https://blog.fortrabbit.com/author/fl en Sat, 19 Sep 2026 09:29:06 GMT 10 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/tui-design-patterns https://blog.fortrabbit.com/tui-design-patterns Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion AI coding agents in the terminal each invent their own UI. A pitch for shared TUI idioms across tools and the host OS. Every agentic coding tool ships its own slash commands, its own keybindings, its own pane layout, its own status line. Let's talk about this.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mcp-cli-and-api-launched https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mcp-cli-and-api-launched Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Three three-letter acronyms for the new platform — and a skills update that glues them together. Three three-letter acronyms just landed, an MCP server for coding agents, a CLI for the terminal and pipelines, and a public API underneath.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-august-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-august-2026 Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog More temp space, log downloads that finish, a handful of dashboard fixes, and a website that lost its hosting guide. A quiet month on the surface. A good part of August went into work we are not ready to talk about, so this round is the smaller stuff - limits raised, papercuts closed, a website that got shorter.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/findhost-a-register-of-web-hosts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/findhost-a-register-of-web-hosts Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion chronicles I have built an openly-licensed, ratings-free register of web hosting providers. Why? This is the story of a side project that grew out of internal competitor research.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-july-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-july-2026 Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A command palette for the dashboard, logs in the browser, MySQL timezone support, and a public API taking shape.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/logs-in-the-browser https://blog.fortrabbit.com/logs-in-the-browser Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Read PHP, access, Apache, and Jobs logs right in the dashboard. Filter, follow live, download — no SSH required. Nobody picks a web host for its log viewer. Yet. We believe observability is key. So we've built a nice log view for the browser.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/apm-for-php https://blog.fortrabbit.com/apm-for-php Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A take on PHP application performance monitoring and meta-observability. Application Performance Monitoring can help big time researching performance issues after and before they come critical. An overview.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-june-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-june-2026 Mon, 29 Jun 2026 08:32:49 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog US data center live, a new actions menu, social logins, and better mails.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/moving-knowledge-base-from-notion-to-markdown https://blog.fortrabbit.com/moving-knowledge-base-from-notion-to-markdown Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:02:41 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Why we left Notion for a folder of Markdown files, and the gotchas we hit along the way. We used Notion as our knowledge base for years. It served us well. But now we moved everything to a folder of Markdown files.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-data-center-new-platform https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-data-center-new-platform Tue, 02 Jun 2026 12:11:03 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The new fortrabbit platform adds a US region in North Virginia. How to pick a data center for a new app, copy an app across regions and pay in USD. Hello again 🇺🇸! The United States (East) data center location is now available on the new platform.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-may-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-may-2026 Fri, 22 May 2026 09:01:59 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Longer trials, agent skills, environment thumbnails, and a MySQL upgrade on the way.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-we-dont-do-1-click-installers https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-we-dont-do-1-click-installers Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Why fortrabbit doesn't offer 1-click installers — and the local-first workflow we recommend for shipping real PHP projects. 1-click installers make great demos. They're poor starting points for a real project — and we think the trade-off isn't worth making.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-against-them https://blog.fortrabbit.com/us-against-them Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A German company on American infrastructure serving a global customer base. On EU data sovereignty, and what European should mean. We are a German company running on American infrastructure, serving a global customer base. That is hard to defend these days. Caught between geopolitical fault lines.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-agent-skills https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-agent-skills Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles An early preview of fortrabbit agent skills: plain-text instruction files that teach AI coding assistants how to manage apps. We just published a first preview of fortrabbit agent skills — a set of plain-text instruction files that teach AI coding assistants like Claude how to deploy code to fortrabbit, sync databases, and work through common platform tasks. It's an early release. How we got there.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-april-2026 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/platform-updates-april-2026 Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog April 2026 on the new platform: GitHub deployment comments, smoother dashboard flows, smarter deployments and better documentation. Here is a batch of quality of live improvements across the dashboard and docs, bringing us closer to general availability.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/autoscaling-now-available https://blog.fortrabbit.com/autoscaling-now-available Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Autoscaling arrives for MySQL, web storage and traffic: plans move up when usage grows and back down again, without any interaction. Autoscaling for MySQL, web storage, and traffic is now available. Plans scale up when usage increases and down again when usage drops.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cold-outreach https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cold-outreach Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:01:03 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion An inbox full of AI-written cold outreach, collected over weeks and read closely. What the most sophisticated spam so far looks like. My inbox is full of unsolicited business proposals. The senders know my name, my mail, my company, and often specific details about our company, despite most of this information never being publicly listed. AI meets leaked customer data.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vibe-coding-an-rss-feed https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vibe-coding-an-rss-feed Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Building RSS feeds for a Nuxt Content blog with fuzzy prompts and little supervision. What the AI got right, and where it went off. Let's try lazy slopping a trivial feature into existing by providing some fuzzy prompts. What can possibly go wrong?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/essential-metrics-are-here https://blog.fortrabbit.com/essential-metrics-are-here Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:26:54 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Usage metrics land in the fortrabbit dashboard: MySQL storage, web storage and monthly traffic, shown per environment as they update. Essential metrics help you track usage data for web storage, MySQL storage, and traffic.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/frank-at-saas-unbound https://blog.fortrabbit.com/frank-at-saas-unbound Tue, 13 Jan 2026 07:45:09 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles fortrabbit co-founder Frank spends an hour on the SaaS Unbound podcast with Anna Nadeina, talking about bootstrapping hustles. I recently invited myself and talked for an hour with Anna Nadeina about bootstrapping hustles. Thanks for having me.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-detect-and-fix-a-hacked-php-website https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-detect-and-fix-a-hacked-php-website Wed, 07 Jan 2026 09:27:09 GMT Frank Lämmer Spot signs of a hacked PHP website, clean infected files, restore from backup, and lock things back down. Recover a hacked PHP website. Detect the intrusion, clean the code, restore from backup. Notes from a hosting provider who has seen a few. This is the human-to-human edition.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/small-team-big-ideas https://blog.fortrabbit.com/small-team-big-ideas Sun, 14 Dec 2025 16:14:11 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Five developers, no venture capital, competing with giants. A brain dump on motivation, project management and business philosophy. Dear diary, here is a brain dump on motivation, project management and business philosophy.