PHP 7.3 speed test on hosting (2019)

Here are detailed performance tests for different platforms to see how different versions of PHP perform. Tested five different versions of PHP on 23 different platforms/configurations; including WordPress (4.9 and 5.0), Drupal, Joomla!, Laravel, Symfony, and many others. Also tested popular e-commerce solutions such as WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Magento, Grav CMS and October CMS.

It’s always best for WordPress users to use the latest supported versions of PHP. They are not only safer, but also better in performance. And it’s not just about WordPress, this is true for the most part for all platforms. Today you will see how PHP 7.3 works.

Goodbye HHVM, 2019 is the year of PHP

PHP is an open-source server-side scripting and programming language that is mainly used for web development. Most of the WordPress software is written in PHP, which makes PHP a very important language for the WordPress community. Although the new block editor in WordPress 5.0 uses more JavaScript and React.

According to W3Techs, PHP is used by more than 78% of all websites using the server-side programming language. Some may argue that PHP is dead. But even though developers like to claim it, PHP is alive, running faster and better than ever.

In the 2016 tests, HHVM was the clear winner in terms of performance when it came to running WordPress. HHVM was created by the Facebook development team. It is a system that uses JIT compilation to convert PHP code into a machine language for interaction between PHP code and the hardware on which it runs. That’s why Kinsta hosting offered HHVM as an alternative, because PHP didn’t keep up in terms of improvements.

Nevertheless, in the 2017 tests, PHP 7.2 started to lead on almost all platforms, beating HHVM for the first time (the more queries, the better):

• WordPress 4.9.4 PHP 7.2 performance: 148.80 requests per second.
• WordPress 4.9.4 HHVM performance: 144.76 requests per second.
• WordPress 4.9.4 + WooCommerce 3.3.1 PHP 7.2 performance: 92.60 requests per second.
• WordPress 4.9.4 + WooCommerce 3.3.1 HHVM performance: 69.58 requests per second.

Therefore, as of August 28, 2018, Kinsta stopped offering HHVM. First, because it is no longer a stable solution for WordPress, and second, because HHVM, after version 3.30, does not support PHP.

This is actually good news for developers and end users alike, as it means we have to focus on PHP and make faster websites and web services for everyone. Thus, this year everyone is focused on PHP!

Below you’ll see how the latest version of PHP 7.3 (released December 6, 2018) works, as well as WordPress 5.0 (ironically also released December 6, 2018).

With HHVM out of the picture, 2019 was the year of PHP. And PHP 7.3 runs fast!

PHP Performance (2019)

For each test, the latest version of each platform was used and the performance of the homepage with 15 concurrent users was measured for 1 minute. Below are the details of the test environment.

• Server used: 8x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU @ 2.20GHz (running on Google Cloud Platform and running in an isolated container)
• OS: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (Bionic Beaver)
• Docker cluster: Debian 9, Nginx 1.15.7, MariaDB 10.3.11
• PHP version: 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
• Page caching: disabled on all configurations and platforms.
• OPCache: for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, the official Docker image was used and created its own for PHP 7.3. Otherwise, the same setup image was used with OPcache enabled, using the recommended php.ini settings, except for the value of opcache.max_accelerated_files, which was increased from 4000 to 50,000.

opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=50000
opcache.revalidate_freq=60
opcache.fast_shutdown=1
opcache.enable_cli=1

OPcache improves PHP performance by storing precompiled script bytes in shared memory, thus eliminating the need for PHP to load and parse scripts on every request.

The tests were performed by Thoriq Firdaus, author and WordPress support engineer at Kinsta. He participated in WordPress Core and edited translations for WordPress Indonesia.

Tested platforms and configurations

The tests include the following 23 platforms/configurations. In some cases, we had to test several versions, due to the lack of support for a particular version of PHP. Select one of the items below to go directly to the notes and test results. Data is measured by the number of requests per second. The more queries, the better.

• WordPress 5.0
• WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2
• WordPress 5.0 + Easy Digital Downloads 2.9.9
• WordPress 5.0.2
• WordPress 4.9.8
• WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2
• WordPress 4.9.8 + Easy Digital Downloads 2.9.9
• Drupal 8.6.4
• Joomla! 3.9.1
• Magento 2 (CE) 2.1.15 + 2.3.0
• Grav CMS 1.5.5
• October CMS 1.0.443
• Laravel 5.4.36 + 5.7.15
• Symfony 3.3.6 + 4.2.0
• CodeIgniter 3.1.9
• PyroCMS 3.5.3
• Pagekit 1.0.15
• Bolt CMS 3.6.3
• Anchor CMS 0.12.7
• Craft CMS 3.0.35
• ExpressionEngine 5.0.2

Due to the fact that the demo content on each platform can vary greatly, it was decided to test the raw performance with the default settings immediately after installation.

Tested the performance of 23 platforms / configurations on 5 different versions of PHP and PHP 7.3 won 20 out of 20 (3 unsupported)!

WordPress 5.0

Testing began, of course, with WordPress. WordPress is open source software that can be used to create a website, blog, or app. In fact, more than 32% of all websites on the Internet run on WordPress. Yes, more than one of the four websites you visit runs on WordPress.

We started with WordPress 5.0, since that’s the version you’re probably all interested in right now. We used the new Twenty Nineteen (1.0) theme and tested the site with 15 simultaneous users for a minute.

• URL: /hello-world/.
• Note: the page contains 1 comment.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/, and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress 5.0, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 5.0, PHP 5.6 performance: 91.64 requests per second
• WordPress 5.0, PHP 7.0 performance: 206.71 requests per second
• WordPress 5.0, PHP 7.1 performance: 210.98 requests per second
• WordPress 5.0, PHP 7.2 performance: 229.18 requests per second
• WordPress 5.0, PHP 7.3 performance: 253.20 requests per second

PHP 7.3 was the winner, being faster than PHP 7.2. And if you compare PHP 7.3 to PHP 5.6, it can handle almost 3 times as many requests (transactions) per second!

WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2

WooCommerce is a fully customizable, open-source e-commerce platform built for WordPress. It is by far one of the most popular e-commerce solutions in the WordPress community, and is currently used by more than 14% of all e-commerce sites.

For the following test, WordPress was used along with WooCommerce installed. We used the free Storefront eCommerce theme (2.4.1).

• URL: /product/woo-logo/.
• Note: The page contains 3 related products, 1 product review/commentary, 1 product in the “You may also like” section, the next and previous product pagination pages.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/ and we created our own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 5.6 performance: 24.74 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.0 performance: 56.94 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.1 performance: 57.00 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.2 performance: 63.10 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.3 performance: 68.87 requests.

When running WooCommerce, PHP 7.3 overtook PHP 7.2 by a small margin.

WordPress 5.0 + Easy Digital Downloads 2.9.9

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), created by Pippin Williamson, is a free WordPress e-commerce plugin that aims to help creators and developers sell digital products.

After seeing how WooCommerce works, we took WordPress and installed Easy Digital Downloads. We used the free EDD Starter theme (1.0).

• URL: /downloads/sample-product/
• Note: The page contains 3 menus on the navigation bar and the “Add to cart” widget.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/, and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress + Easy Digital Downloads, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 5.0 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 5.6 performance: 71.74 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.0 performance: 169.11 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.1 performance: 170.08 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.2 performance: 187.78 requests.
• WordPress 5.0 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.3 performance: 206.88 requests.

PHP 7.3 took the lead in the WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads tests. You may also notice that EDD can handle 3 times as many requests (transactions) per second compared to WooCommerce! There is no doubt that EDD is just a quicker and easier solution.

WordPress 5.0.2

Since WordPress 5.0.2 was only recently released, we thought it would be interesting to run tests for 5.0.2.

We used the new Twenty Nineteen (1.0) theme and tested the site with 15 simultaneous users for a minute.

