Full source, your server
Open source travel management software you can open, read and own
Open source travel management software is an open source travel script you host yourself: you see every line of code and keep your own data. PHPTRAVELS ships its full source code with every plan under a one-time commercial licence, so flights, hotels, tours, pricing and finance run on a server you control.
- Full source on every plan
- Runs on your hosting
- One-time licence
- Your database, your data
Inside the code
Open the source tree and see what you can change
Click a folder. Each one shows what lives there, what your team can change and who usually does the work.
Most people who search for open source travel management software are not looking for a free download. They want to know that nothing is hidden: that a developer can open the booking flow, read the pricing logic and fix a problem without waiting for a vendor ticket. The explorer below is a simplified map of how a PHPTRAVELS installation is organised.
- modules/
~/app/
Core application
What lives here
The booking flow, customer accounts, staff roles, checkout, payments and the pricing engine that applies markups and taxes.
What you can change
- Add or remove checkout fields and validation rules
- Change how staff roles and permissions work
- Add a step to the booking flow, such as a consent or upsell
Who usually does itA PHP developer
~/modules/flights
Flights module
What lives here
Flight search, fare display, passenger forms, booking and ticketing steps, and the adapters that talk to flight suppliers.
What you can change
- Change result sorting, filters and the fare card
- Show baggage or fare rules in a different way
- Add an adapter for a new flight supplier API
Who usually does itA developer who knows the supplier API
~/modules/hotels
Hotels module
What lives here
Hotel search, room and rate grouping, cancellation policy display, booking confirmation and voucher output.
What you can change
- Group rooms and board types your own way
- Change the hotel filters and the map view
- Redesign the voucher your customers receive
Who usually does itA developer, or a designer for the voucher
~/themes/
Themes and templates
What lives here
Page templates, styles, the header and footer, and the layouts of the search and results pages.
What you can change
- Apply your brand colours, fonts and logo
- Rebuild the home page or the search box
- Add landing pages for your own destinations
Who usually does itA front-end developer or designer
~/api/
API layer
What lives here
The JSON endpoints that mobile apps and partner systems use to search, book and read reservations.
What you can change
- Add an endpoint for your own app or partner
- Send bookings to your CRM or accounting tool
- Limit which data each partner can read
Who usually does itA back-end developer
~/docs/
Documentation
What lives here
Installation notes, configuration and developer guidance that ship with the product.
What you can change
- Keep your own runbook beside the code
- Record every change your team makes
- Give a new developer a clear starting point
Who usually does itWhoever runs the installation
Every plan includes the full source code. The right to change the code and to remove the Powered by link comes with the Enterprise plan.
Go deeper:FlightsStaysThemesCustomization
Ownership matrix
Three licensing models, side by side
Travel software is sold in three main ways. The table compares the models themselves, not any vendor, so you can place every offer you receive.
| Question | Source licence you hostPHPTRAVELS follows this model | Closed licence | SaaS subscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code access | Full source code delivered to you | Compiled or encoded files; the logic stays hidden | None; you use the screens the provider offers |
| Hosting | Your server or any host you choose | Usually your server, under the vendor's rules | The provider's cloud only |
| Data ownership | In your own database and backups | In your database, but in a format only the vendor fully understands | On the provider's servers; you export what they allow |
| Customisation | Any screen, rule or integration, within the licence terms | Settings and add-ons the vendor offers | Settings, and paid requests on the provider's roadmap |
| Updates | You choose when to update and test first | Vendor releases, often tied to a support contract | Pushed to everyone at the same time |
| If the vendor changes course | The system keeps running; your developers maintain it | You keep running the last version you received | Your service ends when the subscription ends |
| Cost over 3 years | One licence fee, plus hosting and any developer time | Licence fee, plus yearly support or renewal fees and hosting | Thirty-six monthly fees, often plus per-booking or per-user charges |
Open source, honestly
Source code you own is not the same as a public open-source licence
The words open source have a strict meaning. Here is exactly where PHPTRAVELS stands, so there are no surprises after you buy.
