There is no single "best" PHP obfuscator because the goal varies from "making code hard to read" to "making code impossible to decode." However, based on performance, popularity, and the level of protection offered, here are the top contenders categorized by their method.
SourceGuardian: A robust competitor with a dual-layer protection strategy. It supports PHP versions from 4.x through 8.4 and includes built-in features to create time-limited trial versions of your software. best php obfuscator
base64_encode and eval(). These are trivially easy to reverse. Any competent developer can copy-paste the code into a decoder and see the source in seconds.