• URL: /hello-world/.
• Note: the page contains 1 comment.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/ and we created our own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress 5.0.2, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 5.0.2, PHP 5.6 performance: 88.62 requests.
• WordPress 5.0.2, PHP 7.0 performance: 205.06 requests.
• WordPress 5.0.2, PHP 7.1 performance: 207.34 requests.
• WordPress 5.0.2, PHP 7.2 performance: 219.01 requests.
• WordPress 5.0.2, PHP 7.3 performance: 241.27 requests.

PHP 7.3 took the gold again, but WordPress 5.0.2 was a bit slower than version 5.0.

WordPress 4.9.8

Since WordPress 5.0 was only recently released, we thought it would be interesting to run tests for 4.9.8, since many of you probably haven’t upgraded yet. Or you may be wondering if WordPress 5.0 is faster or slower.

We used the new Twenty Nineteen (1.0) theme and tested the site with 15 simultaneous users for a minute.

• URL: /hello-world/.
• Note: the page contains 1 comment.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/, and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress 4.9.8, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 4.9.8, PHP 5.6 performance: 97.59 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8, PHP 7.0 performance: 221.42 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8, PHP 7.1 performance: 233.78 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8, PHP 7.2 performance: 250.36 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8, PHP 7.3 performance: 276.31 requests.

PHP 7.3 was the winner, being faster than PHP 7.2. And if you compare PHP 7.3 to PHP 5.6, it can handle almost 3 times as many requests per second!

Most interesting, however, is that WordPress 4.9.8 is faster than WordPress 5.0. This doesn’t surprise us too much, since the whole WordPress 5.0 project was released in a hurry. You can expect better results with WordPress 5.0 in the future as the developers continue to improve it.

You first heard from us, WordPress 4.9.8 is faster than WordPress 5.0.

WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2

We also ran performance tests on WordPress 4.9.8 and WooCommerce 3.5.2.

For the next test, we took WordPress along with WooCommerce installed. We used the free Storefront e-commerce theme (2.4.1).

• URL: /product/woo-logo/.
• Note: The page contains 3 related products, 1 product review/commentary, 1 product in the “You may also like” section, the next and previous product pagination pages.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/, and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 5.6 performance: 26.07 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.0 performance: 60.37 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.1 performance: 60.36 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.2 performance: 63.33 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + WooCommerce 3.5.2, PHP 7.3 performance: 69.24 requests.

PHP 7.3 beat PHP 7.2 by a small margin. WordPress 4.8.9 with WooCommerce was also slightly faster than WordPress 5.0.

WordPress 4.9.8 + Easy Digital Downloads 2.9.9

We also ran performance tests with WordPress 4.9.8 and Easy Digital Downloads 2.9.9.

We took WordPress along with Easy Digital Downloads and used the free version of the EDD Starter Theme (1.0).

• URL: /downloads/sample-product/
• Note: The page contains 3 menus on the navigation bar and the “Add to cart” widget.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/wordpress/, and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– WordPress 4.9.8 + Easy Digital Downloads, PHP performance

Test results

• WordPress 4.9.8 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 5.6 performance: 80.08 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.0 performance: 186.99 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.1 performance: 185.40 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.2 performance: 192.73 requests.
• WordPress 4.9.8 + EDD 2.9.9, PHP 7.3 performance: 211.37 requests.

PHP 7.3 leads the tests with WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads. WordPress 4.9.8 with EDD was also slightly faster than WordPress 5.0.

Drupal 8.6.4

Drupal is an open-source CMS popular for its modular system and strong developer community. It was launched in 2000 and, according to W3Techs, is used on 1.9% of all Web sites and has a 5.5% market share of content management systems.

For the Drupal test, we used the free Bartik theme (8.6.4).

