I was getting lost one some web page and read about PHP code obfuscators. There are a couple out there that are pretty expensive… so instead of taking care of immediate responsibilities, I wrote one.
Here’s the URL: http://riceball.com/misc/php-obfuscator/
It’s not tested very much, but it does what the other obfuscators do: it renames variables and function names. It doesn’t really parse PHP; mainly, it peeks around the PHP tokens that PHP reads from the code field.
It’s ever so slightly sensitive to class methods. It has zero code to carefully obfuscate classes. Class methods will be obfuscated unless they are public methods.
It will damage most of the superglobals like $_GET, because you should be using filter_input and validating your input.
You can use it with CURL.
So, go forth and obfuscate your code. Hide the code from your customers, and make them angry at you when it breaks. Use the tool at your own risk.