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-platform-beta https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-platform-beta Wed, 26 Nov 2025 10:24:14 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog chronicles The new fortrabbit platform opens in public beta after years of work — a hosting service rebuilt from scratch rather than updated. Welcome to the public BETA of our new platform.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/goodbye-hello https://blog.fortrabbit.com/goodbye-hello Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:10:14 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A farewell to the old fortrabbit design — sharp rectangles, a custom SCSS framework, Raleway — and a first look at what replaces it. We are getting closer to releasing our new platform. This is a little farewell to the old, and a quiet hello to what comes next.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/modern-php-monoliths https://blog.fortrabbit.com/modern-php-monoliths Tue, 11 Nov 2025 14:17:01 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Interactive interfaces without splitting the stack: how a modern PHP monolith competes with a decoupled headless architecture. Web pages are so yesterday. Single-page apps are the shit. Users want interactive experiences. But you don't have to get headless right away. This is an introduction to coupled systems with PHP and JavaScript.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/headless-php https://blog.fortrabbit.com/headless-php Mon, 03 Nov 2025 08:16:08 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Decoupled systems with a JavaScript frontend and a PHP backend: what headless actually means, how it is built, and when it pays off. Decopuled systems. Frontend in JavaScript. Backend in PHP. Why. How. If.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/deploying-laravel-on-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/deploying-laravel-on-fortrabbit Wed, 15 Oct 2025 10:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Deploy Laravel to fortrabbit via GitHub — environment variables, build commands, post-deploy migrations, queue workers and zero-downtime swaps. Deploy a Laravel application to fortrabbit through GitHub — environment configuration, build commands, post-deploy migrations, queues and zero-downtime swaps. If you have shipped Laravel elsewhere, most of this will look familiar; we point out the differences as we go.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/chromopoly https://blog.fortrabbit.com/chromopoly Mon, 15 Sep 2025 14:44:24 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Chrome holds around 65 percent of the browser market. What that concentration means for competition, privacy and web standards. The Google Chrome team is pushing the web forward. I am worried about competition, privacy and the future of web standards. No revealing news here, just my personal view based on vague pre-assumptions.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/building-websites-in-the-age-of-ai https://blog.fortrabbit.com/building-websites-in-the-age-of-ai Tue, 22 Jul 2025 22:03:31 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion AI site builders generate code, content and layout in seconds. What that leaves for the people who build websites for a living. Not too long ago, building a website meant crafting mockups in Photoshop, hand-coding HTML and PHP, wrangling CSS. Then came page builders, no-code and low-code tools. Now, with the rise of AI, the ground is shifting again. What does it possible mean for us? This is my unprofessional opinion.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/growing-aname-alias-support https://blog.fortrabbit.com/growing-aname-alias-support Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:54:40 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev dns domains Standard DNS forbids CNAME records at the apex. More providers now offer ANAME and ALIAS records that route a bare domain to a host. Standard DNS doesn't allow CNAME records at the apex domain. Fortunately, more DNS providers are offering ANAME/ALIAS records as a solution.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vertical-browser-tabs https://blog.fortrabbit.com/vertical-browser-tabs Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:48:22 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Vertical browser tabs move the tab strip to the side, which quietly complicates web development if the pattern ever goes mainstream. Vertical browser tabs will add more complexity to web development if they ever become mainstream.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2025-32432 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2025-32432 Wed, 07 May 2025 09:24:51 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A high-impact Craft CMS vulnerability in the asset transform endpoint, what fortrabbit blocked, and what every installation must update. Update and check your Craft CMS installation. There is a high-impact vulnerability out there (again).

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-84-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-84-update Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:04:25 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.4 rolls out across the fortrabbit platform. The full version list, the sequential update procedure and the expected downtime. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.4 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/web-hosting-and-open-source https://blog.fortrabbit.com/web-hosting-and-open-source Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:46:16 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion changelog It's complicated. The relation between open source and web hosting from our point of view This is not about WordPress founder Matt, who is angry about the web hosting service WP-Engine. It's a much smaller story, it's ours.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/yes-we-rewrite https://blog.fortrabbit.com/yes-we-rewrite Thu, 06 Feb 2025 20:25:35 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Rewriting a hosting platform from scratch is the mistake every essay warns about. Why fortrabbit did it anyway, and how it went. We decided to rewrite our entire hosting platform. Here is more on the process and how we are doing so far.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-we-hire https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-we-hire Fri, 10 Jan 2025 10:53:08 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Hiring at a small company without an applicant tracking system or a hiring manager, and the things that end an application early. Hiring as a small company is challenging. Currently we have one open position, remote. Finding the right person is hard. How we look at candidates.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/billing-research https://blog.fortrabbit.com/billing-research Thu, 09 Jan 2025 21:31:03 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Choosing a billing provider for a hosting platform: the requirements, the candidates, and why a homebrew system finally had to go. Our journey to find a billing service provider to handle products, prices, payment methods, customers and invoices, programmatically by API.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/infra-research-2024 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/infra-research-2024 Wed, 04 Dec 2024 07:26:27 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles After a decade on AWS, a new platform is a chance to reconsider. How infrastructure providers were evaluated, and against which criteria. Our hosting service is running on AWS for more than a decade. The new platform - in the making - is offering us a chance to switch the infrastructure vendor. This documents our journey.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hosting-panel-with-social-network https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hosting-panel-with-social-network Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:32:51 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Why a hosting dashboard gets collaboration features that look like a small social network, and what agencies and freelancers do with them. We are integrating a mini social network into our hosting dashboard. Why we are even building a custom hosting control panel? There are Plesk and cPanel already.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-driven-development https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-driven-development Tue, 27 Aug 2024 13:11:39 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Doing first-level support and product ownership at once: how client conversations turn into features rather than just bug reports. How we use client feedback to shape and extend our service offering.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/action-oriented-ux https://blog.fortrabbit.com/action-oriented-ux Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Action-oriented UX puts the verb first, closer to how people speak and think, instead of the object-first layouts most dashboards use. This is usability experience concept. Verb first interfaces to be closer to natural language and human thinking.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-horizontal-scaling https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-horizontal-scaling Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Why the new fortrabbit platform drops horizontal scaling, a signature feature of the Pro Stack, and what replaces it. Some clients asked us why we don't plan to provide horizontal scaling for the new platform in the making any more. Let me try to explain.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-and-js https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-and-js Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion PHP and JavaScript have grown apart. What is missing between them in 2024, seen from a company that hosts one and serves the other. Is something missing to bring together JS and PHP?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-frontend-stack https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-frontend-stack Fri, 17 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev So many options - React, Svelte, Vue, Nuxt, htmx, Interia, Livewire. What to choose for our new web properties?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-technical-limits https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-technical-limits Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Fail early they say. Don't throw hardware on performance problems we say.contributions. Allow me to go a bit deeper on fortrabbit resource limitations and how they are usually helpful.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-83-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-83-update Wed, 20 Mar 2024 10:36:54 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.3 rolls out to all Uni and Pro apps. The version list for PHP and its extensions, the schedule and the downtime to expect. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.3 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2023-41892 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-cms-cve-2023-41892 Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Update your Craft CMS 4 installation. There is a low-effort high-impact vulnerability out there. Update your Craft CMS 4 installation, if you have not for a while. There is a low-effort high-impact vulnerability out there.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-tyranny-of-inconsistent-keyboard-shortcuts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-tyranny-of-inconsistent-keyboard-shortcuts Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer Insert a link in Slack, Notion, Linear, Obsidian and VS Code, and get five different shortcuts. A rant about relearning basic actions. A rant about how difficult it is to adapt keyboard shortcuts across multiple programs as a human.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-september-2023-maintenance https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-september-2023-maintenance Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:14:11 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A post mortem of the September 2023 internal maintenance: what went wrong across the nights in the EU, and what the aftermath was. We recently rolled out a BIG internal update. It was kinda rocky and we still have to deal with aftermath. Here are some technical details, as well as some personal reflections.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/september-2023-updates https://blog.fortrabbit.com/september-2023-updates Wed, 06 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicle A platform update covering operating system components and newer hardware, with the version list, the schedule and the downtime. We are preparing to roll out some minor version updates. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-gui-not-cli https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-gui-not-cli Mon, 28 Aug 2023 09:36:38 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Developers reach for the terminal first, so why did a hosting platform for developers start with a graphical dashboard instead?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-upgrades https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-upgrades Mon, 05 Jun 2023 11:02:19 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The last remaining apps move from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8 in a long-running maintenance project. What clients need to do, and when. This article informs our clients about a long running maintenance project to move remaining Apps from MySQL 5.7 to MySQL 8.0

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-2023 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-2023 Sat, 15 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Ten years of PHP cloud hosting: slow steady growth, hiring difficulties, and an honest account of a quiet period without big features. 10 years of fortrabbit cloud hosting. We haven't been doing much blogging lately. And you haven't seen many big new features landing here either. What's going on? Here is an update from the rabbitverse.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-82-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-82-update Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.2 rolls out across the platform. The complete version list for PHP and its extensions, with timing and expected downtime. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.2 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-eol https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-eol Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 7.4 reaches end of life. Why PHP 8 is worth the move — speed, active maintenance, new features — and how to get there. Same procedure as every year. PHP 7.4 will reach its end of life soon. This means that no security patches will be applied any more. This is information for PHP developers and fortrabbit clients.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/opinionated-craft-4-upgrade-guide https://blog.fortrabbit.com/opinionated-craft-4-upgrade-guide Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A step-by-step path from Craft CMS 3 to Craft 4: check plugin support, update composer.json, run migrations, test locally and deploy to fortrabbit. Upgrading to a new major version of Craft CMS is a bigger undertaking as you may think. This article aims to dive a bit deeper than the official docs. Here is what you need to know before getting started and some of our opinionated practices.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-at-fortrabbit-2022-04 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-at-fortrabbit-2022-04 Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A recap of recent platform work: a basic web application firewall setting, Craft Copy for Nitro, and Craft Copy for Craft CMS 4. Time flies by. We keep maintaining and improving our service. Here is a recap of recent updates.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-81-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-81-update Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8.1 rolls out to all Uni and Pro apps. The version and extension numbers, the schedule, and the downtime to expect. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.1 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-73-eol https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-73-eol Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:03:34 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 7.3 reaches end of life and gets switched to 7.4 on 13 April 2022. What to test before that date, and how to move earlier. Time flies by. Here is yet another PHP version that will soon get no more security updates, so we will need to stop supporting it as well: PHP 7.3. Here is what our clients need to know about upcoming changes.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-performance-tuning-debugging https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-performance-tuning-debugging Sun, 16 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev What we learned helping clients speed up Craft CMS sites: the backend bottlenecks that come up again and again, and how to measure them. Here's what we've learned helping clients to increase performance of their Craft CMS websites.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-0-12-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-0-12-update Thu, 11 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The platform update rolling out PHP 8.0.12 to all Uni and Pro apps, with the full version list and the downtime to expect. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8.0.12 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/image-optimization-services-overview https://blog.fortrabbit.com/image-optimization-services-overview Wed, 14 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A field guide to image processing and optimization services: what problem they solve, which providers exist, and the alternatives. Learn about image processing service providers here. What are they? What problem do they solve? What options and alternatives are available?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-a-recent-security-patch https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-a-recent-security-patch Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The story of one small dashboard security fix: a password form bypassed with browser dev tools, reported by a long-standing researcher. This is the story of a small security update we recently deployed to our Dashboard.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-8-update Mon, 22 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 8 rolls out across the fortrabbit platform. The full list of versions and extensions, plus timing and expected downtime. We are preparing to roll out PHP 8 to our platform. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/meanwhile-at-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/meanwhile-at-fortrabbit Thu, 11 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog HTTP/2 finally rolls out for all apps, alongside a set of smaller platform changes from the home office task force. Here is a combined update from the home office working task force, announcing upcoming and recent changes. You care about detail? We do too!

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/lets-encrypt-new-root https://blog.fortrabbit.com/lets-encrypt-new-root Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Let's Encrypt will change its root certificates. Learn how this might affect you as a fortrabbit client. Let's Encrypt will change its root certificates. Learn how this might affect you as a fortrabbit client.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-copy-1-released https://blog.fortrabbit.com/craft-copy-1-released Thu, 12 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Our command line tool to help with Craft CMS deployment on fortrabbit is now production grade ready. We are pleased to announce that Craft Copy has now reached version 1.0.0. Craft Copy is an open source command line interface to sync your local Craft with fortrabbit in more convenient and sophisticated ways.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-72-eol https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-72-eol Wed, 11 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog PHP 7.2 stops receiving security updates and support on fortrabbit ends. The quick upgrade route that works for most apps. Time flies by. Here is yet another PHP version that will soon get no more security updates, so we will need to stop supporting it as well: PHP 7.2. Here is what our clients need to know about upcoming changes.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-now-available-for-pro-apps https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mysql-8-now-available-for-pro-apps Wed, 28 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog We are finally making MySQL 8 available. What clients need to know about the roll-out. This has been a long requested feature. Now, we can finally announce it. Starting today, all newly created Pro Apps will run on MySQL version 8. Here is what else you might want to know.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/privacy-shield-obsolete-our-thoughts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/privacy-shield-obsolete-our-thoughts Tue, 15 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion The European Court of Justice invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield. What that means for a hosting platform and for its clients. The European Court of Justice (EUCJ) invalidated the Privacy Shield agreement recently. This is what clients may want to know.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/seomatic-exploit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/seomatic-exploit Tue, 07 Jul 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A critical vulnerability in the Craft CMS plugin SEOmatic. How to check whether an installation was affected, and how to clean up. The Craft CMS plugin SEOmatic has had a critical security vulnerability. This is how to check if your installation is affected and maybe even hacked already. TLDR; Update Craft CMS and plugins now!

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/covid-19-info https://blog.fortrabbit.com/covid-19-info Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles What fortrabbit changed in March 2020 to keep client sites online: remote work, shared responsibility and extended documentation. What we are doing to keep your business online and how you can help.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-74-update Fri, 27 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The platform update bringing PHP 7.4 and a set of extension bumps, with version numbers, timing and expected downtime. We are currently preparing a small update. PHP 7.4 and some extensions. Here is a list with lots of numbers and dots.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-story-of-our-new-invoice-numbers https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-story-of-our-new-invoice-numbers Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles How our new invoice numbers are structured and what went wrong when we rolled it out. We have just changed our invoice number format. This is why we changed it and about the issues during roll out.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/updates-ahead-2019-10 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/updates-ahead-2019-10 Wed, 16 Oct 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A patch update for all supported PHP versions rolls out app by app, with up to ten minutes of downtime for web delivery. We are currently preparing a patch version update. Here is what you need to know.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-71-fade-out https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-71-fade-out Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Security support for PHP 7.1 ends in December 2019. The five-minute upgrade path, and what to check before switching production. The official security support for PHP 7.1 is ending in December 2019. Bring your Apps up-to-date now. Here are the basic and some advanced steps you — dear fortrabbit client — might need to do.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-update-2019-08 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-update-2019-08 Fri, 16 Aug 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A second ImageMagick patch rolls out across the platform, with the rundown of timing and the downtime to expect for Uni and Pro apps. We are currently preparing for a smaller platform update. Mainly, this is about releasing a new patch, improving imageMagick performance - general stability and security improvements included.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-under-the-hood-2019-06 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/post-mortem-under-the-hood-2019-06 Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A post mortem of the 2019 under-the-hood update: a global operating system upgrade that did not go as planned, and why. We recently rolled out a BIG internal update and it didn't work out exactly as planned. Here is what went wrong.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/under-the-hood-updates-2019-06 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/under-the-hood-updates-2019-06 Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A large internal platform update focused on stability, security and groundwork, with the timing and downtime to expect per app. We are currently preparing a big internal update. You will not find new features (PHP7.4 and HTTP/2 not yet) but it includes many bigger under the hood changes, further improving platform stability and security.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-issues https://blog.fortrabbit.com/imagemagick-issues Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The backstory of a week of ImageMagick trouble on the platform: what broke in image transformations, and what was done about it. During the last week we have had some trouble with ImageMagick. Sorry for the inconvenience. This article provides some background about what happened.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-eol-faq https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-eol-faq Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev What else you need to know about the upcoming EOL of the two PHP versions 5.6 and 7.0. The end is near. At least for PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0. Here are most facts for fortrabbit clients on the upcoming updates.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-php-deadlines https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-php-deadlines Thu, 06 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0 deadlines: Why is so much old PHP around? What we will do!

