fortrabbit
Berlin managed PHP hosting where app, database, storage and backups are booked as separate components
Quick Overview
| Company | fortrabbit GmbH |
|---|---|
| Category | PaaS Platforms |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Founded | 2012 |
| EU Presence | Yes - Germany (EU) |
| Data Location | Ireland (EU) or Virginia (US), chosen per app |
| Open Source | No |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Self-Hosting | No |
| Main Features | Managed PHP runtime, GitHub integration and Git push, build commands, staging environments, MySQL, key-value store, workers and crons, SSH and SFTP, backups, team and client billing |
| Pricing | 7-day free trial; a small website with PHP, MySQL, backup and traffic components is €4.50 per month; components range from €1 upward |
| Best For | Freelancers and agencies hosting PHP sites such as Craft, Statamic or Laravel for clients |
| Replaces | Heroku PHP, Render web services for PHP |
Detailed Review
fortrabbit does one thing: PHP. It has done so since 2012, and its site lists Craft CMS, Statamic, Kirby, Laravel, Symfony, Filament, October CMS and WordPress as the software with presets and guides.
An app groups the environments of one project, and each environment is an isolated runtime with its own components, domain and Git branch.
Components Instead of Plans
PHP, MySQL, storage, traffic, backups, jobs and a key-value store are each sized on their own scale from XS to 2XL. A PHP SM component with 256 MiB of memory is €2, an LG with 1 GiB is €12, and a MySQL XS is €1.
Billing is post-paid and aggregated daily, so a test environment that lives for a day costs about a day.
Unix Tools Still Work
Persistent storage is part of the model: code goes up through Git, assets can be synced with rsync, and SSH and SFTP are available into the running environment. Logs for PHP, Apache and access can be streamed and filtered in the browser.
That makes it feel closer to a managed server than to a stateless container platform, which suits CMS-driven sites.
Built for Agencies Handing Over Sites
Teams share payment methods, and a client can be invited to pay for an app directly, with VAT handled per country. The company also documents a flow for coding agents to sign up and deploy through its CLI and MCP interface.
The new platform is labelled as being in beta.
Limitations to Consider
fortrabbit hosts PHP only, so a Node.js, Python or Go service needs another platform such as Clever Cloud or Scalingo. Its data centres are Ireland and Virginia, which is fewer choices than most competitors offer, and the new platform is described as beta. Component-based pricing takes a few minutes with the price calculator before a monthly figure is known.
Who Should Use fortrabbit
PHP freelancers and agencies in Europe who host client sites and want SSH, staging environments and a German contracting party.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Prices start at €1 per component and €4.50 for a small site
- SSH, SFTP and rsync into a persistent environment
- Staging environments per app
- Clients can pay for their own apps
- Operating since 2012
Cons
- PHP only
- Two regions, Ireland and Virginia
- New platform marked beta
- Several components to size before a total price is known
Alternatives to fortrabbit
Other European paas platforms worth comparing before you decide:
Scalingo
France · Strasbourg git-push PaaS with HDS and SecNumCloud options
Zerops
Czech Republic · Prague developer cloud on its own hardware, billed per minute
Sliplane
Germany · Berlin Docker hosting with unlimited apps per flat-priced server
Upsun
France · Paris platform with a full environment for every branch
See all European paas platforms or compare them directly against Heroku PHP on our alternatives page.
Frequently Asked Questions
The pages read describe a managed PHP cloud and list PHP frameworks and CMSes as supported software. For other languages, one of the multi-language platforms in this category is the safer choice.
The pricing page gives €4.50 per month as an example for a LAMP stack with one environment, covering PHP SM, MySQL XS, one backup, 32 GiB of traffic and 512 MiB of storage.
You choose between Ireland (EU) and Virginia (US) for each new app.