A public open-source licence
MIT, GPL, Apache-2.0 and similar
- Free to download, use and share
- Anyone can fork the code and sell it
- Support is a community forum or a paid third party
- Supplier integrations, payments and agent tools are usually yours to build
The PHPTRAVELS commercial licence
One payment, full source, self-hosted
- Full source code on Startup, Agency and Enterprise
- A commercial licence for your business, not a public licence to redistribute
- Free installation and support from the team that wrote it
- Flights, hotels, tours and supplier connections ready on day one
If you need a licence that lets you redistribute the code, choose a public open-source project. If you need complete travel software whose code you can read, audit and host, this is the model built for you. Self-hosted vs SaaS
Rollout
From licence to your first live booking
Self-hosting sounds like a lot of work. In practice it is a short list of steps, and the team helps with the first ones.
- 1
Before
Choose a plan
Startup, Agency or Enterprise. All three include the full source code and self-hosting.
- 2
Before
Prepare your server
Standard PHP and MySQL hosting is enough to start. Check the requirements below or ask us first.
- 3
Setup
Free installation
The team installs it on your domain: in 7 to 10 business days on Startup, 1 to 2 on Agency, and 4 to 6 hours on Enterprise.
- 4
Launch
Connect suppliers
Add your own API credentials for flight, hotel and tour suppliers, then test bookings in each supplier's sandbox where it offers one.
- 5
Launch
Set your rules
Markups, currencies, payment gateways and email templates, all from the admin panel without code.
- 6
After launch
Make it yours
Your developers change themes and modules, or you order customisation from PHPTRAVELS.
Three-year cost
What owning the code costs over three years
A one-time licence looks expensive next to a small monthly fee. Put in your own numbers and compare over the same 36 months.
Licence plan
Sample inputs. Replace them with a real hosting price and a real subscription quote.
Self-hosted with source, 36 months
–
Subscription, 36 months
–
Difference over 36 months
–
Licence once, plus hosting times 36, plus three years of developer budget.
Lifetime updates are included on Enterprise. On Startup and Agency, updates can be bought separately when you need them, so add them to the developer budget if you plan to stay current. Software cost guide
Buyer's checklist
Seven questions to ask any open source travel software
Use this list on every option you shortlist, including ours.
0/ 7
Not a demo build or encoded files. Ask which folders are included.
Changing the code, the number of domains and reselling are often treated differently.
In your own database, with backups you control and can restore.
A free project with no supplier connections means months of integration work.
A common language such as PHP with MySQL is easier to staff than a rare one.
Ask how changes you make survive a new release, and whether security patches are included.
A forum, a freelancer or the team that wrote the code. Know the answer before launch.
Hosting requirements
What your server needs
No special hardware and no rare software. A standard Linux hosting account covers the minimum.
Shared hosting works for a first launch. As traffic and suppliers grow, most teams move to a VPS or a dedicated server, which is a simple copy of files and database because nothing is locked to one provider.
Hosting guides:RequirementsShared hostingVPS hosting
- PHP
- 8.4 or newer
- Database
- MySQL latest, or MariaDB
- Web server
- Apache latest
- Memory
- 1 GB RAM, PHP memory_limit 256M
- Storage
- 2 GB storage, 1 GB bandwidth
- Extensions
- mysqli, pdo, curl, openssl, mbstring, gd, zip
FAQ
Open source travel management software questions
Straight answers about licences, source code, hosting and cost.
Talk to salesNot under a public licence such as MIT, GPL or Apache-2.0. Every plan ships with the full source code, which you host and can read and audit, but it is licensed commercially for your business rather than published for anyone to redistribute.
Software for running a travel business, from supplier search and pricing to bookings, payments, vouchers and reports, where you receive the code and host it yourself instead of renting access to a closed system.
The full source code is included on every plan. The right to customise the code and remove the Powered by link comes with Enterprise. On any plan you can also order customisation from the PHPTRAVELS team.
On your own server. It needs PHP 8.4 or newer, MySQL or MariaDB and Apache. Bookings, customers and payments are stored in your own database, so you control backups and access.
The licence is a one-time payment: Startup, Agency or Enterprise. Add your hosting and any developer time. There is no monthly licence fee.
Enterprise includes lifetime updates, security patches and one-click upgrades. On Startup and Agency, updates can be bought separately when you need them.
No. Installation is free on every plan. The team sets it up on your domain and server, and the setup time depends on the plan you choose.
A free project can be a good start if you have developers and time. Most cover one product and leave supplier APIs, payments and agent tools for you to build. PHPTRAVELS gives you a complete platform and its source code from the start.