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Your friendly VPS, now enterprise.

Linode alternative for PHP hosting

Q: What changed at Linode since Akamai bought it?

The audience - Akamai acquired Linode in 2022 and sells it as Akamai Cloud. Pricing now lives on akamai.com, and the catalog grew toward Kubernetes, GPU compute and edge services. The $5 Nanode is still there.

Q: Is fortrabbit more expensive than a Linode?

Per month, sometimes - A $5 Nanode is cheaper than a fortrabbit app with a database. The fortrabbit price includes the PHP runtime, MySQL, SSL, backups and the patching, and nobody's hours.

Q: What does a Linode still do that fortrabbit does not?

Anything outside PHP - Node processes, system daemons, kernel tuning, GPU workloads and languages other than PHP. On fortrabbit PHP runs the app and nothing else runs next to it.

Linode was the friendly VPS for developers. Now it is Akamai Cloud, and the server is still yours to run. Consider fortrabbit.

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About Linode

Linode has been one of the most dev-friendly VPS providers in the US since 2003, known for reliable Linux servers. In 2022 it was acquired by Akamai and is now sold as Akamai Cloud. The catalog talks about Kubernetes, GPUs and edge computing. The $5 Nanode survived, but who is the roadmap written for? Probably not the developer with one server and a Laravel side project.

Why not Linode?

Linode gives you a Linux server, and with it the full responsibility. Setting up and maintaining a web stack takes real time and expertise: Nginx, PHP-FPM, MySQL, certificates, firewalls. Security patches, OS upgrades and monitoring are ongoing tasks that never stop.

Why fortrabbit

fortrabbit is built for PHP web developers who want to ship, not administrate. It's a managed PHP hosting platform built around apps, not servers. You push code, Composer runs, and the app comes up with MySQL, SSL and persistent storage. There are no root logins and no web server configs to manage.

fortrabbit is a small, independent company with a track record since 2012. No acquisition, no enterprise pivot, and direct, personal support, not a ticket queue.

Linode and fortrabbit

Feature	Linode / Akamai Cloud	fortrabbit
Unit	VPS, root access	Managed app
Web stack	DIY	Managed
Patching	DIY	Managed
MySQL	DIY or paid service	Component
Deployment	Own scripts	git push
Owner	Akamai	Independent

# 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

What changed at Linode since Akamai bought it?

The audience

The audience - Akamai acquired Linode in 2022 and sells it as Akamai Cloud. Pricing now lives on akamai.com, and the catalog grew toward Kubernetes, GPU compute and edge services. The $5 Nanode is still there.

Is fortrabbit more expensive than a Linode?

Per month, sometimes

Per month, sometimes - A $5 Nanode is cheaper than a fortrabbit app with a database. The fortrabbit price includes the PHP runtime, MySQL, SSL, backups and the patching, and nobody's hours.

What does a Linode still do that fortrabbit does not?

Anything outside PHP

Anything outside PHP - Node processes, system daemons, kernel tuning, GPU workloads and languages other than PHP. On fortrabbit PHP runs the app and nothing else runs next to it.

# 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