FrankenPHP - Single-Binary PHP and Caddy Server

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for cloudimg support services.

## Overview

FrankenPHP is a modern PHP application server built on top of the Caddy web server. It embeds the PHP interpreter and Caddy into a single self-contained binary, eliminating the need to wire together a separate web server and a PHP-FPM pool. Where a traditional LAMP or Nginx + PHP-FPM stack requires you to install, configure, and keep multiple packages in sync - web server, PHP-FPM, Certbot for TLS - FrankenPHP collapses all of that into one process with zero runtime library dependencies.

FrankenPHP adds worker mode for long-running application workers, automatic HTTPS, early hints, and real-time features such as server-sent events and the Mercure hub, while remaining fully compatible with your existing PHP applications and frameworks like Laravel and Symfony. This cloudimg AMI delivers FrankenPHP fully installed and configured on Amazon EC2, running as a hardened systemd service, so a working PHP application server is answering requests over HTTPS within minutes of launch.

## Use Case: Real-Time SaaS Dashboard with Laravel

Consider a Laravel application that pushes live metric updates to hundreds of concurrent browser sessions via server-sent events. With a traditional Nginx + PHP-FPM deployment, each SSE connection ties up an FPM worker, quickly exhausting your pool. FrankenPHP's worker mode keeps the Laravel application booted in memory between requests, and its native SSE support handles persistent connections without consuming additional PHP processes. Pair this with an Application Load Balancer for horizontal scaling and you have a real-time dashboard architecture that scales to thousands of concurrent viewers.

## Demo App That Proves PHP Execution

The server is driven entirely by a plain-text Caddyfile at /etc/frankenphp/Caddyfile. A small demo PHP application ships in the document root at /var/www/html so a freshly launched instance immediately demonstrates end-to-end PHP execution: browse to the instance over HTTPS and the landing page reports the exact PHP runtime version it was rendered by. Drop your own PHP application into the document root, or point the Caddyfile at your application entry point, and restart the service to go live.

## Application Stack

FrankenPHP runs as a dedicated non-root service with the Linux CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE capability so it can bind the privileged web ports. It serves your application over HTTPS on port 443 and permanently redirects plain HTTP on port 80 to HTTPS. The embedded PHP interpreter and Caddy web server are a single static binary with no runtime library dependencies, so there is no PHP-FPM socket to manage and no separate web server to keep in sync.

## Secure By Default

FrankenPHP embeds Caddy, whose administration interface can rewrite the running configuration over the network. This image disables that administration interface entirely so it does not listen on any interface, removing a powerful remote configuration surface. On first boot a one-shot service generates a fresh per-instance self-signed TLS certificate bound to that instance address, so the server answers over HTTPS immediately with no shared or default certificate and no shared or default credentials of any kind, since FrankenPHP has no login. If you own a domain name you can switch to fully automatic HTTPS with a trusted certificate by editing a single Caddyfile block.

## AWS Integrations

• Amazon CloudWatch - Stream FrankenPHP and Caddy logs to CloudWatch Logs for centralized monitoring, alerting, and long-term retention.
• Elastic Load Balancing - Place instances behind an Application Load Balancer for high availability, health checks, and TLS termination.
• AWS Certificate Manager - Use ACM with Elastic Load Balancing in front of the instance to provision and manage trusted TLS certificates without manual renewal.
• Amazon EBS - The document root and configuration live on the root volume; snapshot it for backup or grow it as your application grows.

## Key Capabilities

• A single binary that embeds PHP and the Caddy web server - no Nginx, no PHP-FPM, no Certbot.
• Worker mode that keeps your application booted in memory between requests for significant throughput gains over traditional per-request PHP-FPM execution.
• Automatic HTTPS with per-instance self-signed certificates out of the box, and trusted certificates for your own domain with one edit.
• Real-time features including server-sent events, early hints, and the Mercure hub.
• Full compatibility with standard PHP applications and frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony.