You often hear from PHP programmers: “Oh no! Not Bitrix! " Many experts do not want to mess with the framework, they consider it ugly and inconvenient. However, there are more and more vacancies for Bitrix developers every year. Already, programmers who work with Bitrix are among the most demanded among PHP specialists.
Once I was a 1C developer, and my passion for PHP helped me grow to the head of the web development department at Neti. I will try to explain why it is useful for programmers to learn the Bitrix framework.
How I met Bitrix
Three years ago I was offered to develop the direction of web development. I agreed because I had experience building high-load web systems.
The very first client who turned to us needed a Bitrix developer. The customer needed to assemble a government service to support small businesses. The client was looking for a professional who develops for Bitrix, knows object-oriented programming and knows how to write complex queries.
We didn’t have Bitrix developers yet, so the customer decided to take a different path and hire a web programmer to study Bitrix on the project. I took on the task, where I got acquainted with the framework. Before that, I had not worked with Bitrix and I did not have a clear opinion about the system, although I read a lot of negative reviews about it.
Having figured it out, I realized that this framework is in no way inferior to others for such tasks.
Six months later, I left the project to devote myself entirely to the development of the division. For two years now I myself have been interviewing and recruiting Bitrix developers. They are more in demand than specialists who work with other frameworks - eight out of ten of our clients need Bitrix developers.
The demand for PHP programmers. Data as of August 26, 2020. Source: hh.ru.
But, despite the needs of the market, PHP programmers do not want to get involved with Bitrix. Some worked with him superficially and did not understand its capabilities, others did not encounter the system at all, but treat it badly because of negative articles or negative reviews. About 30% of the candidates our HR manager contacts refuse to be interviewed when they learn what needs to be written for Bitrix. Many more potential employees are eliminated even earlier when they indicate in their resume that they are not ready to work with the framework.
I want to explain to PHP programmers why it is worth paying attention to Bitrix. But, in order not to be unfounded, I will first tell you why clients choose this system and how the products of Bitrix attract business - the main consumer of programming services.
Why clients choose Bitrix
The main clients of 1C-Bitrix are online store owners and business owners. They choose the company's products because they are packaged solutions with a large number of functions, which are easy to install and run with minimal requirements.
Online Stores
A client who buys and installs 1C Bitrix: Site Management with a Small Business license or higher will immediately receive:
- Built-in integration with almost all Russian delivery services, be it Boxberry or Delovye Liniya. To choose a delivery service, you do not need to connect anything extra. It is enough to put a tick in front of the required operator.
- Online payment systems operating under our legislation (Yandex-cash desk, Sberbank-online).
- Built-in synchronization with "1C: Trade Management", "1C: Accounting", "1C: Salary and Personnel Management".
Most foreign systems for creating online stores do not have a full set of synchronizations: for example, they may have integration with our delivery services, but there are no usual online checkouts. Such functionality is not difficult to connect, but you need to find a programmer, give him a task, wait for him to complete it. For entrepreneurs, these are unnecessary actions that require time and money. It is easier and cheaper to choose Bitrix, which already has everything.
In the CRM rating by real installs on sites for September 2019, compiled by iTrack, Bitrix ranks first among commercial CRM
Corporate websites
Most of the solutions on the market are highly specialized: only CRM or only a project management tool. Bitrix24, a corporate website, combines a large amount of functionality. This is an online office with a sales management system, customized business processes, chat, news feed. In Bitrix24, you can keep track of working hours, manage projects, set tasks for employees.
To build something similar on their own, the customer will have to buy many separate services and combine them. It is time-consuming and expensive - it is faster and cheaper to deliver a Bitrix24 box. The abundance of functions in one place captivates: companies look at the product with interest and many switch to it.
Consumers see that it is easy and inexpensive to launch an online store or corporate portal integrated with an enterprise information system on Bitrix. It takes longer and more expensive to do the same on OpenCart or WordPress. Developing such a solution in Laravel, Symfony, or Yii2 frameworks is more labor intensive.
Solutions for government organizations
State, municipal, budgetary organizations work with 1C-Bitrix products. From January 1, 2016, state institutions are required to use Russian software included in the unified register . Solutions "1C-Bitrix" are in this list.
