What SaaS in PHP actually means, and the two people searching for it

saas php is not one question. Type it into a search box and you could be either of two very different people, wanting close to opposite things.

One of you wants a PHP application to run a piece of your own business: something you install on a server you already have, that does one job, and that you pay for once. If the words in your head are closer to timesheet php, you are that same person, just further along -- you already know which job the software has to do.

The other one of you already has a PHP application, or is about to build one, and has customers of your own. You do not want another copy installed somewhere. You want to turn one codebase into a service that ten people, or a hundred, sign up for and pay to use. That is a different job. A user account is not the same thing as a tenant, and just add a company_id column is a much bigger project than the sentence makes it sound.

This page answers both, in that order: the self-hosted tool that answers timesheet php directly, what it actually takes to turn one PHP app into ten customers' service, the four limits of the tool that does that job, and the one line in every Ownware licence that governs the whole idea -- because it is exactly the question the second reader is asking, whether they know it yet or not.

If the job is the software, not the service

Every product in this catalogue is described the same way, on the legal page: "Every product is self-hosted software: you download a zip and run it on your own server. It is a one-time purchase -- no subscription, no recurring fees, and the software does not phone home to this store." That sentence is the whole answer to PHP business app: a zip, a server you already control, one payment, done.

For timesheet php specifically, that product is Clockora: a self-hosted staff timesheet, hours by project, exact totals, approvals. No invoicing, deliberately -- if you also want an invoice to come out the other end of the timesheet, that is a different product's job, not this one's.

Try the Clockora demo ↗Live, on sample data, no sign-up.

Both are one-time prices for the single or extended licence, not a monthly figure. There is nothing to cancel because there is nothing recurring to cancel.

The two licence tiers are the same shape on every product in the catalogue. A single licence covers one domain or subdomain you own or operate, and lets you modify the source freely for that installation and run it commercially, including doing client work on it. An extended licence covers as many domains as you own or operate, plus one installation built and handed over per client project. Neither is a subscription, and the choice between them is about how many places you plan to run the software, not about which features unlock. That is the same free choice whether the software is Clockora, installed once for a payroll team, or SaaS Kit, sitting behind a PHP application you plan to run on more than one of your own domains.

If the job is turning one app into ten customers

SaaS Kit exists for the second reader, and its own product page states the problem in one sentence: "You have a solid single-tenant PHP app... and ten customers want it. So you either install it ten times and babysit ten servers, or you rewrite it 'multi-tenant' by threading a tenant_id through every query and praying you never forget a WHERE clause."

The database-per-tenant idea is the third option, and it is simpler than it sounds. Instead of one set of tables shared by every customer, with a tenant_id column threaded through every query to keep their rows apart, each tenant who signs up gets an entirely separate database. There is no shared table for a missing WHERE clause to leak across, because there is no shared table to leak across. Signup provisions the new tenant's own database and its own subdomain, and from there the tenant's copy of the application behaves like an ordinary, single-tenant install that happens to share a codebase and a server with everyone else's.

SaaS Kit is $79.00 for a single licence and $179.00 for the extended licence, ships 189 tests, and is on version 3.1.6.

Is SaaS Kit right for you? Read this before the price

This is the section worth reading slowly, because SaaS Kit prints its own limits on its product page, before the features, and all four of them matter:

• "Not for $3 shared hosting -- per-tenant databases need CREATE DATABASE privileges, so a VPS or a host where you control MySQL is required."
• "You need wildcard DNS (*.yourapp.com) pointed at your server -- no wildcard record, no tenant subdomains."
• "Billing is bring-your-own-Stripe; this is not a payment processor and takes no cut."
• "Isolation is at the PHP/database level, not container level."

Two kinds of buyer should stop here. Somebody on cheap shared hosting with no control over MySQL cannot grant CREATE DATABASE privileges for a new tenant, and no amount of wanting the idea to work changes that: the first limit is not negotiable. Somebody expecting a payment processor should stop too: SaaS Kit plugs into a Stripe account you already hold, takes no cut, and moves no money itself. And if separate containers per tenant, rather than separate databases inside one shared PHP process, are the isolation you actually need, the fourth limit says plainly that this is not that tool.

The buyer the four limits do not rule out already has a VPS or a host where MySQL is under their own control, already owns a domain they can point a wildcard DNS record at, and already holds a Stripe account they intend to bill through. If all three are already true, the second reader's original question has a straightforward technical answer: yes, one PHP application can become ten customers' subscriptions, provided the tenants are kept apart with a database each rather than a column.

The licence line PHP SaaS script searches are usually really asking

A lot of people searching for a PHP SaaS script are asking a licence question without knowing it yet, and it is worth stating plainly rather than letting somebody find out after paying. Every Ownware licence, single or extended, on SaaS Kit, on Clockora, and on every other product in the catalogue, lets you install, modify and run the software commercially, including doing client work on it. Neither licence lets you go further than that: it will not let you "offer it (or something derived from it) to other people as a hosted or multi-tenant service they sign up for -- that needs a separate SaaS agreement."

Read plainly, that line is aimed squarely at the second reader's question. SaaS Kit is built to multiply your own PHP application into a rented service; it is not a licence to take an Ownware product, Clockora included, wrap it in SaaS Kit's database-per-tenant pattern, and resell the result to ten customers who sign up and pay you for it. That specific move is the "hosted or multi-tenant service" the licence carves out on purpose, and it needs the separate SaaS agreement the page describes, not a second reading of the licence you already have.

Two products, two different searches, one page: Clockora if a self-hosted timesheet is the actual job, SaaS Kit if the job is turning your own PHP application into something ten customers pay for, and a direct conversation with us before either if the application you want to multiply is one you bought from this catalogue rather than one you built yourself.