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Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

cakephp developers - Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

CakePHP has powered enterprise-grade PHP applications for nearly two decades – and behind its resilience is a dedicated global community of elite developers.

From original core team founders and long-time maintainers to plugin creators, corporate trainers, and open-source evangelists, these individuals have shaped the framework’s evolution. Whether leading major releases, crafting high-performance architecture, or mentoring the next generation of PHP engineers, their work continues to define the Cake ecosystem. Below is a carefully curated and ranked list of the most influential CakePHP developers in the world today – selected for their technical contributions, community leadership, and lasting impact on the framework.

  1. Jose Diaz-Gonzalez
  2. Jorge González
  3. Mark Story
  4. José Lorenzo Rodríguez
  5. Larry Masters
  6. Mark Scherer
  7. Michael Hoffmann
  8. Kevin Pfeifer
  9. Marc Würth
  10. Walther Lalk
  11. Ilie Pandia
  12. Alejandro Ibarra
  13. Adam Rusinowski
  14. Joris Vaesen
  15. Erwane Breton

Now, let’s delve into their profiles and contributions:

Jose Diaz-Gonzalez

YouTube Video

Nationality: American

Jose “Savant” is a NY–based CakePHP core team member with an extremely active GitHub account.

He’s been developing software since at least 2008, focusing on server monitoring and Docker technology. Jose has contributed many fixes and improvements to CakePHP, and he often blogs about backend operations. His GitHub (username josegonzalez) hosts dozens of PHP and DevOps projects, and his expertise is widely recognized by the CakePHP community.

Jorge Gonzalez

Nationality: Spanish

Jorge (nickname steinkel) is a veteran CakePHP trainer and developer from Spain.

He fell in love with CakePHP at age 12 and joined CakeDC in 2012, eventually becoming a Senior CakePHP Developer and Project Manager. Jorge conducts official CakePHP training courses (both online and in-person) and has given many conference talks on Cake and PHP workflows. He also blogs on performance and scalability, and he actively contributes plugins and fixes to Cake PHP core.

Mark Story

Mark Story - Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

Nationality: Canadian

Mark has been a CakePHP lead developer since 2009.

During the day he is a Staff Engineer at Sentry (a major monitoring platform), and in his spare time he “hacks on CakePHP”. He helped shepherd Cake through versions 3, 4, and 5, and he often blogs and speaks about PHP best practices. Mark is also the author of the CakePHP ORM, and in community forums he’s known for answering technical questions and sharing insights.

Jose Lorenzo Rodriguez

Nationality: Spanish

José is a full-stack developer from Spain who has contributed to CakePHP since 2009.

He loves solving difficult problems and is particularly known for his work on Cake’s ORM (database layer). Lorenzo frequently gives talks and writes about CakePHP, and he often teaches others how to use Cake’s powerful features. His technical expertise and community engagement (meetups, tutorials, blog posts) make him a respected influencer in the PHP space.

Larry Masters

Larry Masters - Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

Nationality: American

Larry co-founded CakePHP (first released in 2005) and has led its development for nearly two decades.

He is a veteran open-source advocate (earlier PostNuke core developer) who founded the Cake Software Foundation and CakeDC (the CakePHP company). Based in Tennessee, Larry continues to contribute to Cake’s core while guiding the project’s direction. His passion for excellence and decades of experience shine through his code and leadership.

Mark Scherer

Nationality: German

Mark is a German open-source expert who has used CakePHP since the 1.2 days.

He’s been a core team member for years and emphasizes rapid development and code reuse. Mark writes extensively on his blog (dereuromark.de) about Cake, PHP tooling, and DevOps. Living in Berlin, he also creates Cake PHP plugins (like DebugKit, CakePdf, etc.) and speaks at conferences, teaching best practices for clean code and automated workflows.

Michael Hoffmann

Nationality: German

Michael “Michi” is a CakePHP core team developer and a web engineer at the mobile app company magicplan in Munich.

