershire · Based in Gravesend
CodeIgniter Development in Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Lean CodeIgniter web apps and APIs built quickly for Gloucester and Gloucestershire businesses, plus expert support, maintenance, modernisation and rescue of the existing CodeIgniter systems you already depend on. Built properly, kept running, delivered by a UK team you actually speak to.
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CodeIgniter is for lean, fast builds, and for keeping existing systems alive.
CodeIgniter is a lightweight PHP framework. Its appeal is simple: it is small, it is fast, it has very few dependencies, and it gets out of your way. When a project has a defined scope and needs to be built quickly and cheaply, without the ceremony of a large framework, CodeIgniter is often the most sensible tool for the job. It does not try to do everything; it does the common things well and stays out of the way for the rest.
There is a second, equally important reason CodeIgniter matters: an enormous amount of working business software is already built on it. For years it was one of the most popular PHP frameworks in the UK, which means a great many companies in Gloucester and across Gloucestershire are quietly running on a CodeIgniter application that was built some time ago and still does its job. Those systems need looking after: patching, fixing, extending, and eventually modernising. A large part of what we do is exactly that, taking over CodeIgniter applications and keeping them reliable long after the people who first wrote them have moved on.
Supporting and rescuing existing CI apps
The big one. You have a CodeIgniter application that runs the business, but the original developer has gone, the code is undocumented, and changes feel risky. We take it over, audit it, stabilise it, and maintain it properly so it stops being a liability.
Lean web apps, built fast
When a project has a clear, modest scope and needs to ship quickly, CodeIgniter's small footprint and minimal overhead make it a pragmatic choice. You get a working application sooner and at lower cost than a heavier framework would demand.
Lightweight APIs and integrations
A focused REST API, a webhook handler, or a small integration that moves data between two systems does not need a large framework around it. CodeIgniter is fast to stand up for this kind of work and easy to deploy on modest hosting.
Internal tools and admin systems
Order lookups, stock tools, booking systems, internal dashboards, and the small operational utilities that keep a business running. CodeIgniter is well suited to building these quickly without over-engineering them.
CI3 to CI4 migrations
CodeIgniter 4 is a modern, namespaced, composer-managed rewrite. When an older CI3 application is worth keeping but the platform is holding it back, we plan and carry out a controlled migration, preserving the business logic that usually lives only in the existing code.
Performance and security hardening
Older CodeIgniter applications often accumulate slow queries, outdated dependencies, and security gaps. We profile, patch, and harden them so the system you depend on is fast and safe rather than a quiet risk sitting in production.
Bolt-on modules and features
Adding a new feature, report, or integration to an existing CodeIgniter system without rebuilding the whole thing. We work within the conventions already there so the addition fits cleanly rather than fighting the existing code.
Where a project is genuinely complex, with heavy business logic, large teams, and long-term scale, we will usually point you towards Laravel instead, and say so plainly. Where the job is really a content-led website, WordPress is the better answer. CodeIgniter shines in the middle: lean builds done quickly, and the long-term care of the many systems already built on it.
Laravel vs CodeIgniter vs WordPress
We build in Laravel, CodeIgniter, and WordPress. We are not going to recommend one over the others just to win a project. The right framework depends on the problem, and picking the wrong one is one of the most expensive mistakes a project can make. Here is an honest comparison of when each is the right choice, with CodeIgniter in its sweet spot: lean, fast builds and the long-term support of systems already built on it.
| Situation | Laravel | CodeIgniter | WordPress |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean web app, fast turnaround, modest scope | Can be overkill | ✓ Best fit | Depends on content |
| Supporting or rescuing an existing CodeIgniter app | Not applicable | ✓ Best fit | Not applicable |
| Lightweight API or small integration | Workable, heavier | ✓ Best fit | Not suited |
| Complex application with heavy business logic | ✓ Best fit | Possible, can strain | Not suited |
| Multi-tenant SaaS or large structured team | ✓ Best fit | Workable | Not suited |
| Content-led site with editorial workflow | Possible but heavy | Not suited | ✓ Best fit |
| Small footprint, modest hosting, low overhead | Heavier stack | ✓ Best fit | Plugin-dependent |
| Heavy background processing and scheduled jobs | ✓ Best fit | Manual effort | Not suited |
If you are not sure which applies to your project, describe the problem and we will tell you what we would reach for and why, even if the honest answer is that CodeIgniter is not the right tool for a new build, or that the existing CodeIgniter app you have is better off being maintained than replaced.