• URL: /node/1
• Note: The page contains a header, a paragraph and a widget (Search). Page caching disabled: https://www.drupal.org/node/2598914
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/drupal/, and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– Drupal, PHP performance

Test results

• Drupal 8.6.4, PHP 5.6 performance: 14.19 requests/sec.
• Drupal 8.6.4, PHP 7.0 performance: 30.30 requests/sec.
• Drupal 8.6.4, PHP 7.1 performance: 30.42 requests/sec.
• Drupal 8.6.4, PHP 7.2 performance: 32.59 requests/sec.
• Drupal 8.6.4, PHP 7.3 performance: 35.90 requests/sec.

When working with Drupal, PHP 7.3 beat PHP 7.2 by a small margin.

Joomla! 3.9.1

Joomla! is a free, open-source CMS for publishing web content, originally released on August 17, 2005. It is built on the principle of MVC “module – view – controller. According to W3Techs, 3.0% of websites on the Internet use Joomla!

To test Joomla! we used the free Beez3 template.

• URL: /index.php/3-welcome-to-your-blog
• Note: installation in Blog mode. Joomla modules such as Search, Widget and breadcrumb are all disabled.
• The Docker image is taken from https://hub.docker.com/_/joomla/ and was created its own for PHP 7.3.

– Joomla!, PHP performance

Test results

• Joomla! 3.9.1, PHP 5.6 performance: 27.45 requests/sec.
• Joomla! 3.9.1, PHP 7.0 performance: 38.48 requests.
• Joomla! 3.9.1, PHP 7.1 performance: 37.79 requests/sec.
• Joomla! 3.9.1, PHP 7.2 performance: 38.68 requests/sec.
• Joomla! 3.9.1, PHP 7.3 performance: 41.03 requests/sec.

On Joomla! we can see that the performance was low compared to some other platforms. However, PHP 7.3 is still a winner.

Magento 2 (CE) 2.1.15 + 2.3.0

Magento is a popular open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP and released on March 31, 2008. According to W3Techs, it powers 1.0% of all Web sites on the Internet.

The free Luma theme was used to test Magento 2. We used two versions because 2.1.15 was the only one that supported PHP 5.6. For additional tests we used 2.3.0. Magento 2 does not yet support PHP 7.3.

• URL: /index.php/lifelong-fitness-iv.html
• Note: page caching is disabled. The tested URL is a single product page. It contains one product image, a navigation bar, breadcrumb navigation, and no reviews.
• http://pubfiles.nexcess.net/magento/ce-packages/

– Magento 2, PHP performance

Test results

• Magento 2 (CE) 2.1.15, PHP 5.6 performance: 7.65 requests/sec.
• Magento 2 (CE) 2.1.15, PHP 7.0 performance: 16.19 requests/sec.
• Magento 2 (CE) 2.1.15, PHP 7.1 performance: 16.38 requests/sec.
• Magento 2 (CE) 2.3.0, PHP 7.1 performance: 13.60 requests/sec.
• Magento 2 (CE) 2.3.0, PHP 7.2 performance: 14.25 requests/sec.
• Magento 2 (CE) 2.3.0, PHP 7.3 performance: not supported

In fact, the older version, Magento 2 (CE) 2.1.15 along with PHP 7.1 was the fastest.

Grav CMS 1.5.5

Grav is an easy-to-use but powerful open-source CMS that does not require a database. It is also sometimes called a flat CMS.

The free Clean Blog skeleton package was used to test Grav CMS.

• URL: /home/the-urban-jungle
• Note: Content is a simple one-column blog post with no sidebar.

– Grav CMS, PHP performance

Test results

• Grav CMS 1.5.5, PHP 5.6 performance: 42.62 requests/sec.
• Grav CMS 1.5.5, PHP 7.0 performance: 64.43 requests/sec.
• Grav CMS 1.5.5, PHP 7.1 performance: 63.74 requests/sec.
• Grav CMS 1.5.5, PHP 7.2 performance: 65.26 requests/sec.
• Grav CMS 1.5.5, PHP 7.3 performance: 68.34 requests/sec.

