Cloudflare Workers
Created
Reviewedbyfl
🔶
PHP at the edge, via WASM.
Cloudflare Workers runs code at the edge, but has no native PHP. fortrabbit is an alternative for running real PHP without compiling it to WebAssembly.
About Cloudflare Workers
Cloudflare Workers runs code at the edge, next to the visitor, with near-instant cold starts. It runs JavaScript and WebAssembly, with native paths for Python and Rust. Not PHP. The only way to get PHP onto Workers is the community php-wasm project, which compiles PHP to WebAssembly and drives it through a layer of JavaScript glue.
That path exists, and it makes a fun demo. It is not a first-class runtime, and not a serious way to run a full PHP app in production. Workers is built for edge logic, request rewriting, and JavaScript-shaped work, not for hosting Laravel or Symfony.
Why fortrabbit
For a PHP project, Workers is the wrong layer. It is where edge logic and caching sit, usually in front of an origin, not where the app itself runs. Getting PHP onto it at all means signing up for WebAssembly and its sharp edges.
fortrabbit runs plain PHP directly. Composer, MySQL, persistent storage, Git-push deploys, no compile step and no runtime to bend around. Cloudflare still earns a spot in front as a CDN. The two work together. They do not replace each other.