How we approach a CodeIgniter project
Whether we are building something lean from scratch or taking over an application someone else wrote years ago, the framework is only part of the story. A fast build still needs to be scoped sensibly, and a rescue job needs to be understood before anything is touched. Here is what we pay attention to, and the stages the work actually moves through.
Audit before we touch anything
For an existing CodeIgniter system, the first job is understanding it. We read the code, map the data, find the undocumented behaviour, and identify the risk before we change a line. You cannot safely maintain what you do not understand.
Right-sized scope for a lean build
CodeIgniter's strength is speed and simplicity, so we keep the scope honest. We resist gold-plating a lean build into something that should have been Laravel, and we deliver the focused thing you actually need quickly.
Security and dependency hygiene
Older CodeIgniter apps often run on outdated PHP and unpatched libraries. We bring versions up to safe ground, close the obvious holes, and make staying current a managed routine rather than a problem building up silently.
Performance where it counts
We profile real bottlenecks rather than guessing. Slow queries, missing indexes, and inefficient loops are where most CodeIgniter performance problems actually live, and they are usually fixable without a rewrite.
Maintainable by anyone competent
We follow CodeIgniter conventions and keep the code readable, so you are never locked into a single developer again. If you bring the work in-house or to another team, the code makes sense to them.
Honest about rebuild vs maintain
Sometimes the right answer is to keep maintaining a solid CI app; sometimes it is to migrate to CI4 or rebuild in Laravel. We give you the assessment straight, with no incentive to push the most expensive route.
From first conversation to long-term maintenance
We run CodeIgniter projects in clear stages so you always know where things stand, what is being decided, and what comes next. Because you deal directly with Rob and Jason rather than an account manager, there is no layer of translation between what you ask for and what gets built or fixed. This is the same process whether you are in Gloucester, London, or anywhere else in the UK.
- Discovery, or code auditFor a new build we get to the bottom of what it needs to do, who uses it, and what success looks like. For an existing system we audit the code first, so you get an honest picture of what you have inherited and where the risk sits before anything is touched.
- Scope and honest recommendationWe tell you whether CodeIgniter is the right fit, whether your existing app should be maintained or modernised, and what the work involves. The output is a clear scope and a fixed-price proposal, or a clear rate for ongoing support, based on what we actually find.
- Stabilise, then buildFor a rescue, we stabilise anything fragile and fix the urgent problems first, so the business stops bleeding before we improve anything. For a new build, we develop in working increments against a staging environment you can access throughout.
- Testing and quality assuranceWe test the workflows your users actually follow, including the awkward edge cases, not just the happy path that demos well. On inherited systems we are especially careful that fixes do not break behaviour the business quietly depends on.
- Deployment and go-liveA controlled deployment with a clear plan and sensible rollback. Where we are changing a live system people rely on, going live is an event we have rehearsed, not a leap of faith.
- Ongoing support and modernisationDocumentation, access, and a straightforward handover, followed by whatever support arrangement suits you, from occasional changes to a regular retainer. We keep CodeIgniter applications patched, supported, and gradually modernised for the long term.
We have maintained production PHP software for well over a decade.
We do not just build applications and walk away. CoreCRM, our own CRM product, has been in continuous production use since 2011, and we have supported and extended client systems for years. That long-term discipline is exactly what taking over and maintaining someone else's CodeIgniter application demands: the willingness to understand existing code, keep it patched, and depend on it day after day rather than just shipping and leaving.
A Kent team trusted with national operational software
Telegraph Media Group, Hearst Communications, CDS Global, AX Paris, Motel Rocks
These are not the typical clients of a regional development agency. They are the kind of businesses that usually work with large London firms. They work with us because the technical depth is there and the overhead is not, and because they get the founders directly rather than a managed account. Distance has never been the issue: most of our work has been delivered remotely for years.
