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Cheap box, long nights.

Hetzner alternative for PHP hosting

Q: Is fortrabbit more expensive than a Hetzner server?

About the same - A Hetzner CX23 costs €5.49 a month, and the stack on top is yours to build. A fortrabbit app with MySQL starts at about €5 and includes the runtime, SSL, storage and the patching.

Q: Which PHP stacks run on fortrabbit?

Most - Laravel, Symfony, Statamic, Craft CMS, Kirby, WordPress and plain PHP. A stack that needs root, a daemon or a Node process next to PHP stays on a server.

Hetzner rents the cheapest servers in Europe. Setup, patches and the outage at 2 a.m. come with them, at no extra charge. Consider fortrabbit.

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About Hetzner

Hetzner is an independent German web hosting company founded in 1997, headquartered in Gunzenhausen. You hear a Bavarian accent when calling their German speaking support.

They offer a broad range of hosting services: shared hosting, dedicated servers, colocation, VPS, storage and cloud. Unlike the hyperscalers, Hetzner is privately held. And nobody beats them on price: a CX23 cloud server costs €5.49 a month.

Why not Hetzner?

Hetzner gives you raw infrastructure. A Linux server that you are responsible for. That means configuring the web stack, applying security patches, managing OS upgrades and monitoring uptime yourself. The low price reflects this trade-off: you pay less money but invest considerably more time.

It's not only the time, it's also responsibility. Configuring servers with AI is easier than ever, but will it work, and is it secure? And who gets up at 2 a.m. when MySQL does not start again after the kernel update?

Why fortrabbit

fortrabbit is a small, independent company with a proven track record, also based in Germany. It is purpose-built for PHP web developers who want to ship, not administrate. The platform handles patching and uptime, a deploy is a git push away, and MySQL is a component of the app. Support is direct, not a ticket queue. Pay a bit more for the horse power and learn that you can do more with less.

Our infrastructure runs on AWS in Ireland and the US. If a contract asks for servers in Germany, Hetzner has them and we don't.

Hetzner and fortrabbit

Feature	Hetzner Cloud	fortrabbit
Unit	Server, root access	Managed app
Web stack	DIY	Managed
Patching	DIY	Managed
MySQL	DIY	Component
Deployment	Own scripts	git push
Locations	Germany, Finland, US, Singapore	Ireland, US

# Different by design

Pay in arrears

Daily prorated, post-paid billing. No upfront payment, no yearly commitment.

Modular pricing

Pay per component and scale each one from xs to 2xl on its own.

No dark patterns

No vendor lock-in, no upselling, no misleading messages.

Humans in support

Eye-level developer chat over the support bubble. No sales calls.

Developer-first

Git-push deploy, SSH access, bring your own code. No 1-click bloat.

Managed platform

A hardened, service-oriented PHP stack. Deploy code, skip the server admin.

# Frequently asked

Is fortrabbit more expensive than a Hetzner server?

About the same

About the same - A Hetzner CX23 costs €5.49 a month, and the stack on top is yours to build. A fortrabbit app with MySQL starts at about €5 and includes the runtime, SSL, storage and the patching.

Does fortrabbit host in Germany like Hetzner?

No - fortrabbit is a company from Berlin, but the infrastructure runs on AWS in Ireland and in the US. If a contract demands servers in Germany, Hetzner has them and we don't.

Which PHP stacks run on fortrabbit?

Most

Most - Laravel, Symfony, Statamic, Craft CMS, Kirby, WordPress and plain PHP. A stack that needs root, a daemon or a Node process next to PHP stays on a server.

# What customers say

Having fortrabbit is like having a dedicated DevOps engineer on the team, taking care of the infrastructure so we can focus on writing code. We've used many PaaS providers, but none come close to fortrabbit's mix of features, reliability, predictable and fair pricing, and fast, genuinely helpful support. Their service has been rock solid, giving us the confidence that our apps are in good hands.

Len van Essen

CTO at Fitwinkel

2026 — Direct feedback

Unmatched performances and ease-of-configure. I really like what fortrabbit is doing for the modern PHP hosting ecosystem, and I'd suggest anyone to have a try with them.

Federico Magnani

CTO at glueglue