Can I encrypt PHP source or compile it so others can't see it? and how?

Question

I need to encrypt some PHP source that I've released to the public.

Is this possible? Can PHP be "compiled" ?

Answer 1

You can buy Zend Guard to encode your PHP sources, and then use the Zend Optimizer to run it. There is an opensource/free PHP compiler project as well (bcompiler, and also take a look to this) but I never used it because at the time I needed it the project was still incomplete.

Answer 2

You can have a look at phc which can generate executables from PHP. It also has some other options to create C-code, XML, optimized PHP, etc. from the original PHP source.