Across that work we choose the framework that fits the job. CodeIgniter and lean PHP are what we reach for when something needs to be built quickly and kept light, or when an existing system needs careful, ongoing care rather than a grand rebuild. The discipline of maintaining software people depend on, long after launch, is the same whatever the framework.
- Telegraph Media Group: custom operational software built on PHP, maintained and extended over years
- Hearst Communications: bespoke systems development for a global publishing operation
- CDS Global: multi-year development engagement on business-critical operational software
- AX Paris: bespoke back-office connecting Shopify to warehouse and despatch workflows. Case study.
- Motel Rocks: integration middleware connecting Shopify to Oracle NetSuite and 3PL providers. Case study.
Working with Gloucester and Gloucestershire businesses
Gloucester is a cathedral city on the River Severn with a long industrial and trading history, and Gloucestershire around it carries a distinctive economic mix: advanced manufacturing and aerospace and defence engineering, cyber and digital around the wider county, agriculture and food production, logistics and distribution along the M5 corridor, professional and financial services, and a significant public-sector and education presence. That spread produces exactly the kind of businesses that end up running on practical operational software: stock and order tools, booking and scheduling systems, internal admin platforms, and small integrations that quietly hold day-to-day operations together.
A lot of that software is built on CodeIgniter, often some years ago, and still doing its job. That is where we are genuinely useful: keeping those systems patched and supported, fixing what breaks, adding what is needed, and modernising at a sensible pace. And where a business needs something new and lean built quickly, CodeIgniter is frequently the most cost-effective way to get there.
We are not local to Gloucester, and we are not going to pretend otherwise: Gravesend is roughly 160 miles away. What we offer instead is a genuinely senior UK team, working entirely in-house with no offshore arm, available to you directly rather than through layers of account management. In practice the distance changes nothing about the quality of the work. Most of our projects, including for national clients, are delivered remotely with regular video calls and a shared staging environment you can see progress on. We travel to Gloucestershire for a kick-off or a key milestone when being in the room genuinely helps, and otherwise keep the overhead, and your costs, sensibly low.
Related CodeIgniter pages
How to choose a CodeIgniter developer in Gloucester
Whether you end up working with us, a local Gloucester agency, or a freelancer, these are the questions worth asking before you commit, especially if you are handing over an existing system. The answers tell you a lot about what you are actually buying.
Will they audit before they change anything?
A developer who promises fixes before reading your code is guessing. A proper partner audits an existing CodeIgniter application first, tells you what they found, and only then proposes the work. Anyone skipping that step is taking risks with a system you depend on.
Do they handle both CI3 and CI4?
Most real-world CodeIgniter systems are still on CI3. You need someone comfortable maintaining legacy CI3 as well as building on modern CI4, and who can plan a migration between them when it is genuinely worth doing rather than just to bill for it.
Is the framework choice honest?
A developer who recommends one framework for everything is selling, not advising. The right partner will tell you when Laravel suits a complex build better, or WordPress suits a content site, and will explain why CodeIgniter is or is not the fit for your project.
Who actually does the work?
Some agencies pitch with senior people and deliver via juniors or offshore teams you never meet. Ask directly who will work on your application and who you call when something breaks. At Dev Partners it is the founders and an in-house UK team, with no offshore.
What does ongoing support look like?
Existing systems need patching, security updates, and the occasional fix indefinitely. Ask how support is arranged, how they keep PHP and dependencies current, and what a retainer actually costs. Vague answers here become expensive surprises later.
How do they handle handover and lock-in?
You should never be trapped by code only one person understands again, which is probably why you are looking in the first place. Ask about documentation, coding standards, and what happens if you move the work elsewhere. Readable, conventional CodeIgniter is the answer.
What our clients say
20 clients. A few of their words.
A well-rounded team, ensuring a full suite of expertise & resource is always available. CDS Global have seen the successful completion of major projects over the years where Dev Partners' ability to grasp the underlying business needs to provide a future-proof solution has been invaluable.
We have worked with Jason & his team to develop our Shopify store, and the experience was outstanding from start to finish. The design is clean, modern, and perfectly aligned with our brand identity, while the build is fast, responsive, and easy to manage on the backend. They clearly understood our vision and delivered a store we're genuinely proud of. Highly recommend to any brand looking for a top-quality Shopify partner.
