PHP 8.6 is now in Beta, and all major features are locked in. But understanding what a feature does and understanding how it performs are two different things. This guide goes beyond the surface — we’ll look at real benchmark numbers, practical use cases, and the trade-offs you need to know before deploying to production. … Read more
When optimizing PHP applications, we obsess over RPS, P99 latency, and JIT performance — but one metric is equally important for production costs: memory efficiency. In the cloud, you pay for RAM. The question isn’t just “how fast” but “how much throughput per GB of memory.” We benchmarked PHP-FPM, Swoole, and RoadRunner — all configured … Read more
You’ve seen the benchmarks. You know PHP 8.5 with JIT can deliver 61% performance gains on CPU-intensive tasks. You know Docker can outperform bare metal with the right configuration. But when your production server starts slowing down, benchmarks won’t save you — you need a systematic way to find the actual bottleneck. This guide is … Read more
You’ve seen the benchmarks. You know PHP 8.5 with JIT can deliver significant performance gains on CPU-intensive tasks. You know Docker can outperform bare metal with the right configuration. But how do you translate these numbers into a production server that actually delivers? This guide bridges the gap between benchmark data and production reality. Every … Read more
TL;DR: In I/O-bound PHP applications, reducing Docker CPU by 87% (from 4 to 0.5 vCPU) and memory by 96% (from 8 GB to 256 MB) has zero measurable impact on RPS. All configurations delivered 93–94 RPS under 50ms database latency. The bottleneck is external (database wait time), not internal (CPU or memory). Running PHP in … Read more
PHP in 2026 is no longer the language dismissed as a “toy” a decade ago. From PHP 7 to PHP 8.x, the performance leap has brought PHP back to the center of modern backend technology discussions. At this pivotal moment, PHP’s performance story is no longer just about “how fast JIT is” – it is … Read more
Earlier this year, we published a comprehensive CPU‑intensive cross‑language benchmark that put PHP 8.5 (with JIT on/off), Node.js 22, Go 1.24, and Python 3.12 head‑to‑head. The results were clear: Go dominated CPU‑bound tasks, Node.js held its own, and PHP with JIT landed in the middle. But a recurring question from readers was: “What about I/O? … Read more
Choosing the right application server is one of the most important architectural decisions you can make in the PHP 8.5 era. It directly impacts your response times, throughput, operational complexity, and infrastructure costs.
Over the past year, we systematically benchmarked PHP-FPM, RoadRunner, Swoole, and FrankenPHP. This article is not about telling you “X is the best” – it gives you a practical, data‑driven decision framework, not marketing hype.
After our deep dive into PHP 8.5 JIT modes and the bare metal application server benchmarks, many readers asked the same question: Does Docker really slow down PHP application servers? Today we benchmark PHP-FPM, RoadRunner, and Swoole in three scenarios: bare metal, Docker default bridge network, and Docker host network + CPU pinning. The results are surprising—with the right flags, Docker can actually outperform bare metal.
