PHP Performance Benchmark 2026: 7.4 vs 8.0 vs 8.1 vs 8.2 vs 8.5
PHP 7.4 reached its end of life in November 2022, yet many websites and applications still run on this aging version. While security is the primary reason to upgrade, performance is another compelling factor that often gets overlooked.
In this benchmark, we compare the latest PHP 8.5.2 against the final release of PHP 7.4 (7.4.33) using the same CPU‑intensive script from our first benchmark. The goal is simple: quantify the real‑world performance gain you can expect when finally making the leap from 7.4 to 8.5.
All tests are run on an isolated server with identical configuration – the same hardware, the same PHP‑FPM settings, and the same OPcache configuration (with JIT disabled to keep the focus on engine improvements).