PHP cloud hosting for the rest of us
☁️ 🐘
Cloud hosting provides a modern alternative to traditional server hosting, offering scalability, better performance, and advanced management for PHP applications.
# What is PHP cloud hosting?
PHP cloud hosting runs your application on virtualized infrastructure managed by a cloud provider. Instead of renting a server, you deploy your PHP app to a platform that handles scaling, maintenance, and infrastructure. You focus on building, not managing servers.
# How cloud hosting differs from traditional hosting
Shared hosting places your app alongside hundreds of others, limiting control and causing resource contention. Cloud hosting scales automatically, isolates your application, lets you deploy via Git, and handles redundancy and backups. VPS hosting sits between them—you get a virtual machine but still manage it yourself.
# Why fortrabbit is good PHP cloud hosting
fortrabbit is built specifically for PHP developers who want cloud hosting without complexity.
Deploy via Git push - no server configuration or SSH into production. The platform is tuned for PHP, not bloated with unnecessary services. Pricing is transparent with no hidden autoscaling bills. Multiple environments and permission management are built in for collaboration. MySQL, PHP versions, and memory limits come pre-configured for typical applications. Support comes from people who understand PHP and its hosting needs.
Do more with less.
Our understanding of cloud hosting is about paying fairly for a platform that handles infrastructure so you can ship faster.
# PHP is PHPantastic
PHP (recursive acronym for PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) is the most popular web programming language among web developers. As a key part of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), PHP is found on Linux servers are powering the web. CMS systems like Joomla, WordPress, or Drupal and frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, CakePHP, Zend, Agavi are based on it. A large number popular websites, including Facebook and Wikipedia, are written in PHP.
In the early days of the internet, websites were stagnant and dull. However, PHP brought about a revolution by allowing developers to create dynamic content that adapts and changes based on user input, transforming the web into an interactive playground. For example, consider an e-commerce website. With the help of PHP, developers can offer personalized product recommendations, update shopping carts, and provide secure checkout processes, which all add up to a seamless and engaging user experience. It's like having a personal shopping assistant who knows your preferences and handpicks items tailored to your tastes.
PHP is powering over 78% of websites on the internet. WordPress, the world's most popular content management system, is built on PHP and empowers more than 43% of all websites globally. The social media giant, Facebook, connects billions of people worldwide.
# fortrabbit in a nutshell
fortrabbit is managed PHP cloud hosting for developers who don't want to babysit servers. A clean dashboard helps you to deploy and operate websites and web apps.
- Features
- GitHub integration for automatic deployments
- Environment-based workflows (production, staging, previews)
- SSH and SFP
- Managed MySQL with secure access
- Password protection for non‑public environments
- Automatic HTTPS everywhere
- Logs and useful operational tooling
- Works with common local dev stacks (DDEV, Valet, Docker)
- One click restore backups
- Extensive documentation
- CMS: Craft CMS, Kirby, Statamic, WordPress …
- Frameworks: Laravel, Symfony, Tempest …
- Product and pricing
- Free trial for every new app
- Component based pricing
- Scalable, from xs to 2xl
- Serving world-wide
- Infra is running on AWS
- Prorated, post-paid
- Business
- Developer support through chat
- Rooted in Berlin Germany
- Track record in PHP hosting
- Established in 2013
# Made for a modern PHP
\`. .––––––––––––––.___________) \ T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T | ////PHP///// |___________[ ] T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | `––––––––––––––' ) ( _ T | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ) /raw
You know what they say: PHP is a double claw hammer. And when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. True is that PHP is traditionally used to build all kind of Pretty Home Pages. With an ongoing PHP renaissance the language and the community have evolved. It's just not about websites anymore; it's about backends, frontends, APIs — web applications. The fortrabbit hosting platform is hosting a new mindset of PHP developers. The toolset is optimized for a modern PHP!
# App architecture
┌ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ │ │ app │ │ ┌────────────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────┐ │ production │ │ staging │ │ │ │ ┌────────────────────┐ │ │ ┌────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ php │ │ │ │ │ │ php │ │ │ ├────────────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ mysql │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────┤ │ │ ├────────────────────┤ │ │ │ redis │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────┤ │ │ │ mysql │ │ │ │ worker │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────┘ │ │ ├────────────────────┤ │ └────────────────────────┘ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ redis │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────┤ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ worker │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────┘ │ │ │ └────────────────────────┘ │ │ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ┘plain
Figure above: The app holds two environments: production and staging. Each environment is a fully isolated hosting runtime. It has components booked. In this case PHP, MySQL, Redis, Workers. The production environment has the components scaled up to serve more traffic.
# Topology of an app
┌─────────────┐ │ ┌─────────┐ │ │ │ Web │ │ │ │frontend │ │ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ │ EC2 │ │ │ MySQL ├┐ ┌──────────┐ │ ┌─────────┐ │ │ └─────────┘ ├────▶ RDS │◀──────┤ Tunnel │ │ ┌─▶ Routing │ │ │ ┌─────────┐ │ └┬────────┘│ │ EC2 │ ┌──────────┐ │ ┌───────┐ │ │ EC2 │ │ │ │ Web │ │ └─────────┘ └─────▲────┘ │ Internet ├─┼─┼▶ ELB ├─┤ └─────────┘ ├───┼▶│frontend │ │ │ └──────────┘ │ └───────┘ │ ┌─────────┐ │ │ │ EC2 │ │ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────┴────┐ │ │ │ Routing │ │ │ └─────────┘ │ │ Cache ├┐ │ Remote │ │ └─▶ EC2 │ │ │ ┌─────────┐ ├────▶ EC2 ││ │ MySQL │ │ └─────────┘ │ │ │ Web │ │ └┬────────┘│ └──────────┘ └────────────┬────────────┘ │ │frontend │ │ └─────────┘ │ ┌──────│ │ EC2 │ │ │ │ │ └─────────┘ │ ┌────▼────┐ │ └──────▲──────┘ │ Log │ │ │ │ parsing ◀────┘ │ │ EC2 │ │ └────┬────┘ │ │ ┌─────┴─────┐ │ │Deployment │ ┌────▼────┐ │ EC2 │ │ Logging │ └─────▲─────┘ │ EC2 │ │ └────▲────┘ ┌────┴────┐ │ │ Git │ ┌────┴────┐ └─────────┘ │ SSH │ └─────────┘raw
# Supported software
Here is only a small collection of popular PHP software, all open source, some free, some with a license fee. All run fast on fortrabbit. Find CMS software, e-commerce, as well as more bare bone frameworks. fortrabbit will run almost all PHP based software that supports a LAMP stack, PHP 8 and upwards.
- CMS: WordPress, ProcessWire, Kirby CMS, Joomla!, Bludit, Drupal, Bolt, TYPO3, Pico CMS, PyroCMS, ButterCMS, SilverStripe
- Frameworks: Laravel, Symfony, CodeIgniter, Yii
# New and old platform
Beside the new platform, we also have an old platform. Those are running side by side for a while.