One-time £399 license fee. Full PHP source code. Zero transaction fees. Install on your own server and stop paying SaaS subscriptions that compound every year.
Typical SaaS auction platforms cost £99–£299/month plus 1–3% per transaction. Here is what those costs look like over five years compared to PHP Pro Bid.
| Cost item | PHP Pro Bid License | Typical SaaS (£149/mo) | Typical SaaS + 2% fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software fee | £399 (once) | £8,940 | £8,940 |
| Your own hosting | Varies | Included | Included |
| Transaction fees on £200k GMV/yr | £0 | £0 | £20,000 |
| 5-year total | £399 | £8,940 | £28,940 |
* Estimates based on publicly listed SaaS competitors at time of writing. Actual costs vary. Transaction fee saving assumes £200,000/yr in hammer prices — adjust the math to your own GMV for an accurate comparison. The License total excludes your own hosting, which you arrange separately and varies by provider.
The License plan is not a stripped-down tier. It includes the complete PHP Pro Bid platform — every auction format, every bidder tool, the full admin panel, and all the source code.
The full PHP source — read it, modify it, and extend it. Hand it to your developer or build on it yourself. A few licensing/security files are encoded with ionCube; everything else is open.
Install on any PHP host — shared hosting, VPS, cloud VM. You choose the geography, the provider, and the performance tier.
Every bidder account, every transaction record, every invoice sits in your MySQL database on your server. Export it, back it up, migrate it. PHP Pro Bid has no access to it at all.
PHP Pro Bid does not take a percentage of your hammer prices. Run £1k or £1m in GMV — the software cost does not change. Every pound of auction revenue is yours.
Timed online auctions, live auction events with staggered closings, fixed-price webstore, estate sale format, charity fundraising mode — all formats included on the License plan.
Your domain, your logo, your color scheme. The optional Unbranding add-on removes the PHP Pro Bid branding entirely, for a platform fully under your own brand identity.
Responsive bidder front end works across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Bidders can place bids, track lots, and receive outbid notifications without installing any app.
Extend the platform with payment gateway add-ons, front-end themes, and feature modules available in the add-ons catalog — all compatible with the self-hosted License plan.
Your License includes standard support, plus all v10.x minor updates and improvements. When a new major version ships (v11, v12…), it's a separate paid upgrade — existing v10, v9 and v8 licensees get a discount. Staying on your current version is always an option.
The self-hosted License is the right choice when long-term value, data control, or code access matters more than avoiding server management.
You run regular sales, have an existing IT setup, and want to stop paying a SaaS subscription that rises with volume. One purchase, full ownership, permanent cost certainty.
You clear properties on commission and can't absorb 2–3% platform fees on top. Self-hosted eliminates transaction costs entirely and keeps your bidder database yours — not shared with competitors.
GDPR obligations, sector-specific data residency rules, or institutional policies that require bidder data to stay on your own infrastructure. Self-hosted is the only compliant option.
Building an auction platform for a client? The License plan gives you source code you can extend, modify, and deliver. PHP Pro Bid also offers a reseller arrangement for agencies building multiple sites.
When your GMV is high enough that SaaS transaction fees dwarf the License cost, self-hosted is the only rational choice. At £200k/yr GMV, a 2% platform fee runs £4,000 a year — the License is £399, paid once.
Every pound saved on platform fees goes to your cause. A one-time £399 license and a cheap shared hosting account is the lowest-cost path to a fully functional fundraising auction platform.
Standard installation on a PHP host takes 30–60 minutes. The web-based installer handles database setup — no command line required for the basic install.
Complete your order. Download the PHP Pro Bid package — a single zip file containing all application files and the installer.
Upload the files to your web server via FTP or cPanel File Manager. Point your domain (or subdomain) to the installation directory.
Open your domain in a browser. The installer wizard walks through database connection, admin account creation, and initial configuration.
Set your site name, payment gateway, email settings, and branding. List your first lots. You're live — usually the same day you purchase.
No monthly bill. No percentage taken on every sale. Full source code on your server from day one.
Self-hosted auction software runs on a web server that you control — typically a VPS or shared hosting account that you pay for directly. You install the software once, it runs under your own domain, and all data (bidder accounts, lot history, invoices) sits on your server. You are not renting access from a SaaS provider; you own the installation. PHP Pro Bid's License plan is the self-hosted option: a one-time £399 fee, full PHP source code included.
Yes, in the original sense. PHP Pro Bid is a PHP auction script you install on your own server and own outright: the £399 license includes the full source, with only a few licensing and security files ionCube-encoded. Unlike a bare script, it ships as a complete, maintained platform (timed auctions, live events, marketplace, invoicing) that has run live sales since 2006.
PHP Pro Bid requires a Linux server running Apache or Nginx, PHP 8.1 or higher, and MySQL 8.1+ or MariaDB 10.4+. Most mainstream shared hosting accounts meet these requirements. For high-traffic auction events with hundreds of simultaneous bidders, a VPS with at least 2 vCPUs and 4 GB RAM is recommended.
Yes. The License plan includes the full PHP source code — read it, modify it, hand it to a developer, or extend it yourself. A few licensing/security files are encoded with ionCube; everything else is open. The source code is yours once you purchase.
The only ongoing cost is your own hosting. PHP Pro Bid charges zero transaction fees and zero percentage of revenue. Standard support and all v10.x minor updates to your version are included. Major version upgrades (v11, v12…) are optional and priced separately, with a discount for existing v10, v9 and v8 licensees. There is no mandatory annual fee to keep your site running.
Your License covers version 10 and all v10.x minor updates indefinitely — you can keep running v10 as long as you like. When a new major version ships (v11, v12…), it's a separate paid upgrade rather than an automatic entitlement. Existing v10 licensees get a discount off the upgrade price, and so do owners of older v8 and v9 licenses. Cloud and Managed VPS customers get every future version included as part of their subscription.
A standard installation takes 30–60 minutes if you are comfortable with FTP and cPanel. Upload the files, create a MySQL database, run the web-based installer, point your domain, done. For businesses that prefer not to handle this themselves, PHP Pro Bid offers a professional installation service.
Yes. The License plan comes with no code restrictions. You can modify templates, add custom fields, integrate third-party payment gateways, or build entirely new features. PHP Pro Bid also offers a Custom Development service if you want changes built by the team who wrote the software.
Looking for free auction software? A one-time PHP Pro Bid license is yours forever, with no monthly fees and no revenue share, which works out cheaper than "free" platforms that take a cut of every sale.
You own it entirely. The MySQL database sits on your server, under your hosting account. PHP Pro Bid has no access to your bidder list, auction history, or revenue data. You can export, back up, or migrate the database at any time. There is no vendor lock-in and no API dependency on our servers for day-to-day operation.