"PHP is slow"
Your Quick Response
"That was true in 2014. PHP 8.x with JIT compilation shows up to 3x improvement on synthetic benchmarks, with real-world web app gains of 3-5%. PHP 7 was already 2x faster than PHP 5. In real-world benchmarks, PHP competes with Node.js and Python. For most web applications, PHP is more than fast enough. The bottleneck is almost always the database or network, not the language."
PHP Performance Evolution
Baseline performance
2x faster than PHP 5.6
Up to 3x improvement on synthetic benchmarks, 3-5% on typical web apps
Combined improvement: PHP 8.x can be up to 6x faster than PHP 5.6 for CPU-intensive tasks.
What Makes PHP 8.x Fast
JIT Compiler
Just-In-Time compilation converts PHP to machine code at runtime, providing up to 3x improvement on synthetic benchmarks and measurable gains on CPU-intensive operations.
OPcache
Stores precompiled script bytecode in memory, eliminating the need to parse scripts on every request.
Preloading
Load framework code once at server start. Classes stay in memory, dramatically reducing bootstrap time.
FrankenPHP / Swoole
Long-running PHP processes eliminate cold starts, achieving throughput comparable to Go or Node.js.
Real-World Perspective
For 99% of web applications, the performance bottleneck is not the programming language. It's:
Optimizing these areas provides 10-100x more impact than switching languages. PHP is fast enough -focus on architecture.
Key Talking Points
- PHP 8.x with JIT is up to 3x faster than PHP 7
- OPcache eliminates parsing overhead on every request
- Real-world bottlenecks are database and network, not PHP
- FrankenPHP/Swoole enable even higher throughput when needed