# SaaS hosting

Source: https://www.fortrabbit.com/use-cases/saas-hosting
Created: 2026-07-20
Reviewed: 2026-07-27

> Host your SaaS on a managed PHP PaaS — git-push deploys, background workers for billing and trials, and components that scale one at a time as you grow.


**A PaaS for your SaaS.** Shipping a subscription product is hard enough without becoming a sysadmin on the side. fortrabbit runs the platform so the work stays on the application — the one part of a SaaS that is actually the business.

## No DevOps hire required

A bootstrapped SaaS cannot spare a person to patch servers, wire up a deploy pipeline, and chase certificates. None of that exists to do here: connect a Git repository, push, and the app is live over HTTPS. The operating system, the web server, scaling, and TLS are handled. What remains is the code and the database.

## The subscription chores run in workers

Trial expiry, usage metering, invoice runs, dunning mail — the machinery of a subscription business happens on a schedule, and none of it belongs inside a web request. The jobs component runs real cron jobs and long-running queue workers next to the web processes, on the same code and the same environment. Laravel Cashier and Symfony Messenger drop straight in, and a billing run that takes 20 minutes takes 20 minutes in a worker, with nothing timing out.

## Pay as it grows, not per seat

Cost follows load and data, not the number of accounts — the first customers run for cents a day. Components are booked individually and billed pro-rated by the day, so PHP can scale ahead of the database, or the reverse, without jumping to the next bundled tier. Customer 500 usually needs more PHP processes and nothing else: scale that one component and keep going, same app, same host.

## Why fortrabbit?

Because we are one. fortrabbit is a bootstrapped subscription business that has been running on AWS since 2012 with no VC money behind it — roughly the position most founders reading this are in. Spend the runway on the product: start on a free trial, deploy with a push, and let the platform be the DevOps team the company hasn't hired yet.

## FAQ

### Is a DevOps person needed to run it?

**No** — fortrabbit is managed: a git push deploys, TLS is issued and renewed automatically, and the operating system, web server, and scaling are handled. There is no pipeline to build and no server to patch — the work stays on the application.

### What runs billing, trials, and metering?

**Background workers** — The jobs component runs cron jobs and long-running queue workers beside the web processes, on the same code and environment. Laravel Cashier and Symfony Messenger run there unchanged, so invoice runs, trial expiry, and dunning mail happen on schedule without holding up a request.

### What does it cost with a handful of customers?

**Cents a day** — Every app starts on a seven-day free trial, no card required. After that, cost follows load and data size rather than account count, billed pro-rated by the day — an early SaaS with a few customers runs on the smallest components for cents a day.

### Does it scale when the product takes off?

**Per component** — Components scale one at a time and take effect immediately, pro-rated by the day. Customer growth usually means more PHP processes, not a bigger everything — scale that one component while the database stays put, on the same app and host.

### Are realtime dashboards or push updates supported?

**No** — The platform has no persistent connections, so anything built on WebSockets is out. Live counters, notifications, and activity feeds work with polling on a sensible interval, or with mail sent from a worker.

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- [Background jobs](/features/jobs)
- [Scale on demand](/benefits/scale-on-demand)
- [Agent ready](/workflows/agentic-engineering)