Part 2 - Language Changes & Improvements
PHP 7 includes several major improvements to the language, as well as some changes to existing features.
Learn about the features and changes which make PHP 7 faster and more flexible than ever!
Chapter 15: Performance
PHP 7 is faster than ever. Most real-world applications will see a 100%+ boost in performance simply by upgrading! Here are some actual benchmarks from the Zend Performance Team1:
This improvement is largely due to the PHPNG (PHP Next-Gen) project which refactored the Zend Engine to be super-performant. Some of the under-the-hood changes include things like:
- Using more-compact data structures
- Reducing the number of heap allocations and deallocations
- Utilizing native thread local storage
The net result is a faster PHP which also uses less memory. These changes also pave the way for future improvements, like JIT compilation, which will make PHP even faster.