With Grav CMS we see that the latest version of PHP 7.3 won.

October CMS 1.0.443

October CMS is a free open-source modular CMS platform hosted on a proprietary platform based on the Laravel PHP Framework. It was originally released on May 15, 2014.

To test October CMS we used a free Clean Blog theme. It is important to note that the October CMS is no longer compatible with PHP 5.6. Even though we were able to trick the installer by removing the PHP check, we still got an error code of 500 in the setup wizard.

• URL: /blog/post/first-blog-post

– October CMS, PHP performance

Test results

• October CMS 1.0.443, PHP 5.6 performance: not supported
• October CMS 1.0.443, PHP 7.0 performance: 23.29 requests/sec.
• October CMS 1.0.443, PHP 7.1 performance: 22.97 requests/sec.
• October CMS 1.0.443, PHP 7.2 performance: 23.38 requests/sec.
• October CMS 1.0.443, PHP 7.3 performance: 25.58 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 is again the winner, albeit by a small margin.

It’s also nice to see that this little content management system is dropping support for older versions of PHP. This is an advantage of smaller systems, as opposed to WordPress or other platforms with a large market share, in which this process is slower because of compatibility issues.

Laravel 5.4.36 + 5.7.15

Laravel is a very popular open-source PHP framework used to develop web applications. It was created by Taylor Otwell and released in June 2011.

For the Laravel test, we used a simple HTML theme.

• URL: / (homepage)
• The post contains the title, author name, and main content. The database contains 1 table “posts”.
• The table contains 6 columns “post_title”, “post_content”, “post_author”, “creation_at” and “updated_at”.
• The tested URL is connected to the database and shows 1 message from the database.

– Laravel 5.4.36, PHP performance

Test results

• Laravel 5.4.36, PHP 5.6 performance: 340.26 requests/sec.
• Laravel 5.4.36, PHP 7.0 performance: 610.81 requests/sec.
• Laravel 5.4.36, PHP 7.1 performance: 616.93 requests/sec.
• Laravel 5.4.36, PHP 7.2 performance: 692.86 requests/sec.
• Laravel 5.4.36, PHP 7.3 performance: 717.06 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 is the clear winner here. Note also the increased performance of the last two versions of PHP.

It is important to note that Laravel 5.7.15 requires PHP 7.1 or higher.

– Laravel 5.7.15, PHP performance

Test results

• Laravel 5.7.15, PHP 5.6 performance: not supported
• Laravel 5.7.15, PHP 7.0 performance: not supported
• Laravel 5.7.15, PHP 7.1 performance: 542.16 requests/sec.
• Laravel 5.7.15, PHP 7.2 performance: 606.73 requests/sec.
• Laravel 5.7.15, PHP 7.3 performance: 621.09 requests/sec.

Again, PHP 7.3 won here as well. However, interestingly, Laravel 5.4.36 with PHP 7.3 was faster than Laravel 5.7.15.

Symfony 3.3.6 + 4.2.0

Symfony is a set of reusable PHP components and a PHP framework for building web applications, APIs, microservices, and web services. Released October 22, 2005.

To test Symfony, we used Symfony Demo with MySQL (the default is SQLite). The tests were conducted several times, and average values were taken.

• URL: /en/blog/posts/hello-world
• The post has a title, date, author name, 2 tags and 5 comments.
• The earliest version of Symfony/demo we could get was 3.3.6, but it is no longer supported. We used it because it is the only remaining Symfony demo application that can run on PHP 5.6. The latest version can only work with version 7.1 and higher. The result is a little slower compared to the test done earlier. This may be due to the fact that more tables are requested on one page than on the main page (comments).

– Symfony 3.3.6, PHP performance

Test results

• Symfony 3.3.6, PHP 5.6 performance: 71.71 requests/sec.
• Symfony 3.3.6, PHP 7.0 performance: 155.08 requests/sec.
• Symfony 3.3.6, PHP 7.1 performance: 158.88 requests/sec.
• Symfony 3.3.6, PHP 7.2 performance: 169.78 requests/sec.
• Symfony 3.3.6, PHP 7.3 performance: not supported.

