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The short version
Pick PHPTRAVELS if you want to own the platform — self-hosted, source code included, licensed once. Pick Trawex if you would rather the vendor ran it: Positions itself as a travel software development company, with hotel booking, flight booking, car rental and tour operator software among its products.
Both can sell travel. The difference is what you are buying — an asset you operate, or a service you subscribe to.
PHPTRAVELS vs Trawex at a glance
Trawex claims below were read off their own site on 2026-09-09. Where they do not publish something, this table says so instead of guessing.
| Criteria | PHPTRAVELS | Trawex |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment Who runs the servers | Self-hosted | Vendor-managed |
| Source code Can you read and change it | Included | Verify with vendor |
| Pricing model What the vendor publishes | Quote — one-time licence | Not published — demo request |
| B2B agents Sub-agents, markups, wallets | Yes | Yes |
| B2C storefront Public-facing booking site | Yes | Yes |
| Suppliers / APIs Distribution reach | 40+ suppliers and gateways | GDS and supplier integrations |
| Customisation How far you can change it | Full — you hold the code | Development services — Verify with vendor |
| Best fit Who this suits | Teams that want to own the platform, host it themselves and change it | Buyers commissioning a built-for-you portal from a development house |
Seven factors that decide it
Our answer, and the question to put to Trawex before you sign anything.
1
Who runs the servers
You do. PHPTRAVELS installs on your own hosting, under your domain, with your database. That is the whole proposition: nothing sits between you and the platform, and nobody can switch it off.
Ask Trawex: Where does the application run, and can it run on infrastructure I control if I need it to?
2
Whether you get the source code
Included. You can read every line, audit it before you trust it with card flows, and change what does not fit. This is the single difference that decides most of the others.
Ask Trawex: Do I receive the source code, and am I licensed to modify it? If not, what happens to my business if you stop developing the product?
3
What it costs over three years
A one-time licence rather than a subscription, quoted per project. Your cost does not climb with booking volume.
Ask Trawex: Price the same three years: licence or subscription, every supplier integration, every payment gateway, hosting, support and upgrades. Compare the totals, not the headline.
4
B2B agent tooling
Sub-agent accounts, per-agent markups, wallets and multi-currency ship as part of the platform, alongside the B2C storefront, so one install serves both sides of the business.
Ask Trawex: Are B2B agents a module I pay extra for, and can I set markup rules per agent without asking you to deploy something?
5
Supplier and GDS coverage
40+ live supplier and payment integrations, listed by name on the integrations page rather than summarised as a category.
Ask Trawex: Name the specific suppliers I sell today and confirm each one is live, not on a roadmap. A count is not an answer; a list is.
6
How far you can customise it
As far as your developers can take it. With the code in hand, a change to markup logic or a checkout step is a task on your board, not a request in someone else's queue.
Ask Trawex: If I need a change to booking or pricing logic, is that a configuration setting, a paid customisation, or a no?
7
What happens if you leave
The database and the code are already yours and already on your servers, so leaving is a hosting decision rather than a negotiation.
Ask Trawex: Can I export bookings, customers and supplier configuration in a machine-readable format, on demand, without a fee?
Run both through the same demo
The commonest mistake is demoing one platform and reading a brochure about the other. Put PHPTRAVELS and Trawex through this identical script and the shortlist tends to settle itself.
- 1 Search a real route you sell, with real dates, and time how long results take.
- 2 Book it end to end, through a payment gateway, and find the booking in the admin afterwards.
- 3 Create a sub-agent, give them a markup, and confirm the price they see differs from yours.
- 4 Cancel or amend the booking and follow what happens to the supplier and to the refund.
- 5 Add a supplier API and see whether it is a form, a ticket, or a quote.
- 6 Change something cosmetic — a label, a currency format — and see who has to do it.
- 7 Ask for a database export while you are still a prospect. The answer tells you how leaving would go.
If you are switching
The same five things go wrong in every platform migration, whichever direction it runs.
Get the export in writing first. Bookings, customers, suppliers and payment configuration, in a format you can read, before you sign anything with anybody.
Supplier contracts usually move with you — they are between you and the supplier — but credentials often have to be reissued. Start that early; it is the slowest step.
Run both platforms in parallel for a cycle. Keep the old one taking bookings while the new one takes test traffic on a subdomain.
Keep your URLs. Redirect old booking and content URLs one-to-one, or you will hand back the search rankings you spent years earning.
Move payment gateways last, after everything else is proven. It is the step with real money attached.
PHPTRAVELS vs Trawex: common questions
Is PHPTRAVELS a good Trawex alternative?
It is the right alternative if the thing you want to change is the ownership model — self-hosting, source code and a one-time licence rather than a managed subscription. If you are happy renting a platform and only want a different feature set, another managed vendor is a smaller change than moving to self-hosted.
What is the real difference between PHPTRAVELS and Trawex?
PHPTRAVELS is software you install, own and can modify. Trawex is vendor-managed — the vendor runs it. Everything else on this page follows from that: what a customisation costs, what happens when you want to leave, and what the three-year bill looks like.
Does Trawex provide source code?
They do not publish an answer to that, so ask them directly and get it in writing. It is the question with the largest consequences, and a vague answer is itself an answer.
How does the pricing compare?
Trawex does not publish prices; you request a demo. We quote per project too. So compare like for like: ask both of us to price the same three years, including every supplier integration, payment gateway, hosting and support line, and compare the totals rather than the headline.
Can I migrate from Trawex to PHPTRAVELS?
Usually, but the constraint is what they will export. Ask for your bookings, customers and supplier configuration in a machine-readable format before you commit to anything. Supplier contracts are between you and the supplier, so those generally travel with you; credentials often need reissuing, which is the slowest part.
Do I need a developer to run PHPTRAVELS instead of Trawex?
You need someone to look after a PHP and MySQL server — patching, backups, certificates — which a managed platform does for you. That is the genuine cost of self-hosting and you should price it honestly. You do not need a developer for daily use; you do need one to exploit having the source code.
Which one has better supplier and GDS coverage?
We publish 40+ live supplier and payment integrations by name. Rather than compare counts, list the suppliers you actually sell and make both vendors confirm each one is live today, not planned. One missing supplier you depend on outweighs fifty you will never use.
The decision
Choose PHPTRAVELS if…
- — You want the source code and a licence you buy once.
- — You sell B2B and B2C from one platform.
- — You intend to modify the platform rather than file feature requests about it.
- — You can run, or pay someone to run, a PHP and MySQL server.
Choose Trawex if…
- — Buyers commissioning a built-for-you portal from a development house.
- — You have no engineering capacity and do not plan to build any.
- — Going live quickly matters more than what it costs over three years.
- — Their stock feature set already matches how you sell.
Request a custom quote
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