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hello-teutonic-css https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hello-teutonic-css Thu, 02 Aug 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Teutonic CSS, an open-source CSS framework grown out of the stylesheet behind fortrabbit, and the thinking that shaped it. So we said to do more open source on fortrabbit. TADA - here is my first big open source publication. A CSS framework.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/open-source-at-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/open-source-at-fortrabbit Mon, 30 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Props to the OSS communities and highlighting some of our open source contributions. fortrabbit wouldn't be possible without great open source projects. So we are thinking about ways to give back.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-is-gdpr-ready https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-is-gdpr-ready Mon, 16 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles GDPR is here. Wat is changing for our clients, what not, why and when. Comply by the end of May. The General Data Protection Regulation is coming. This post reflects when, why, what and what not is changing for our clients.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/favorite-facebook-bot-designs https://blog.fortrabbit.com/favorite-facebook-bot-designs Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A collection of Facebook reaction bots found on hosted sites, and the accidental brutalist beauty of their interfaces. As a hosting provider we fight against all kind of frauds, hacks, scams and phishings. This is my favorite, mostly harmless service misuse.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-email-as-a-service https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-email-as-a-service Mon, 30 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev An opinionated field guide to email hosting providers, for teams whose PHP host deliberately does not run their mailboxes. We evangelize the idea of decoupled hosting. This post gives you an overview about cool "Email as a Service" providers.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-get-good-support https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-get-good-support Wed, 18 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Read, search, ask — how to write a support request that gets a useful answer quickly, and what makes hosting support slow down. Customer service is crucial, especially for hosting. Help us helping you! Get better answers faster. Learn how to ask.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-transactional-mails https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-transactional-mails Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion What transactional email services are for — confirmations, invoices, password resets — and which providers are worth a look. This field guide helps understanding commercial services for transactional e-mails. What are they good for anyways?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-video-hosting https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-video-hosting Mon, 14 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev An opinionated field guide to video encoding and hosting services, and when outsourcing video beats serving it from the web server. We evangelize the idea of decoupled hosting. This post gives you an overview about cool video encoding and hosting services you can usefor your business.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-cdn https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-cdn Thu, 03 Aug 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev An opinionated field guide to developer-friendly CDN services, with pay-as-you-go pricing that finally fits medium-sized projects. We evangelize the idea of decoupled hosting. This post gives you an overview about cool content delivery services.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-domain-providers https://blog.fortrabbit.com/market-overview-domain-providers Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev An opinionated field guide on developer-friendly domain hosting services. Your application is running on a cloud service (like this one here). You now ask where the developer-friendly domain registration service is?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-we-do-transactional-mail https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-we-do-transactional-mail Thu, 22 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles webdev opinion Our real-live practices on auto-generated client e-mail communication. Sending triggered standardized e-mails to clients is part of almost every web application. To get this right is crucial for business. This is about our own 'worst' practices — a nerdy article covering communication, design and web tech (PHP related).

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/invite-the-client https://blog.fortrabbit.com/invite-the-client Thu, 15 Jun 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The client invite hands billing for an app to the client, instead of sharing logins or asking for their credit card details. NEED: You are developing a website. You want your client to pay for the hosting.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/universal-pricing-v2 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/universal-pricing-v2 Thu, 11 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles changelog Universal App plans get reworked five months after launch: the entry plan goes, the middle plan takes its price, a top plan arrives. The Universal Stack was launched 5 months ago. We are now implementing a frequent feedback: Meet our new more powerful Universal Stack plans:

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/old-app-migration-program https://blog.fortrabbit.com/old-app-migration-program Mon, 20 Mar 2017 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Our Old App infrastructure is going to be shut down in less than two weeks — by the end of March 2017. Most clients have already moved their Apps. But a high number of Old App is still running and this is worrying us. To avoid data loss, downtime and frustration we decided to do help out with an unusual step:]]> We are manually moving many Old Apps to Universal Apps to avoid downtime and data loss for stragglers. Our Old App infrastructure is going to be shut down in less than two weeks — by the end of March 2017. Most clients have already moved their Apps. But a high number of Old App is still running and this is worrying us. To avoid data loss, downtime and frustration we decided to do help out with an unusual step:

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/universal-stack-changelog https://blog.fortrabbit.com/universal-stack-changelog Tue, 20 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Every change that came with the Universal Stack release, including New Apps being renamed to Professional Apps. No action required. This is nuts and bolts for our existing clients on changes with the latest platform update. TL;DR: No action required from your side. All platform updates are opt-in. Your Apps, plans, settings and pricing will stay exactly the same.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/universal-stack-launched https://blog.fortrabbit.com/universal-stack-launched Tue, 20 Dec 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Optimized for CMS driven websites - made for your needs: Backups, Git, SFTP, HTTPS & team collaboration. It's been a long time. The rabbits crew is back with yet another major release. The all new all great 'U-new-versal' Stack is available now — ready to blow your mind.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/dashboard-improvements https://blog.fortrabbit.com/dashboard-improvements Fri, 02 Sep 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A shorter sign-up, instant login, app access links and a setup guide that extends the trial — the boarding flow rebuilt end to end. On our quest to eliminate obstacles we have just optimized the boarding flow. This is new:

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/540-days-for-drupal8-install-guide https://blog.fortrabbit.com/540-days-for-drupal8-install-guide Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Why a Drupal 8 install guide took 540 days to write, and what the delay says about writing hosting documentation for a moving target. Why it took us such a crazy long time to write an install guide for Drupal 8.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/sneak-peek https://blog.fortrabbit.com/sneak-peek Mon, 22 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles What comes after the mission statement: a new hobby line alongside professional hosting, and the migration path for Old App owners. What we are working on and how we'll proceed with the Old Apps.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-stack-chooser https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-stack-chooser Thu, 04 Aug 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Pick a framework or CMS when creating an app and fortrabbit sets the matching configuration — no one-click installer, but a running start. Simply select your stack when creating a new App — get started more quickly. We now help out by setting basic configs like root path, environment variables and App secrets for you.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-password-authentication https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-password-authentication Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Password authentication as an alternative to SSH keys, plus documentation code examples that fill in real values while logged in. Boarding just got better. This new release makes it easier to get started with fortrabbit for new and novice users.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/better-domain-handling https://blog.fortrabbit.com/better-domain-handling Tue, 12 Jul 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Domain setup on fortrabbit gets a clearer interface and a forwarding service for naked domains, following free HTTPS via Let's Encrypt. Setting up domains for your fortrabbit Apps just became easier. We have vastly improved handling for naked domains.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-2016 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-2016 Mon, 27 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Four years of PHP cloud hosting: what New Apps changed, where the company stands, and what the next year is meant to bring. 4 years of fortrabbit cloud hosting already. What's going on?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/tls-free-launched https://blog.fortrabbit.com/tls-free-launched Wed, 15 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog free and with zero config.]]> Free SSL certificates for custom domains via Let's Encrypt are here now. SSL certificates for your custom domains by Let's Encrypt — free and with zero config.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/file-based-cms-2016 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/file-based-cms-2016 Tue, 07 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Thoughts on flat file CMS and static site generators, mostly PHP-related. Let's have a look at different types of database-less CMS — the candidates, the pros, the cons and what you need to consider when it comes to deployment & hosting.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/remote-ssh-execution-released https://blog.fortrabbit.com/remote-ssh-execution-released Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog chronicles Remote SSH execution runs artisan and other framework commands directly on the environment, without a tunnel and a special config. We regularly get support requests on how to use Laravel Artisan commands — especially for database migration. That just became a lot easier.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/http2-reality-check https://blog.fortrabbit.com/http2-reality-check Mon, 09 May 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Object Storage — an integrated S3-compatible asset storage. One of the features is HTTP/2 support. So we were curious to see the performance improvements: How much faster is it actually? TLDR: It depends. And it turned out that testing is never easy.]]> HTTP/2 promised faster delivery. What measurements on a real PHP hosting platform actually showed, and where the gains went. We have recently launched our Object Storage — an integrated S3-compatible asset storage. One of the features is HTTP/2 support. So we were curious to see the performance improvements: How much faster is it actually? TLDR: It depends. And it turned out that testing is never easy.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/object-storage-launched https://blog.fortrabbit.com/object-storage-launched Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog announced back in August.]]> An integrated S3-compatible object storage for uploads, runtime data and static assets, easier to set up than S3 itself. fortrabbit now offers a new Object Storage Component which allows you to store uploads, runtime data and static assets. This milestone marks our New Apps as fully feature complete as announced back in August.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-we-dont-do-add-ons https://blog.fortrabbit.com/why-we-dont-do-add-ons Mon, 29 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Insights why we will not offer an Add-On program soon and what we have instead We have long thought about bringing Add-Ons to fortrabbit to make the service offering more versatile. Now, after lots' of research and discussions, we can finally conclude: We won't do it — for now. Here is why and what instead.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hello-us https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hello-us Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog fortrabbit opens a US East data center location for new apps, and adds billing in US dollars alongside the euro. Hoooooooooray! The new data center location in US-EAST-1 is now available for New Apps. And you can pay in USD directly.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/bounced-payment https://blog.fortrabbit.com/bounced-payment Thu, 28 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles One complicated support ticket about a bounced payment, printed almost in full — on privacy over convenience and disaster communication. Things will go wrong — they say. That other day I had to deal with this complicated support ticket. I'd like to share the conversation and some thoughts on billing & accounting for startups here with you.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cloudscapes-rerevisited https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cloudscapes-rerevisited Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Is PaaS dead? Trends, pivots and troubles in PHP cloud hosting in 2015, seen from inside one of the companies competing in it. A few years ago tech press and analysts praised the public PaaS model. What's going on now?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/ecommerce-status-quo-2016 https://blog.fortrabbit.com/ecommerce-status-quo-2016 Wed, 06 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A look at PHP e-commerce software in 2016, for the developers and entrepreneurs still building custom shops against Amazon. We are constantly on the lookout for new software. This is a brief look on current developments in the e-commerce section.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-apps-ga https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-apps-ga Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog New Apps reach general availability, more scalable and extensible than the beta, and the platform update that got them there.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/httpspeedy https://blog.fortrabbit.com/httpspeedy Thu, 05 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion TLS, SNI, certificate authorities and HTTP/2, and why a hosting platform should not rush any of them into production.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-apps-are-here https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-apps-are-here Tue, 25 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog New Apps enter beta: twice as fast at half the price, built around ephemeral storage and a rethought hosting architecture.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-2fa https://blog.fortrabbit.com/introducing-2fa Thu, 18 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles changelog Two-factor authentication arrives for fortrabbit accounts, together with configurable session and sudo timeouts.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/i-love-assets https://blog.fortrabbit.com/i-love-assets Mon, 18 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev Automated asset pipelines for CSS, JS and images: how to build them and how to deploy the output when storage is no longer persistent.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/survey-results https://blog.fortrabbit.com/survey-results Tue, 12 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev What customers said in a survey about fortrabbit and about hosting in general, and which conclusions were actually drawn from it.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-paas-pricing https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-paas-pricing Fri, 08 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Value-based against cost-based pricing for a hosting service, written when Heroku dropped its free tier and changed the entry plan.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-hosting-possibilities https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-hosting-possibilities Tue, 05 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A stubborn look at hosting options for developers — shared, VPS, cloud and PaaS — and which of them fits which kind of project.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/small-improvements https://blog.fortrabbit.com/small-improvements Thu, 30 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Two small dashboard additions: batch importing environment variables from a .env file, and DNS checks on domain setup.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/roadmap-to-hack-app https://blog.fortrabbit.com/roadmap-to-hack-app Mon, 20 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The fortrabbit roadmap after the dashboard relaunch, and the groundwork already laid for the updates that follow it.