Custom PHP applications for proxy and IP resellers

The point where a store becomes a platform

A store sells a plan. A platform manages the lifecycle after the sale: credentials issued, rotated and revoked, usage visible to the customer, renewals and upgrades handled without an email exchange, and an admin view that answers "what is this customer paying for" in one screen.

Most operators reach that point when support volume starts eating the margin. The fix is not more support — it is giving the customer a portal that answers the three questions they were writing in about.

Why PHP rather than something newer

Because it runs on the shared hosting you are already paying for. Moving a working proxy business onto a Node or containerised stack triples the hosting cost and adds an operational burden, to solve a problem the business does not have.

The architecture matters more than the language: a documented schema, prepared statements everywhere, role-based access where more than one person logs in, and written handover documentation so another developer can take over without calling me.

Typical scope

• Documented database design covering plans, configurations, orders, credentials and usage
• Customer portal: active plans, credentials, renewal dates, invoices, self-service upgrades
• Automated provisioning against your upstream API, with a defined failure path
• Admin dashboard for plans, pricing, customers, refunds and manual interventions
• Transactional email through PHPMailer with SPF, DKIM and DMARC aligned so it reaches inboxes
• Handover documentation written for whoever maintains it next

What this industry runs into

• Plans vary by type, location, bandwidth and duration — a normal product grid cannot express it
• Delivery has to be instant and automated, or support volume kills the margin
• Customers need a dashboard to see credentials, usage and renewals
• Payment processing in this niche needs careful handling

Questions specific to this work

Can you extend the platform I already have?

Usually. I will read the codebase first and give you a straight answer on whether extending it is cheaper than replacing it — sometimes the honest answer is that the existing schema cannot carry what you want next.

Who owns the code?

You do, in your repository, with the deployment process documented rather than held in my head. That is a line item in the quote, not a favour at the end.

How do you handle credentials securely?

Hashed where they can be, encrypted at rest where they cannot, never logged, and never emailed in plain text where a token link will do. Access is role-scoped, and admin actions are recorded.

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