Ploi alternative for PHP hosting

# About Ploi

Ploi is server-management software from the Netherlands, originally built with Laravel and self-funded since around 2018. It connects to a VPS account the customer already holds — DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr, UpCloud, Scaleway, AWS and others — installs and configures the web stack, and then handles deployments, certificates, cron jobs, queue workers and daemons from its own interface. Laravel is first-class, with one-click installs for WordPress, Statamic, Craft CMS and other PHP software. There is a public API, an official CLI and an official MCP server, which makes the panel unusually scriptable.

Like other tools in this category, Ploi is a control panel, not a host. That distinction is the whole story in a comparison with a managed platform. The team also runs Ploi Cloud, a managed platform sold separately — more on that below, because it is the closer comparison.

# The responsibility gap

Ploi sets the box up, but the box stays yours. Once the server is provisioned, the kernel and OS updates, security patches, backups, monitoring, log rotation, failed disks and the 3 a.m. incident are all yours. Ploi automates the setup and hands over the keys; what happens to the machine afterwards is operations work, not theirs.

At fortrabbit the line sits in a different place. We abstract the AWS infrastructure underneath and take responsibility for keeping it patched, monitored and running, with one direct contact for both billing and technical questions. See the legal section for what that covers in writing.

# More than one bill

With Ploi there are at least two: the panel subscription, plus the VPS provider for the actual compute — and often a third for off-server backups, object storage or a managed database once the project grows. Each lives in a separate account with separate support and separate invoices. The free tier at the bottom of Ploi's plans covers the panel, not the machine.

With fortrabbit the app is what gets paid for. One plan, one invoice, one place to ask for help. Entry components start at €2.50 per month and fit small sites; scaling stays predictable instead of fanning out across vendors.

# How does fortrabbit compare to Ploi?

# And Ploi Cloud?

Of all the hosts we compare ourselves against, Ploi Cloud is one we would recommend more readily than most. It is a European PaaS from the Netherlands, running on UpCloud infrastructure in Amsterdam, Chicago and London, launched in 2025 by the Ploi team as a separate product. Like fortrabbit it is bootstrapped and independent, PHP-first — Laravel, Statamic, Craft CMS, WordPress — with Node.js alongside, and aimed at freelancers, agencies and startups. The feature sets are comparable, and healthy competition in this corner is good news for everyone deploying PHP.

The honest differences are age and depth: Ploi Cloud is a young service and not yet battle-tested; fortrabbit has been running PHP apps since 2012. Where we would point at ourselves is full SSH and SFTP access, team collaboration with fine-grained access for clients, and support that is a conversation with the people who run the platform. Both offer free trials. Try both.

# Migrating from a Ploi-managed server

1. Create the app on fortrabbit and add a MySQL component. The free trial is enough to validate the move.
2. Point the git remote at the new app and deploy; Composer install runs as part of it — see deployment intro.
3. Copy environment variables out of the panel into the fortrabbit dashboard.
4. Dump and import the database through the SSH tunnel — see MySQL import guide.
5. rsync uploads from the VPS into the app's persistent storage.
6. Recreate queue workers and scheduled tasks as jobs in the dashboard.
7. Move the domain, watch the certificate issue, then cancel both the panel subscription and the server.

# Why teams switch

• One responsibility, not two. No panel to keep current on a box to keep patched.
• One invoice. The app, the database and the infrastructure on the same bill.
• Composer-first deploys. No installer template drifting away from the repository.
• Human support. For the platform and the server, because they are the same thing here.