# [Hiring] PHP 8 Migration — Sage 9 Theme + Custom Plugin with Eloquent ORM

**URL:** https://discourse.roots.io/t/hiring-php-8-migration-sage-9-theme-custom-plugin-with-eloquent-orm/30153
**Category:** jobs
**Tags:** sage9
**Created:** 2026-02-11T15:37:44Z
**Posts:** 1

## Post 1 by @redu — 2026-02-11T15:37:45Z

Hey Roots community — I posted here a while back asking about Sage 9→10 migration. After digging deeper into the codebase, I’ve decided to stay on Sage 9 and just fix PHP 8 compatibility. Now I need someone to actually do the work.

**The situation:** I run a test prep site on Sage 9 with a custom quiz plugin. Both use `tareq1988/wp-eloquent` which pins illuminate to ^5.4 — that’s the main blocker. The theme also has `roots/sage-lib` 9.0.5 pinning `illuminate/view` to ~5.6.

I’ve done a full source code audit and documented every PHP 8 issue in both the theme and plugin. This isn’t a discovery project — I know what’s broken and roughly how to fix it. I need someone comfortable with Composer dependency resolution, Sage 9 internals, and the illuminate/Eloquent stack to actually execute it and test it properly.

**Key details:**

- Plugin: 4,500 lines PHP, Vue.js 2 frontend, 8 Eloquent models, Phinx migrations

- Theme: 7,800 lines PHP, 66 Blade templates, 16 soberwp/controller Controllers

- Two separate vendor directories that both need updating

- Hosting on Cloudways (easy PHP version switching for staging)

**Scope:** Composer resolution, custom PHP fixes, staging testing, production deployment. No Sage 10 migration, no new features, no theme swap.

**Budget:** $3,500–$6,000 depending on approach. Flexible on hourly vs fixed.

**Timeline:** 4–6 weeks, no hard rush but PHP 7.4 has been EOL for 3 years.

If you’re interested, I can share the full technical breakdown with every dependency version, every PHP 8 issue, and my recommended approach for the wp-eloquent fork. DM me.

Thanks — and thanks for building such a great ecosystem. Even stuck on PHP 7.4, Sage 9 has been solid for years.