Ploi alternative: 2 free sites, unlimited deploys and backups in every plan
4 min read
Comparing Ploi alternatives? Zefily's free plan has 2 sites, unlimited deploys, backups and the WAF; team seats start at $19, with malware scanning and signed jobs in every plan.
Ploi is a hosted server panel with a free plan to start. Zefily is in the same category, and the differences show up in what each plan includes: Zefily puts backups, deploys, the WAF and its security tools in every plan, the free one too.
In short
- Zefily Free: 1 server, 2 sites, no deployment limit, backups, push-to-deploy, the WAF and malware scanning. Ploi Free: 1 server, 1 site, 5 deployments a month.
- Team seats from the $19 Pro plan (3 seats); at Ploi, team management is part of Unlimited ($36).
- Every Zefily job is signed twice; sites can block AI crawlers and countries.
- nginx or OpenLiteSpeed, Node.js, Python, containers and one-click apps.
At a glance
| Ploi | Zefily | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (1 server, 1 site, 5 deploys/month); Basic $10 (5), Pro $16 (10), Unlimited $36 | Free for 1 server and 2 sites, no time limit; from $8/month for 3 servers |
| Team members | Unlimited plan | From Pro ($19, 3 seats) |
| Automatic backups | From Pro | Every plan, to your own storage |
Competitor details are taken from their own pages in October 2026 and may change. Zefily prices are in US dollars, excluding VAT.
What you get with Zefily
Malware scanning with quarantine
ClamAV scans every site's files on demand, daily or weekly, and can move what it finds to a root-only quarantine. Upload scanning checks every file the moment it is written (SFTP, deploys, plugin installs, upload forms) and quarantines infected files at once. Scans need a server with 2 GB of memory, upload scanning 4 GB. More on our security tools.
Block AI crawlers and countries
One switch per site refuses GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, PerplexityBot, Bytespider and other AI crawlers while search engines keep indexing; you can also block or allow countries (nginx), block addresses, and turn on the web application firewall (ModSecurity with the OWASP Core Rule Set).
Signed jobs and passkey approvals
Every change to a server is signed by the panel and by a separate signing service on its own machine; risky actions (a root terminal, deleting a site or database, opening a database port) also need your passkey. A stolen session, or even a compromised panel, cannot quietly change your servers. How it works.
A web stack we build and patch
Zefily ships its own nginx build with HTTP/3 and Brotli, and its own signed PHP packages so PHP 7.3–8.5 run even on Ubuntu 26.04 (amd64 and arm64). Security fixes for PHP, nginx, OpenLiteSpeed and PostgreSQL install automatically, and you can switch a running server between nginx and OpenLiteSpeed in place.
More than PHP
WordPress, Laravel and PHP sites run next to Node.js and Python apps, Go, Java, .NET, Ruby, Bun and Deno, rootless containers and Compose files, each as its own Linux user. One-click apps such as Ghost, Nextcloud, Uptime Kuma and Supabase are upgraded one major version at a time, with a backup taken first.
Backups you own
Encrypted restic backups to your own S3, Google Drive, SFTP or FTP storage, with your own repository password, restorable without Zefily. Why that matters.
Made for how you work
Free zefily.app addresses to test a site before DNS, an API and CLI, an MCP server so AI agents such as Claude, Cursor or VS Code can deploy and roll back with a token you control, and Feature requests in the panel, where every idea gets a status and an answer from us.
When Ploi may still be the right fit
If you need a very large number of servers on one flat price, Ploi's Unlimited plan is built for that.
Moving from Ploi to Zefily
- Connect a server to Zefily: a fresh Ubuntu or Debian server at any provider works best, since Zefily does not take over software it did not install.
- Create the site with the PHP version (or runtime) it uses today.
- Copy the files over SFTP and import the database in the site's database section.
- Test on the site's free
zefily.appaddress before you touch DNS. - Switch DNS; the certificate is issued automatically.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free alternative to Ploi?
Zefily's free plan covers 1 server and 2 sites with no deployment limit, and includes backups to your own storage, push-to-deploy, the WordPress toolkit, the web application firewall and malware scanning.
How much does Ploi cost?
Ploi's pricing page (October 2026) lists Free (1 server, 1 site), Basic at $10 a month (5 servers), Pro at $16 (10) and Unlimited at $36. Zefily is free for 1 server, then $8 (3 servers), $19 (10), $39 (30) and $59 (100).
Which Zefily plan includes team members?
Pro ($19 a month) includes 3 team seats, Business 10 and Agency 25.
Does Zefily limit deployments?
No. No plan has a monthly deployment limit.
Can I suggest features for Zefily?
Yes. Feature requests in the panel lets you send ideas; each one gets a status (received, under review, planned, in progress, shipped or not planned) and an answer from us.
Start free with one server: no time limit, and your first site can be live on a free zefily.app address in minutes.