I need to encode PHP code without relying on hosting software such as Zend or ionCube, and I'm hesitant about using various obfuscators as their effectiveness may be compromised in just two hours.
Can you recommend a reliable, preferably paid service for this task?

What is the reason for encrypting the code? It's peculiar that most foreign developers share their best practices, with almost all code being open source.
However, we tend to conceal our own code and refrain from showing it to anyone. I'm almost certain that you've taken this code from someone else.

There is a somewhat complex method of obfuscation in PHP that makes it difficult to deobfuscate manually.

The approach involves several steps:
first, use a simple obfuscator and remove line breaks, then encode the resulting code into base64. Next, run the code through a bitwise offset function, and adjust the data by storing the offset step in a variable and appending it to the code.
Finally, apply gzipdeflate to the resulting code, and repeat this process for 1000 iterations, changing the offset step each time and possibly swapping the points.

Although it is possible to decipher the code manually, it will be a tedious task. One could also try to beat automation by randomly swapping items and shifting deobfuscation functions within the code. However, all of this may seem unnecessary.

Zend Guard can provide some assistance, but it may not be sufficient as even that is readable to some extent. If you invest time in obfuscating your code, it may be decrypted within 10 minutes, making it an unnecessary effort.

Rather than focusing on code protection, it is advisable to offer support services instead. It seems that Fraps intends to restrict the code section for license validation and key protection. One can observe how DLE is encoded using base64.