PHP Startpage Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Deploy PHP Startpage hosting and give yourself a fast, public page of links to your services on your own domain. xCloud runs the pinned PHP Startpage 0.10.0 image as a single container, seeds a short starter page, mounts the user_includes volume that holds your config.json and publishes the page over HTTPS in minutes — there is nothing to fill in at install time.

Deploy your PHP Startpage

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is PHP Startpage?

PHP Startpage is an open-source start page written in PHP and served by Apache. It reads one config.json file and renders your groups and links as a grid of cards, with optional HTTP status checks, dark mode and card search.

There is no database and no in-app editor: you change the page by editing config.json, and an optional header_links.html, footer.html and style.css add navbar links, a footer and custom styling.

From Sign-Up to a Live Start Page In Just 3 Easy Steps

A start page normally means a PHP and Apache container, a volume for the config, a domain and a certificate before the first link appears. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick PHP Startpage from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and target server — there are no extra fields to fill in.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the community PHP Startpage image, pinned by immutable digest, as a single container with no database, seed a short starter config.json into the user_includes volume if none exists, and publish the page over HTTPS on your domain.
Step 03
Replace The Starter Links
Open your HTTPS PHP Startpage URL and see the starter page. Then connect over SSH, copy config.json out of the container with docker cp, add your own groups and links, copy it back and reload the page — no restart needed.

Everything PHP Startpage Does, On Your Own Server

PHP Startpage runs in full here: a card-based start page on your own domain, driven by one file you control.

One JSON File Defines The Page
config.json holds the page title, groups, links, icons and notes, so changing the page means editing one file.
Optional Status Checks
Set "stat": true on a link and PHP checks its HTTP status each time the page loads, showing a green check, orange lock or exclamation, or red X.
Dark Mode And Card Search
The page defaults to dark mode with a toggle for light, and a search box filters cards by title.
Mobile-Friendly Layout
Bootstrap ships inside the image rather than loading from a third-party CDN, so the page adapts to phones without outside requests.
Your Own Header, Footer And CSS
Optional header_links.html, footer.html and style.css files in user_includes add navbar links, a footer and custom styling.
Four Icon Packs Built In
Bootstrap Icons, Font Awesome (free), Homelab SVG assets and Simple Icons are included in the image; switch packs by changing an icon path in config.json.

Everything You Need To Run Your Start Page 24/7

Managed hosting for PHP Startpage, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

PHP Startpage 0.10.0 deployed instantly
Community image pinned by digest
Config kept on a persistent volume
Kept behind xCloud nginx
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With PHP Startpage

A Shared Links Page For Your Team
Give everyone one address that lists your internal tools, dashboards and docs, grouped the way your team thinks about them.
A Home Page For Your Self-Hosted Services
Gather the apps you host into one grid with icons, short notes and a search box, so you stop memorising ports and subdomains.
A Simple Up/Down Board
Turn on the status check for the links that matter and see at a glance which ones answer, which need a login and which are failing.
A Browser Home Page You Control
Point your browser's home page at your own domain and keep your bookmarks in a file you can version and copy between servers.

PHP Startpage Screenshots

PHP Startpage in dark mode showing groups of service cards with green, orange and red HTTP status icons, from upstream's demo configuration

PHP Startpage card search filtering the page to the OPNSense card, from upstream's demo configuration

PHP Startpage in dark mode on a phone-sized screen

PHP Startpage vs Alternatives

Starbase 80: Upstream names it, with Mafl, as an inspiration. It is a static page of categorised links and icons with no accounts or database, and it is also available as a OneClick app here.
Mafl: The other start page upstream's README credits as an inspiration. PHP Startpage is a separate project built around one config.json file.
Homarr: A customisable dashboard with live integrations that show status and stats, where PHP Startpage shows links with an optional HTTP status icon.
Dashy: A personal dashboard with widgets, themes and a built-in visual configuration editor; PHP Startpage has no editor and is configured by editing a file.
Heimdall: An application dashboard and browser start page with optional live stats for supported apps, compared with PHP Startpage's plain card grid.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for PHP Startpage hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

More headroom if the start page sits alongside many other apps.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. PHP Startpage itself is licensed by its maintainer under the MIT License.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy PHP Startpage on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Start Page?

PHP Startpage on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

How do I add or change links?

Edit config.json in the user_includes volume: connect over SSH, copy the file out of the container with docker cp, edit it, copy it back and reload the page. There is no in-app editor and no restart is needed.

Is there a login?

No. The page is public and read-only, and nothing can be written to it over HTTP. If you need privacy, add your own access control in front of the domain.

Enable Basic Authentication

Is config.json public?

Yes. Anything in the user_includes folder can be served by the web server, including /user_includes/config.json. Keep passwords, tokens and private URLs out of config.json and out of the link notes.

What runs alongside PHP Startpage?

Nothing. It is a single PHP and Apache container with no database or other service.

How do the status checks work?

A link with "stat": true is checked from the server each time the page loads, with a 5 second timeout per link, so many checked links make the page slower. The checks need outbound internet access from the server.

What should I back up?

The user_includes volume, which holds config.json and the optional footer.html, header_links.html and style.css.

Backups in xCloud

What survives a restart?

config.json and the other files in the user_includes volume, because it is a persistent named volume; the file was still in place after an xCloud Restart in QA. A starter page is only written when no config.json exists yet.

Do I need to set any environment variables?

No. The app reads no environment variables; the page is configured in config.json. You can change the domain freely because nothing in the app is tied to it.

Does xCloud automatically back up or update PHP Startpage?

No. The template pins PHP Startpage 0.10.0 by immutable digest; new installations use the pinned release, existing sites are not automatically upgraded. Back up first, read the upstream release notes, then bump the readable tag and digest together on your own schedule. Server-level backups and snapshots are available on every Cloud VPS.

What are the server requirements, and why does this page sell 6 GB?

The template's baseline asks for 1 CPU core, 128 MB of RAM and 1 GB of disk; measured idle use in QA was about 21 MiB. This page sells the 6 GB tier as the entry rung of the OneClick plans, which leaves far more headroom than the app needs.

Is xCloud officially partnered with PHP Startpage?

No. No official partnership or endorsement between xCloud and the PHP Startpage project has been verified. This is a deployment and server-management option for the open-source PHP Startpage project.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.