Shafail Shafa
Available for new work · I reply within a business day · UTC+6

I upgrade and customise phpBB forums

I set up and maintain Linux servers

I fix broken or hacked WordPress sites

I transfer websites and emails between hosts

Thirteen years of keeping small-business web infrastructure working: forums, sites, servers, mailboxes and the moves between them. Beyond WordPress that includes Joomla, Drupal, Laravel and plain PHP applications, plus self-hosted automation and private AI. You deal with me directly, not with an agency.

5.0 ★ · 2,200+ reviews · 100% job success · 13 years
5.0 ★
rating
2,200+
reviews
3,200+
orders
100%
job success
13
years

Some of the work

All case studies →
AUTOMATION & AI

Production self-hosted n8n with tested disaster recovery

An n8n instance running in production on my own hardened VPS, with a restore I've tested end to end on a clean server.

n8n · Docker · nginx · PostgreSQL 16 · Prometheus · Grafana · Uptime Kuma · Tailscale
AUTOMATION & AI

Private self-hosted AI stack

A private AI setup on self-managed infrastructure. Local models by default, with a cloud API used only where local hardware isn't enough.

Ollama · OpenWebUI · SearXNG · Claude API · Linux · nginx
PHPBB

Five years of phpBB work for one publisher

Six separate phpBB contracts with the same client between 2016 and 2021. It started with a single extension install and ended with a version upgrade that had to carry a whole set of modified extensions along with it.

phpBB · PHP · MySQL · HTML/CSS · Cloudflare · WordPress
PHPBB

A sixteen-year-old phpBB 2 board brought up to the current version

A bulletin board that had been running phpBB 2.0.11 since around 2005, moved onto the current phpBB 3 release with its posts and user base intact.

phpBB 2 · phpBB 3 · PHP · MySQL
PHPBB

A community forum kept current across seven updates

The same client hired me seven times between 2019 and 2024 to update one phpBB board and adjust it as their branding changed.

phpBB · PHP · MySQL · CSS · cPanel · Google AdSense
PHPBB

A forum where no email worked and nobody could reach the admin panel

Signup confirmations and alerts had stopped sending, so new members couldn't register, and then the admin account locked itself out because password resets went through the same broken email.

phpBB · PHP · MySQL · SMTP
WORDPRESS

Old phpBB forum moved into bbPress on WordPress

An old phpBB board moved into bbPress on WordPress. I carried across the whole category structure, the posts, attachments, users and groups, so none of the forum's history got left behind.

phpBB · bbPress · WordPress · PHP · MySQL
WORDPRESS

A WordPress site that turned into a monthly retainer

This one started as a site build with a learning app attached and turned into a standing monthly arrangement to keep everything maintained. By value it's the largest single contract in my Upwork history.

WordPress · PHP · MySQL · HTML/CSS
SERVER CARE

Maintaining a long-standing client's Linux servers

A client I'd been doing phpBB work for since 2016 brought me onto their Linux servers: configuration, maintenance, security policy, backups, and a disaster recovery plan behind them.

Linux · Debian · MySQL · PostgreSQL · Bash · TCP/IP
MIGRATION

Four years of hosting work for a web agency

Forty-eight orders between 2021 and 2025 for one agency: certificate installs, moves between hosting accounts, server setup, and whatever else broke on the sites they host for their own customers.

cPanel · Linux · Let's Encrypt · DNS · WordPress · VPS
SERVER CARE

A site that broke every morning

A small business site went down most mornings, and the owner had been bringing it back by re-uploading one file. The real cause was the hosting company overwriting that file every night.

Apache · .htaccess · PHP · cPanel
MIGRATION

A forum and its image gallery after a server move

A community forum with a separate image gallery had been moved to a new server by someone else. Image links across the board were dead, and a large part of the gallery had never arrived.

phpBB · Piwigo · Plesk · rsync · FTP
PHPBB

A scheduled forum upgrade, and a thumbnail that came out sideways

A version upgrade booked for a fixed hour, so the members could be told when the board would be down, followed by two image problems that both turned out to be somewhere other than phpBB.

phpBB · PHP · GD · EXIF · Cloudflare

What clients say

All 2,200+ reviews →

A few out of 2,200+, across 13 years. 58 percent of them are from clients who came back.

★★★★★ Fiverr

“I had no idea how tough this project would become. Shafa was determined to solve the problem and worked until he fixed it. I appreciate his continual efforts to detect and resolve the issue with little help from the hosting company.”

r*** · United States · Migration · Jul 2024
★★★★★ Fiverr

“Great work on website works on any issue. If you are looking for someone to setup up your business or website or just need help in general. He will go the extra mile to get it done great guy. I can't express how well he did with issues I was having. He even started from scratch to just to get the job done. He really cares and is a honest worker.”

u*** · United States · Migration · Jul 2019
★★★★★ Fiverr

“At first, it was weird because the communication wasn't the best, as in taking longer to answer. I guess he just focuses on his work EXTREMETLY, and he came up with the best work someone has delivered me here on Fiverr. I asked him to clone a website from a picture copy I had, and he did that fixed some changes I requested fast. But I wasn't expecting such an impeccable job! I also asked to be taught something in word press, and he sent me a small tutorial to get to it. This guy is a gem on Fiverr, especially for his competitive prices, love for what he does, and customer satisfacción 100%”

u*** · United States · WordPress · Jul 2020
★★★★★ Fiverr

“Highly recommended - Very patient and does the best to solve client issues. I will certainly hire. Thank you so much for your time and help even thought it took longer than expected. This is entirely from us as we had not anticipated the amount of work needed. Thanks again for being thorough!!!”

r*** · Ghana · phpBB · Jul 2023
★★★★★ Fiverr

“Wanted an extension for PHP.BB where we can use custom fields. This was something that we've requested from over 10 programmers. DTYACF was the only one who could deliver. He is brilliant and what he does. It took a bit longer that he expected but he adding a day or two for something no one else could figure out is worth the wait. Great quality and I'll definitely be using him for more of our work.”

k*** · Trinidad and Tobago · phpBB · Jul 2021
★★★★★ Upwork

“If you are looking for the most skilled phpBB developer on UpWork to work on your sites, Shafail is the very best of the best! He's extremely fast, but he doesn't compromise on quality. He is a master at creating/modifying custom modifications and integrating them with forums, and always goes the extra mile to make sure the job is done right. He is a true professional and always exceeds our expectations, which are admittedly pretty high. He's able to take our ideas, distill and improve them, and turn them into reality. Even though we are located in different time zones, he's always available when needed, and his communication skills are top-notch. He has been instrumental in developing our website into what it is today and has been able to solve problems that others have said were impossible tasks. He knows his stuff! If you are tired of dealing with web developers that are slow to deliver or don't quite impress you with their work, look no further than Shafail, as he is a supremely talented individual who will go above and beyond what's expected. Based on working with him over the years on numerous projects, I have no reservations about giving him my highest recommendation if you want only the best to work with!”

D*** M*** · United States · phpBB · Jun 2021

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