Why Bitrix developers are needed
Now that it is clear why consumers choose Bitrix, let's figure out why developers are needed. For 80% of customers, the box starts quickly and easily, and they have enough typical functionality. These customers are looking for specialists to support the system. Bitrix is a large and complex software, and, like any complex mechanism, it contains errors and bugs. This is normal.
The remaining 20% of customers - most often large companies - lack the basic capabilities of the box. They modify the system for their business processes or write solutions from scratch using Bitrix as a framework.
What improvements are most often required by customers:
- . , - , . .
- . «» . , , , , . «» , , .
- . : , . .
To refine and support the system, Bitrix's clients are looking for programmers who work with the framework. But such specialists are few.
Why programmers don't like Bitrix
PHP programmers do not want to mess with Bitrix - they consider it uninteresting, too complicated, heavy, inelegant and overrated. It is much easier to find a Laravel, Symfony or Yii2 developer.
In my opinion, PHP programmers disregard Bitrix for three reasons.
Poorly presented documentation. The framework has a lot of functionality that is not described, and to understand how it works, you need to dig into the code.
Being just a programmer is not enough. The box contains many mechanisms that you need to know not only as a programmer, but also as a consultant analyst.
For example, in Bitrix24, customer requests are often solved not by programming, but by customary settings. Let's say a client wants another business process to start after completing a task. You don't need to write code here - you need to go into the settings. This is more of a task for a consultant than for a programmer. But now there are even fewer Bitrix consultants than developers, so with these questions customers go to programmers who do not know what to answer.
Both problems are temporary and are related to the fact that Bitrix is just developing and the market has not yet settled down. Gradually the documentation will be corrected and there will be a clear division into consultants and programmers.
Bitrix is mainly known as CMS.Most developers know Bitrix as a CMS for creating business card websites. 80% of programmers used only basic functions and never dived inside, did not try to study the system and the core of the framework: ORM, Highload-blocks, wizards, wizards. We touched Bitrix from the outside - did not like it, but did not try to deploy it. It's like trying to eat a peeled mandarin.
Those who, like me, were lucky enough to work on serious projects, where they develop their own functionality on the basis of Bitrix, say that Bitrix is a full-fledged framework. It has flaws, but it allows full development.
The formation of "Bitrix" is similar to the formation of 1C
What is happening now with Bitrix reminds me of the formation of 1C. When 1C first appeared, there was an opinion among programmers that this was not a programming language, but nonsense. They laughed at the specialists who mastered 1C. They were told that to write in Russian - "fi" and that soon the company "1C" will die.
But that did not happen. The company has such a strong marketing staff that 1C has conquered the market. At first it interested small and medium-sized businesses, and software products based on the eighth core brought large clients to 1C. Now "1C: Enterprise" is used by 1,500,000 organizations.
The developers who believed that programming in 1C is low and uninteresting, turned out to be wrong. This is not to say that they were out of work. They are still in demand, but much less. Most of the specialists nevertheless came to the conclusion that it was necessary to convert to 1C.
The same thing happens with Bitrix. Every year Bitrix is becoming more and more popular with clients, but most PHP programmers do not want to work with it, although this is a promising and highly paid direction.
Prospects for Bitrix
Bitrix developers who are engaged in programming large portals and complex personal accounts are in great demand and highly paid. Depending on the region, they earn from 30,000 (juniors) to 200,000 rubles (seniors). Of course, as more programmers emerge and the niche fills up, overall earnings will drop slightly. But specialists in this area will most likely always be in demand.
Professionals who work with Laravel, Symfony, or any other PHP MVC framework will remain in demand. These solutions have a large market share, but quite specific tasks.
I believe that in a few years Bitrix will take 80-90% of the market, because it is primarily focused on business. If you look at the colorful photos or video conferences dedicated to Bitrix, it becomes clear how the owners of the enterprises react to them.
BitrixPower conference held on October 4, 2019 in Moscow. Source: 1C-Bitrix group on VKontakte
Judging by the dynamics of recent years, the shares of 1C-Bitrix products will continue to grow. In a few years, PHP programmers, in order to quickly find a high-paying job, will need knowledge of Bitrix along with other frameworks. And, perhaps, when choosing between several candidates, it is the knowledge of Bitrix that will become the decisive argument in favor of one of them.