How to encrypt/obfuscate php code (free solutions)?

Question

PHP

It is necessary to hide the source code of the engine (php) of the startup, in order to protect it from draining the engine when the server is hacked (including from hosting admins). There is no budget yet, so at first it’s only free. In the future I will transfer to ioncube. Please do not offer obfuscators that turn the code into base64_decode(gzuncompress())-like constructs, because performance suffers greatly.

Answer 1

For example www.phpprotect.info
Not the most "obfuscated" code, but pretty fast and free.

Answer 2

Make a kernel and pack it with ioncube. (you can pay for one obfuscation on the site)