# AWS alternative for PHP hosting

Source: https://www.fortrabbit.com/alternatives/aws
Published: 2026-10-16
Updated: 2026-10-18
Reviewed: 2026-10-16


## About AWS

Amazon Web Services started in 2006 with S3 and EC2 and is the largest cloud provider by market share. It rents more than 200 services, from compute and databases to networking, billed by usage, in more than 30 regions. For a team with its own DevOps people, that range is hard to match.

## Why not AWS?

AWS works by the [shared responsibility model](https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/): AWS secures the cloud, the customer everything inside it. For a PHP app, that means the network, the instances or the Kubernetes cluster, the database setup, OS and PHP patches, backups, certificates, monitoring and the on-call rotation.

That works for a company with a DevOps team. A marketing site or a client project rarely has one, so the responsibility lands on the developer who built the site.

## Why fortrabbit

fortrabbit runs on AWS EKS, EC2, RDS, EBS and CloudFront. The PHP runtime, MySQL, backups, TLS certs and security patches are ours. When a service stops responding, a health check restarts it, and a [team is on call](/us/operations) behind that.

The code stays yours: the app, CMS and plugin updates, Composer dependencies. We don't review or touch client code, as our [support policy](/benefits/get-support) states.

Pricing is per component and billed after use, without a line item for NAT gateways.

## When AWS is the better choice

An environment on fortrabbit runs on one instance and [scales vertically](/how-to-scale-a-php-application). The largest PHP plan has 4 GiB memory and 12 PHP processes. There is no horizontal autoscaling and no object storage. An app that outgrows this belongs on AWS directly, with someone hired to run it.

## AWS and fortrabbit

| Feature         | AWS                     | fortrabbit                  |
| --------------- | ----------------------- | --------------------------- |
| Unit            | Services, assembled     | Managed PHP app             |
| PHP runtime     | DIY                     | Managed                     |
| OS and patching | DIY                     | Managed                     |
| MySQL           | RDS, configured by you  | Component                   |
| Backups         | DIY                     | Component                   |
| On call         | You                     | Us                          |
| Scaling         | Horizontal, autoscaling | Vertical, one instance      |
| Billing         | Per service, per usage  | Per component, after use    |
| Regions         | 30+                     | Ireland, Virginia           |

## FAQ

### Does fortrabbit run on AWS?

**Yes** — fortrabbit runs on AWS in Ireland and in Virginia. The app gets AWS hardware and network, with no AWS account to manage.

### Who restarts a service that stops responding?

**We do** — Health checks restart a failed container automatically, and a team is on call behind that. Bugs in the application code stay with the developer.

### Can a Craft CMS site move from AWS?

**Yes** — Create an app, import the MySQL dump through an SSH tunnel and deploy from GitHub.

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- [How we operate the platform](/us/operations)
- [Infrastructure](/platform/infrastructure)
- [All alternatives](/alternatives)