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/battling-billing https://blog.fortrabbit.com/battling-billing Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion How hustling with accounting keeps us away from developing our service.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-password-security https://blog.fortrabbit.com/on-password-security Tue, 10 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog Password rules sit between usability, culture and security. What a security researcher's review changed in the fortrabbit dashboard.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-dashboard-supervision https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-dashboard-supervision Wed, 04 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Releasing a dashboard that took years to write, then watching how it lands. On feedback, missing features and shipping big projects.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/migration-help https://blog.fortrabbit.com/migration-help Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A guide for existing users moving into the new fortrabbit dashboard: what changed, what stayed, and where to find each feature.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-new-dashboard-is-here https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-new-dashboard-is-here Wed, 25 Feb 2015 14:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The new fortrabbit dashboard ships after more than a year of work. What changed, what it cost, and where the roadmap goes next.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-blog-layout https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-blog-layout Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A new blog layout on a new engine, and why a static site generator replaced WordPress for a developer-facing company blog.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-dashboard-migration-guide https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-dashboard-migration-guide Wed, 15 Oct 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles What actually changes for existing customers when the new fortrabbit dashboard arrives, including the move from freemium to a free trial.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-the-new-dashboard https://blog.fortrabbit.com/mission-statement-the-new-dashboard Mon, 08 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles What to expect from the rebuilt fortrabbit dashboard, months before its release: the process, the features and the reasoning.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-status-page https://blog.fortrabbit.com/our-new-status-page Tue, 02 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles status.fortrabbit.com becomes the official channel for scheduled maintenance and incidents, with mail, SMS and RSS subscriptions.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/add-ons-markdown https://blog.fortrabbit.com/add-ons-markdown Mon, 07 Jul 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Price cuts for the Memcache, MySQL and Workers add-on plans, and why cloud pricing has not followed Moore's Law so far.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/sunsetting-a-few-features https://blog.fortrabbit.com/sunsetting-a-few-features Wed, 18 Jun 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The SMTP wrapper and the ReSync tool are switched off ahead of the new dashboard, with a note on how features reach end of life.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/20-years-pretty-home-pages https://blog.fortrabbit.com/20-years-pretty-home-pages Wed, 28 May 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion PHP turned twenty. An infographic through the history of the language that still powers most of the pretty home pages on the web.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cloudscapes-revisited-php-cloud-overview https://blog.fortrabbit.com/cloudscapes-revisited-php-cloud-overview Mon, 19 May 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A subjective insider tour through the PHP cloud hosting scene of 2014: who arrived, who struggled, and what changed since 2012.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-as-a-service https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-as-a-service Mon, 07 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Enhancing our platform with professional & reliable developer to developer support.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/first-fortran-paas https://blog.fortrabbit.com/first-fortran-paas Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion fortrabbit announces the world's first Fortran platform as a service, with a new stack and full support. Published 1 April 2014.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/sunsetting-freemium https://blog.fortrabbit.com/sunsetting-freemium Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The freemium development plan is replaced by a free trial. The reasoning, the timeline, and what it means for existing accounts.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/status-update https://blog.fortrabbit.com/status-update Wed, 27 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Where the platform stands in late 2013: a new dashboard in the making, what shipped since launch, and what did not.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-new-boarding-bonus https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-new-boarding-bonus Thu, 31 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The boarding bonus experiment gave new accounts extra credit for a longer test drive. How it worked, and why it ended.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-new-tasklist https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-new-tasklist Mon, 07 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog The tasklist replaces a plain freemium tier with something fairer and more playful, based on measured behavior of new accounts.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/celebrating-one-year-of-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/celebrating-one-year-of-fortrabbit Fri, 04 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles One year of running a PHP hosting platform: a thank-you to the clients who trusted an unfinished product, and what comes next.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/freemium-or-free-trial https://blog.fortrabbit.com/freemium-or-free-trial Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Is freemium the right business model for our service or shall we switch to a free trial model?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/laracon-observations https://blog.fortrabbit.com/laracon-observations Mon, 02 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Notes from Laracon 2013 in Amsterdam, on the relationship between Symfony and Laravel and where the PHP framework scene was heading.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-user-survey-results https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-user-survey-results Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Results and learnings from our latest questionnaire among our users with 327 answers.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hosting-performance-hosting-convenience https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hosting-performance-hosting-convenience Wed, 10 Jul 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Hosting is still argued over price and performance. The case for judging it by convenience instead, from a PHP platform startup.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/damn-we-got-pwned https://blog.fortrabbit.com/damn-we-got-pwned Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles In May 2013 the fortrabbit platform was successfully attacked. The full account of what happened, what leaked and what changed after.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-hiccups-behind-the-scenes https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-hiccups-behind-the-scenes Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Two weeks of downtimes in 2013, explained from the inside: what broke, what it meant for a young hosting company, and what changed.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/free-web-hosting https://blog.fortrabbit.com/free-web-hosting Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Free PHP hosting is one of the most frequent searches leading to fortrabbit. Why the offer does not exist, and what it would really cost.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-story-of-our-new-write-protection-feature https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-story-of-our-new-write-protection-feature Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Write protection reduces the privileges of a running app, and it is worth enabling on every production app. Why it took a while to build.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/optional-php-extensions https://blog.fortrabbit.com/optional-php-extensions Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog A new PHP settings page in the dashboard lets each app switch optional PHP extensions on and off without a support request.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/goodbye-webrechnung https://blog.fortrabbit.com/goodbye-webrechnung Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles fortrabbit shuts down WebRechnung and the remaining MISH services, to put everything behind the new PHP hosting platform.