To get CakePHP to work with ServerFreak or any other hosting (e.g. IPSERVERONE, 1&1, Godaddy) that serves from a user directory that already uses mod_rewrite, all you have to do is add RewriteBase statements to the .htaccess files that CakePHP uses:

• /.htaccess
• /app/.htaccess
• /app/webroot/.htaccess

Here’s how they should look like after modification.

/.htaccess

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
  RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</ifmodule>


/app/.htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteRule ^$ /webroot/ [L]
  RewriteRule (.*) /webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

/app/webroot/.htaccess


<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

Once you have completed all the steps above, you should have a working CakePHP installation!

Source: 3.3.4 Apache and mod_rewrite (and .htaccess)