Since Symfony 3.3.6 does not support PHP 7.3, this test is won by PHP 7.2.

It’s important to note that Symfony 4.2.0 requires PHP 7.1 or above.

– Symfony 4.2.0, PHP performance

Test results

• Symfony 4.2.0, PHP 5.6 performance: not supported
• Symfony 4.2.0, PHP 7.0 performance: not supported
• Symfony 4.2.0, PHP 7.1 performance: 123.64 requests/sec.
• Symfony 4.2.0, PHP 7.2 performance: 126.76 requests/sec.
• Symfony 4.2.0, PHP 7.3 performance: 140.09 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 is at it again.

CodeIgniter 3.1.9

CodeIgniter is a powerful yet compact PHP framework designed for developers who need a simple and elegant toolkit for creating full-featured web applications.

• URL: / (homepage)
• Note. The home page contains content (header and main text) derived from the database table.

– CodeIgniter, PHP performance

Test results

• CodeIgniter 3.1.9, PHP 5.6 performance: 708.31 requests/sec.
• CodeIgniter 3.1.9, PHP 7.0 performance: 855.08 requests/sec.
• CodeIgniter 3.1.9, PHP 7.1 performance: 872.79 requests/sec.
• CodeIgniter 3.1.9, PHP 7.2 performance: 883.88 requests/sec.
• CodeIgniter 3.1.9, PHP 7.3 performance: 889.67 requests/sec.

As with Laravel and Symfony, PHP 7.3 was the fastest when running CodeIgniter.

PyroCMS 3.5.3

PyroCMS open source is essentially an extension of Laravel that allows you to create websites and applications faster.

For the test PyroCMS we used a free starter theme.

• URL: /posts/welcome-to-pyrocms
• Note: PyroCMS does not support PHP 5.6. We also encountered startup errors when trying to run it on PHP 7.3, most likely because it is not yet supported. This is why we were unable to include PHP 7.3 in the tests.

– PyroCMS, PHP performance

Test results

• PyroCMS 3.5.3, PHP 5.6 performance: not supported
• PyroCMS 3.5.3, PHP 7.0 performance: 33.56 requests.
• PyroCMS 3.5.3, PHP 7.1 performance: 34.87 requests.
• PyroCMS 3.5.3, PHP 7.2 performance: 36.12 requests.
• PyroCMS 3.5.3, PHP 7.3 performance: not supported

Because PHP 7.3 does not yet work with PyroCMS, PHP 7.2 won this time, by a small margin.

Pagekit 1.0.15

Pagekit is a modular and lightweight open-source CMS based on YOOtheme. It gives you the tools to create beautiful websites. It was released in the spring of 2016.

For the Pagekit test, we used the free One theme (the default Pagekit theme).

• URL: /blog/1

– Pagekit, PHP performance

Test results

• Pagekit 1.0.15, PHP 5.6 performance: 133.11 requests/sec.
• Pagekit 1.0.15, PHP 7.0 performance: 226.29 requests/sec.
• Pagekit 1.0.15, PHP 7.1 performance: 227.42 requests/sec.
• Pagekit 1.0.15, PHP 7.2 performance: 238.00 requests/sec.
• Pagekit 1.0.15, PHP 7.3 performance: 244.77 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 won the gold medal when tested with Pagekit.

Bolt CMS 3.6.3

Bolt CMS, or simply Bolt, is an open-source content management tool that strives to be as simple and straightforward as possible. It is based on Silex and Symfony components and uses Twig and SQLite, MySQL or PostgreSQL.

For the Bolt CMS test, we used the free Bolt Base 2018 theme.

• URL: /page/hello-world
• Note. Content created with a built-in random content generator.