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-idea-of-decoupled-hosting https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-idea-of-decoupled-hosting Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Code in git, dependencies in Composer, assets in object storage, mail in a service: the case for modular, decoupled hosting.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-features-app-collaboration-transfer https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-features-app-collaboration-transfer Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles changelog Permission management arrives: app collaboration for teammates, owner transfer, and the multi-tenancy workflows that come with it.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/where-to-host-my-website-now https://blog.fortrabbit.com/where-to-host-my-website-now Tue, 04 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion IaaS, PaaS, bare metal, shared or managed hosting: how to decide, written for clients whose old hosting platform was being retired.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-roadmap https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-roadmap Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The fortrabbit roadmap for the coming year, written at the point where a young PHP platform decides what to build next.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-talk-bephpug https://blog.fortrabbit.com/fortrabbit-talk-bephpug Mon, 12 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles Slides and notes from the fortrabbit talk at the Berlin PHP user group, given by the person with the least PHP knowledge in the room.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-symfony2-on-fortrabbit https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-symfony2-on-fortrabbit Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A screencast showing one way to set up Symfony 2 on fortrabbit, recorded for the Symfony Live event in Berlin in 2012.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-cloud-economically-attractive-but-what-the-about-ecological-impact https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-cloud-economically-attractive-but-what-the-about-ecological-impact Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion The cloud: economically attractive, but what the about ecological impact?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/what-the-hosting-and-the-meat-market-have-in-common https://blog.fortrabbit.com/what-the-hosting-and-the-meat-market-have-in-common Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Brutal price competition produces factory farming in meat and something similar in hosting. An illustrated argument about cheap.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-install-slim-php-on-fortrabbit-with-git-composer https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-install-slim-php-on-fortrabbit-with-git-composer Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev This videos shows you how to set up SlimPHP on fortrabbit with Git and Composer

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-install-laravel-on-fortrabbit-with-git https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-install-laravel-on-fortrabbit-with-git Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A screencast walking through installing Laravel and deploying it to fortrabbit with git, from an empty folder to a running site.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-yet-another-hello-world-with-phpstorm https://blog.fortrabbit.com/video-yet-another-hello-world-with-phpstorm Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A screencast deploying a simple hello world from PHPStorm to fortrabbit, and a note on how much work tutorial videos actually are.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/take-off-fortrabbit-php-platform-launched https://blog.fortrabbit.com/take-off-fortrabbit-php-platform-launched Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles fortrabbit announces general availability of its PHP hosting platform from Berlin, and the problem it was built to solve.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-renaissance-collection https://blog.fortrabbit.com/php-renaissance-collection Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A collection of links on the modern side of PHP, gathered when the language was shaking off its spaghetti-code reputation.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/freemium-vs-bootstrapped https://blog.fortrabbit.com/freemium-vs-bootstrapped Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Building a PaaS in Berlin without venture capital: what bootstrapping decides about pricing, pace and the product itself.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/beta-begins https://blog.fortrabbit.com/beta-begins Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The private beta of the fortrabbit PHP platform opens and the first invitations go out. What testers can expect during the beta period.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/beta-survey-results https://blog.fortrabbit.com/beta-survey-results Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion What 160 developers told us about their PHP workflows, hosting and tools, and how the answers shaped the platform we then built.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/a-coders-survey https://blog.fortrabbit.com/a-coders-survey Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles webdev Results of a survey among developers and designers about hosting, workflows and tools — data that was not available anywhere else in 2012.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/www-musings-about-a-subdomain https://blog.fortrabbit.com/www-musings-about-a-subdomain Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion The www subdomain is optional, hard to say out loud, and still everywhere. On apex domains, print designers and old internet habits.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-pages-are-on-now https://blog.fortrabbit.com/support-pages-are-on-now Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer changelog chronicles The first fortrabbit help pages go live, and the search for a knowledge base system that suits a small hosting company.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-new-online-text-editors https://blog.fortrabbit.com/about-new-online-text-editors Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion webdev A first look at browser-based code editors and web IDEs in 2012 — what the category promised, and whether it was any good yet.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-freemium-hosting-business-models-our-thoughts https://blog.fortrabbit.com/the-freemium-hosting-business-models-our-thoughts Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion Will small hosting plans end up free? Someone always pays for the resources — a look at freemium in hosting after AppFog's pricing.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/paas-vendor-locked-in-buzz https://blog.fortrabbit.com/paas-vendor-locked-in-buzz Mon, 30 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion How locked in is a website to its hosting provider, and does portability across clouds mean anything in practice for a PHP app?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/custom-http-error-pages https://blog.fortrabbit.com/custom-http-error-pages Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer webdev A sneak peek at the handmade fortrabbit error pages, built to be useful in the moment something on a hosted site goes wrong. As Murphy knew: Things will go wrong. Let's be prepared for that moment. Our error pages offer some help in a dark hour. Nice looking 404, 403, 500 … pages for the rest of us.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/comparing-cloud-hosting-platforms https://blog.fortrabbit.com/comparing-cloud-hosting-platforms Mon, 09 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer opinion A 2012 snapshot of the PHP PaaS field — Heroku, PHP Fog, Pagodabox, dotCloud, cloudControl and the European newcomers. Most of them are gone.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/what-happend-to-our-old-webhosting https://blog.fortrabbit.com/what-happend-to-our-old-webhosting Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles What became of MISH, the bare-metal hosting platform fortrabbit ran in a Berlin data center before building a PHP cloud service. You might know that we are already running a WebHosting platform on our own servers in a data center in Berlin. What is the connection to our new upcoming PHP cloud platform?

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-fortrabbit-com-teaser-page https://blog.fortrabbit.com/new-fortrabbit-com-teaser-page Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles A coming-soon page for fortrabbit.com with an HTML5 video background, and a survey asking developers what the platform should be.

]]> https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hello-world https://blog.fortrabbit.com/hello-world Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT Frank Lämmer chronicles The first post on the fortrabbit blog, announcing a next-generation PHP platform built in Europe, and what this blog will be for.

]]>