Introduction to PHP Bid
PHP Bid is a self-hosted auction script written in plain PHP and MySQL. With it you run your own online auction marketplace - like a small eBay for your niche - on your own domain, with your own rules and your own fees.
What you can build with PHP Bid
PHP Bid gives you a complete auction marketplace out of the box. Typical uses are:
- A niche marketplace where members sell to each other - watches, collectibles, vintage cars, art, coins, sneakers, electronics.
- An auction house that puts its own lots online, with reserve prices, buyer's premium and scheduled sales.
- A charity or school auction run for a few days a year.
- A B2B surplus or liquidation platform that sells stock with fixed prices, offers and bulk CSV import.
Because you get the full PHP source code, an agency can also use PHP Bid as the base for client projects and change anything.
The three parts of PHP Bid
This manual follows the structure of the software:
| Part | Who uses it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| The website (front end) | Visitors, bidders, buyers | Home page, categories, search with filters and AI search, auction pages with live bidding, Buy it now, offers, questions, blog, FAQ and contact pages. |
| The members area | Registered buyers and sellers | One account for buying and selling: bids, won items, watchlist, saved searches, listing items with the AI assistant, CSV import, sales, shipping, offers, messages, invoices and feedback. |
| The admin panel | You and your staff | Auctions and approval, categories and category fields, moderation, sales, invoices, members, website pages, blog, templates, every setting, payments, AI and administrator permissions. |
Main features at a glance
- Two ways to bid: exact bids ("bid this amount") and automatic proxy bidding up to a secret maximum. See Bidding.
- Auction formats: classic auctions, reserve price, Buy it now during the auction, fixed price items, Make an offer, scheduled start dates and anti-sniping extensions.
- AI built in: listing assistant with price estimate, description writer, AI search, "Ask AI about this lot", AI moderation and translation. See AI settings.
- Money: seller commission, buyer's premium, listing fees and featured listing fees, invoiced automatically and paid by Stripe, PayPal or bank transfer. See Earning money with PHP Bid.
- VAT and shipping: VAT rates per item and on the fees, several shipping methods per item.
- Trust and safety: listing approval, banned words, "Report this listing", seller ratings and feedback, questions and answers.
- Design: 8 templates, your logo and colours, mobile-friendly pages, multi-language website and search engine friendly URLs.
How to read this manual
If you are installing PHP Bid for the first time, read Requirements and installation and First steps after installation, then go through the configuration chapters. The chapters about the website and the members area are useful when you explain the site to your members or write your own help pages.