He started using CakePHP in 2014 and joined the core team in 2017. Michael works on the core framework (merging PRs, fixing bugs) and has spoken at Cake Fest conferences. He also contributes to security and modernization efforts in CakePHP, and in his free time he often posts about Cake features and PHP on social media.

Kevin Pfeifer

Kevin Pfeifer - Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

Nationality: Austrian

Kevin is an Austrian web developer who served on the CakePHP core team from 2017 to 2024.

He began using CakePHP in 2017 and was officially added to the core in late 2021. Kevin is best known for creating the popular cakephp-queue plugin, which is used in many enterprise apps. He has contributed numerous patches to CakePHP releases (e.g. 4.6) and is active on StackOverflow answering Cake questions.

Marc Würth

Nationality: Swiss

Marc is a Swiss CakePHP core developer since the end of 2012.

A lifelong open-source enthusiast, Marc co-maintains PHPMD (PHP Mess Detector) and other quality tools. He works as Head of Development at ORCA Services AG in Basel and focuses on code style, testing, and clean architecture. Marc’s contributions to CakePHP include documentation and core improvements, and he is known for promoting best practices in the community.

Walther Lalk

Nationality: South African

Walther “Dakota” is a senior software engineer in Ireland who uses CakePHP extensively.

He is a CakePHP core member and also contributes to Croogo CMS (which is CakePHP-based). Walther often posts CakePHP tips on his blog and Twitter, and he represents CakePHP in user groups. When not coding, he’s a Cub Scout leader, so he’s known as a “core member” of both Cake and the local community.

Ilie Pandia

Ilie Pandia - Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

Nationality: Romanian

Ilie is a Romanian full-stack developer and former CakeDC team member.

He contributed to Cake PHP 4.0 (listed as a contributor on the 4.0 release). Ilie has also led Cake projects in Europe and is known for mentorship in programming contests (he co-founded a code competition startup). He often writes about PHP and DevOps on his blog. Though less active in CakePHP core after 4.x, his earlier contributions and community involvement make him notable.

Alejandro Ibarra

Nationality: Mexican

Alejandro is a Senior Developer at CakeDC and a leading Cake consultant.

He has used Cake PHP professionally for over 8 years, building high-traffic applications (for example Avon Cosmetics websites). Alejandro emphasizes clean architecture and code quality; he teaches CakePHP through corporate trainings and is known for designing maintainable systems. In CakeDC’s team pages he’s listed as a senior engineer and business modeler, reflecting both his technical and leadership roles.

Adam Rusinowski

Nationality: Polish

Adam is a software developer who “discovered CakePHP in 2006”.

He has worked as a freelance programmer and in enterprises (NGOs, telecom) using CakePHP at scale. Adam joined CakeDC in 2022 as a senior CakePHP developer. He is known in the community for writing clear, well-tested code and promoting best practices (e.g. SOLID principles) in CakePHP applications. Adam often helps with complex issues on GitHub and in the Cake Slack channels.

Joris Vaesen

Joris Vaesen - Best 15 CakePHP Developers for Hire

Nationality: Belgian

Joris is a Belgian CakePHP contributor and tech consultant.

He authored the cakephp-settings plugin and other utilities. Joris was listed among the contributors to CakePHP 4.6.1. He works at Umbo Computer Vision (Belgium) on PHP applications. Joris is active on GitHub and often shares tips on CMS integrations and Cake PHP API usage.

Erwane Breton

Nationality: French

Erwane is a software developer and CakePHP contributor.

He appeared on the CakePHP 4.0 contributor list. Erwane has contributed bug fixes and features to CakePHP (often around validation and database layers). He works on enterprise web projects in France and occasionally presents at meetups. Erwane is also active in the Symfony community, but he continues to support CakePHP through code and documentation.

Wrap Up

These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.

Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. However, if you believe a correction or addition is needed, feel free to reach out. We’ll gladly review and update the page.

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