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 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
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
After our initial JIT on/off benchmark and the I/O‑sensitive workload analysis, many readers asked two specific questions: Which JIT mode (tracing vs function) delivers the best real‑world performance? and Does the JIT behaviour differ between traditional PHP‑FPM, long‑running application servers like RoadRunner, and event‑driven servers like Swoole? This article answers exactly those questions. This PHP … Read more
PHP 8.5 is fast. But is your application running at its full potential? Over the past six months, PHPBenchLab has conducted 14 rigorous benchmarks, testing everything from OPcache settings and JIT compiler modes to four different application servers under punishing I/O latency. This guide consolidates all of those findings into a single, actionable optimization framework. Whether you’re running a simple WordPress blog or a high-traffic Laravel API, you will find a specific, data-backed recommendation to make your application faster.
PHP 8.5 was released in late 2025. Six months later, developers are still asking the same question: “Is it worth upgrading?” To answer this, we benchmarked PHP 8.3.30, 8.4.17, and 8.5.2 under three realistic workloads—light I/O, moderate I/O latency (50ms), and heavy I/O latency (200ms). The results reveal clear patterns, a surprising reversal, and a practical answer to the upgrade question.
In our previous benchmarks, we kept JIT disabled to isolate the impact of runtime architecture on performance. Readers immediately asked: “What happens when you turn JIT on?” Today, we answer that question definitively—by re-running our comprehensive four-environment, three-tier I/O latency test with PHP 8.5’s JIT compiler fully enabled. The results are surprising. JIT not only failed … Read more