After ongoing issues and delays with our previous developers, we brought in Rob & Jason at Dev Partners to take over all our websites and bespoke software. What a breath of fresh air, fully focused, excellent pre-launch designs and clear communication throughout. Highly recommended.
BPC Energy Ltd turned to Dev Partners for a complete turnkey solution, and they exceeded our expectations. The team handled everything from project management to development and support with real care and attention. They understood what we were aiming for, stayed on top of every detail, and always delivered on schedule with excellent quality.
Working with Dev Partners to redesign and modernise our WMS system: the whole process has been thoroughly professional from the outset and a delight to work with. Cannot recommend enough.
Great agency. Have used Dev Partners for several years and they have built 20+ sites for us, in addition to taking on our legacy websites, upgrading and maintaining. Easy to work with and some great practical ideas to improve our digital offerings.
Jones Hire have been working with Dev Partners on several projects, which have been very successful. They linked our catering database to a new improved website so clients can easily place and update orders, created a custom warehouse picking app to fulfil all our challenging requirements, and are currently developing a custom transport app to streamline our loading and delivery process.
We have been trying to reinvent our website for over 5 years, trying to make it convert and failing each time. Spoke to Rob at Dev Partners, the team helped create our new site and the improvement was instant.
We have been working with Rob and the team for about 10 years now. Dev Partners helped us build a completely bespoke CRM from scratch which manages our daily business and is always well maintained. We have been able to use the system and roll it out in our new franchise branches.
We collaborated with Dev Partners on the front end of a fairly complex telemarketing platform. Rob and Jason took the time to properly understand the moving parts, asked the right questions, and delivered a clean, intuitive interface that's made the system far easier for our team to use.
I have been working with the team at Dev Partners for the last 3 years and we have always been impressed with the speed in which they act on things for us, along with the honest open communication. The team are a valuable and vital part of our supply chain.
We've had a program for our business in the electronic security sector that Dev Partners developed and keep up to date. They've never let us down, always there when needed. Thanks Rob and the team.
Dev Partners have been working with us for just over 2 years. They have significantly upgraded and redesigned our existing web platforms, and always deliver a first class service.
Dev Partners helped us build an event website. The team were very knowledgeable, easy to work with and quick to deliver a high quality product.
Working with Dev Partners has been an exceptional experience. Their team is highly skilled, professional, and committed to delivering results. What truly sets them apart is their communication and transparency; we always felt informed, supported, and confident.
We've worked with Dev Partners a few times to support us on bespoke web build tasks. They're very easy to work with, approachable, and explain the detail in a way that's understandable. A great partner for technical issues at sensible prices.
Excellent customer service backed up with solid experience. As a media business we have had five websites built by Dev Partners. I would certainly recommend them.
Found Dev Partners and they were great, nothing too much trouble. They managed to help us with integrating our old existing system with Shopify.
I've worked with Rob and his team off and on for many years and have always found them to be professional, knowledgeable, and best of all, they listen to their clients and deliver what is required.
We have worked with Dev Partners for 7 years and can highly recommend them for their expertise and excellent customer service.
CodeIgniter development in Gloucester: questions answered
The questions Gloucester and Gloucestershire businesses ask us most often about CodeIgniter projects and existing-system support.
Yes. Dev Partners is based in Gravesend, Kent, and we work with businesses across the whole of the UK, including Gloucester and the wider Gloucestershire region. CodeIgniter development is delivered remotely as standard, and the distance makes no difference to the quality of the work.
You deal directly with the founders, Rob and Jason, throughout the project. Gloucester is roughly 160 miles from Gravesend, so we lean on remote delivery and travel for a kick-off or key milestone only when it genuinely adds value.
CodeIgniter is a lightweight, fast PHP framework. It is our choice when you need a lean web application or API built quickly, with a small footprint and very little overhead, and where a heavier framework like Laravel would be overkill.
It is also the framework a great many existing business systems are already built on, which is why a large part of our CodeIgniter work is supporting, maintaining and modernising applications companies still rely on. For genuinely complex applications we may recommend Laravel; for content-led sites, WordPress. We tell you honestly which fits.