– Bolt CMS, PHP performance

Test results

• Bolt CMS 3.6.3 PHP 5.6 performance: 33.01 requests.
• Bolt CMS 3.6.3, PHP 7.0 performance: 75.69 requests/sec.
• Bolt CMS 3.6.3, PHP 7.1 performance: 76.02 requests/sec.
• Bolt CMS 3.6.3, PHP 7.2 performance: 77.38 requests/sec.
• Bolt CMS 3.6.3, PHP 7.3 performance: 83.81 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 won when tested with Bolt CMS.

Anchor CMS 0.12.7

Anchor is a very easy to use and lightweight open-source blogging system designed to make it easy for you to write.

To test Anchor CMS, we used the free default theme from Visual Idiot.

• URL: /posts/hello-world

– Anchor CMS, PHP performance

Test results

• Anchor CMS 0.12.7, PHP 5.6 performance: 559.02 requests/sec.
• Anchor CMS 0.12.7, PHP 7.0 performance: 677.48 requests/sec.
• Anchor CMS 0.12.7, PHP 7.1 performance: 691.45 requests/sec.
• Anchor CMS 0.12.7, PHP 7.2 performance: 713.37 requests/sec.
• Anchor CMS 0.12.7, PHP 7.3 performance: 728.96 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 took gold when tested with Anchor CMS.

Craft CMS 3.0.35

Craft CMS is a purpose-built content management system for developers, designers and web professionals that combines flexibility, power and ease of use for clients.

• URL: /news/hello-world
• Tested demo application from https://github.com/craftcms/demo

– Craft CMS, PHP performance

Test results

• Craft CMS 3.0.35, PHP 5.6 performance: not supported
• Craft CMS 3.0.35, PHP 7.0 performance: 57.46 requests.
• Craft CMS 3.0.35, PHP 7.1 performance: 58.81 requests.
• Craft CMS 3.0.35, PHP 7.2 performance: 59.19 requests.
• Craft CMS 3.0.35, PHP 7.3 performance: 59.64 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 won when tested with Craft CMS.

ExpressionEngine 5.0.2

ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management platform that allows hundreds of thousands of people and organizations around the world to easily manage their website and is great for news sites and blogs.

For the ExpressionEngine test, we used the default theme.

• URL: /blog/entry/super-old-entry
• Note. The page has a sidebar with 3 widgets (search, category list and RSS feed link). The page also has a navigation bar.

– ExpressionEngine, performance

Test results

• ExpressionEngine 5.0.2, PHP 5.6 performance: not supported
• ExpressionEngine 5.0.2, PHP 7.0 performance: 53.50 requests/sec.
• ExpressionEngine 5.0.2, PHP 7.1 performance: 53.83 requests/sec.
• ExpressionEngine 5.0.2, PHP 7.2 performance: 55.23 requests/sec.
• ExpressionEngine 5.0.2, PHP 7.3 performance: 56.15 requests/sec.

PHP 7.3 performed the best when tested with ExpressionEngine.

Conclusion from the test results

As you can see from the above tests, PHP 7.3 leads in terms of performance on all platforms.

We tested the performance of 23 platforms/configurations on 5 different versions of PHP, and PHP 7.3 is the best in 20 of 20 (3 not supported)!

• PHP 7.3 was the fastest engine in 20 of the 23 configurations tested. And the only reason it didn’t win in all the tests is because Magento 2, Symfony 3.3.6 and PyroCMS 3.5.3 do not yet fully support PHP 7.3.
• As for WordPress, PHP 7.3 was the fastest in all tests (standard site on WordPress 4.9.8 and 5.0, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads).
• In many test results, you can see an increase in performance with each new version of PHP. That’s why it’s so important to test your site, plugins, etc., and try to update your sites regularly. Your visitors and customers will thank you for the speed they’ve been waiting for!
• If your hosting provider does not offer newer versions of PHP, it may be time to think about moving.

PHP 7.3 made us very happy, and we hope you are too!

Sync by TutHost from https://kinsta.com/blog/php-benchmarks