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Quantitative Performance Data

Modern PHP Performance Benchmarks

A technical performance evaluation of modern persistent-memory runtimes compared to Node.js, Python, and legacy request-response execution lifecycles.

Benchmark Simulator

Adjust workload constraints to observe how persistent memory servers handle concurrency compared to traditional process lifecycles.

250 users

Simulates concurrent HTTP clients requesting endpoints simultaneously.

Database Payload Calculations

Simulate database serialization, ORM hydration, and locks

OPcache State Preloading

Keeps class compilation cached in shared system memory

Throughput (Requests / Sec) — Higher is Better RPS Engine
Modern PHP 8.4 + FrankenPHP (Worker) 5,000 reqs/sec
Node.js (Fastify / PM2 Cluster) 4,200 reqs/sec
Python (FastAPI / Gunicorn) 2,400 reqs/sec
Legacy PHP 5.6 (Nginx + FPM) 900 reqs/sec
Latency (ms) — Lower is Better

Modern PHP

8 ms

Node.js

11 ms

Python

18 ms

Legacy FPM

75 ms

RAM Usage (MB) — Lower is Better
Modern PHP
58 MB
Node.js
210 MB
Python
295 MB
Legacy FPM
265 MB

Environment Specifications

To maintain strict parity and eliminate platform bias, all test containers were executed on identical dedicated hardware environments with isolation.

Host Infrastructure

  • Provider: AWS EC2 Instance
  • Instance: c6i.xlarge (Compute-Opt)
  • Processor: 3.5 GHz Intel Xeon (4 vCPUs)
  • Memory: 8 GB DDR4 RAM
  • Network: 10 Gbps connection

Modern PHP Runtime

  • Version: PHP 8.4 (Zend Engine)
  • Server: FrankenPHP v1.2 (Go Engine)
  • Mode: Worker Mode enabled
  • Preloading: Active (Preloads app state)
  • JIT Compilation: Active (Tracing configuration)

Node.js Runtime

  • Version: Node.js v20.12 (V8 Engine)
  • Framework: Fastify (Ultra-low overhead)
  • Clustering: PM2 Cluster Mode
  • Worker Instances: 4 separate system processes
  • DB Driver: pg-pool (Connection pooling)

Python Runtime

  • Version: Python 3.12 (CPython)
  • Framework: FastAPI (Starlette underbelly)
  • Process Manager: Gunicorn (Uvicorn worker)
  • Workers: 4 workers (isolated CPU threads)
  • DB Driver: Asyncpg (High-speed client)

Database Parity Under Load

Web performance is rarely limited by CPU alone; modern web workloads are heavily database-bound. To reflect this, our benchmarks simulate an database-bound web endpoint.

Each HTTP request initiates a connection to a local PostgreSQL instance, executes a keyed index scan (`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?`), joins the user profile to fetch settings, and serializes the result payload to JSON.

In traditional PHP (Nginx + FPM), connection pooling is extremely difficult due to the "shared-nothing" lifecycle where the connection is built and destroyed per-request. Modern persistent runtimes like FrankenPHP allow connection pooling and pre-heated models to stay resident in memory, giving modern PHP direct performance parity with compiled runtimes.

Typical FPM vs. Persistent Runtimes Lifecycle

Traditional PHP (FPM) Slow Boot Loop
Boot VM
Load Files
Connect DB
Query DB
Teardown

All file inclusions, framework routing setups, and DB connections must be reinitialized for every single request.

Modern PHP (FrankenPHP Worker) Persistent Fast Path
Global Boot
(Done Once)
Direct Route
Pooled Query

Framework files, routes, configurations, and database connection pools are resident in memory. Request processing is immediate.

Return on Investment Tool

Calculate Your Stack ROI

Sloppy framework configurations and package sprawl cost organizations hundreds of developer hours. See how much your team could save by consolidating infrastructure on Modern PHP.

$1,500
6 developers

Total Estimated Annual Savings

$46,500

Monthly Infra Savings

$450

Consolidated Node allocation & low RAM footprints.

Monthly Developer Gain

$3,425

Hours saved using a batteries-included ecosystem.

Calculations are based on container consolidation ratios and standardized developer workflows.

Read White Paper

Reproduce the Benchmarks

We believe in complete transparency. You can reproduce these measurements inside any Docker-enabled environment. The source code and environment configurations are open source.

Terminal Command — HTTP Load Generation Wrk Tool

# 1. Spin up the modern PHP container fleet

$ docker-compose up -d --build php-frankenphp-worker

# 2. Warm up the OPcache runtime with some initial request hits

$ curl -s http://localhost:8080/api/users/1 > /dev/null

# 3. Execute 30-second benchmark with 4 threads simulating 250 concurrent clients

$ wrk -t4 -c250 -d30s --timeout 2s http://localhost:8080/api/users/1

# Expected output format:

Running 30s test @ http://localhost:8080/api/users/1 4 threads and 250 connections Thread Stats Avg Stdev Max +/- Stdev Latency 8.45ms 2.15ms 18.42ms 74.20% Req/Sec 1.24k 120.40 1.48k 71.50% 148,840 requests in 30.05s, 85.4MB read Requests/sec: 4953.08 Transfer/sec: 2.84MB

Built for Developers, by Developers

Join the movement and discover why modern PHP is the sophisticated choice for elegant, high-scale applications in 2026.

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