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons businesses come to us. Many companies in Gloucester and Gloucestershire run on CodeIgniter applications built years ago, often by a developer or agency that has long since moved on.
We take these systems over, audit them properly, stabilise anything fragile, fix the urgent problems, and then maintain and modernise them at a sensible pace. We work with both CodeIgniter 3 and CodeIgniter 4 codebases.
Lean internal tools and admin systems, lightweight APIs and integrations, focused web applications with a defined scope, and bolt-on modules for existing systems. Just as importantly, we take on the support and maintenance of existing CodeIgniter applications: bug fixing, security patching, performance work, adding features, and migrating CI3 systems towards CI4 or another framework when the time is right.
Gloucestershire's mix of manufacturing, aerospace and engineering, logistics, professional services and public-sector bodies produces a lot of exactly this kind of operational software.
Yes. This is a situation we see constantly and handle well. We start with a code audit so you understand exactly what you have inherited: how it is built, where the risk sits, what is undocumented, and what it would take to keep it running safely.
From there you can decide whether to keep maintaining the CI3 application, modernise it incrementally, or plan a migration to CI4 or Laravel. Either way you are no longer dependent on a single person who is no longer around.
It depends on the scope. A lean CodeIgniter app or API is one of the more cost-effective things to build because the framework is light and fast to work in, so a focused build can start from a few thousand pounds. Support and maintenance of an existing application is usually arranged as a retainer or on a per-task basis once we have audited the codebase.
We scope carefully and give you a fixed-price proposal or a clear rate based on what we actually find, rather than an estimate designed to win the work and adjust later.
It depends entirely on the state of the code and what the business needs from it. A well-built CodeIgniter application that does its job does not need replacing just because it is a few years old. We will give you an honest assessment after auditing it.
Sometimes the right answer is to keep maintaining and gradually modernising it; sometimes it is to migrate to CI4 or rebuild in Laravel because the existing code is holding the business back. We are not incentivised to push you towards the most expensive option, and we will say so plainly.
Almost all of our project work is delivered remotely, and that has been true for years across our entire client base, including national names. The quality of a CodeIgniter application, or the speed at which we can stabilise a struggling one, has nothing to do with where the developer is sitting.
We run regular video calls, share progress on a staging environment you can access, and stay reachable directly. Gloucester is roughly 160 miles from Gravesend, so we default to remote delivery and travel only when a workshop or milestone genuinely benefits from being in the room.
No. Dev Partners has been a 100% UK in-house team since we were founded in 2008. There is no offshore arm and no subcontracting of the build. The people who scope your project and audit your code are the people who write it and the people you can call when something needs attention.
For Gloucester clients that means a genuinely senior UK team without the cost structure of a large London or regional agency.
Yes. A large share of real-world CodeIgniter systems are still on CI3, and we are comfortable maintaining and extending them. We also build new work on CI4, which is a modern, namespaced, composer-managed framework.
When a CI3 application is worth modernising, we can plan and carry out a migration to CI4 in a controlled way, preserving the business logic that often lives only in the existing code and is rarely documented anywhere else.
CoreCRM is our own CRM product, in continuous production use since 2011 and built on Laravel. It is relevant because it is direct evidence that we build and maintain serious PHP software over the long term, not just for the length of a project.
The discipline that keeps our own product reliable for over a decade is exactly what we bring to maintaining and rescuing the CodeIgniter applications our clients depend on.
CodeIgniter project in Gloucester or Gloucestershire? Talk to us.
Describe the problem and we will tell you whether CodeIgniter is the right tool and what it would involve.
A lean new app or API, or taking over a CodeIgniter system that already exists and needs looking after; we give you an honest view on approach and cost before any work starts. You speak directly to the founders, not an account manager, and the team doing the work is fully UK-based and in-house.
We can also help with:
- Lean CodeIgniter web apps and APIs built fast
- Support and maintenance of existing CI3 and CI4 systems
- Rescuing inherited or undocumented CodeIgniter apps
- Security patching and performance hardening
- CI3 to CI4 migrations and modernisation
- Ongoing CodeIgniter development retainers and support
We reply to all enquiries within one working day.
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