Update for PHP 7.1.

A simple performance comparison of 6 PHP MVC style frameworks using PHP 7.0.

Test Kit : php-framework-benchmark

: php-framework-benchmark Test Server : Digital Ocean Ubuntu 16.04 x64 2gb / 2CPU droplet.

: Digital Ocean Ubuntu 16.04 x64 2gb / 2CPU droplet. Test Software: PHP 7.0.7, Apache 2.4.18

I used a minimal installation of PHP and Apache with no additional configurations or sever settings changed.

Overview

The benchmark tool kit executes a simple “hello world”, it does this with the frameworks minimal settings, no database, no debugging and if possible, no template engine.

Read more about the testing on the benchmark tool kits page.

Results

Out of the 6 frameworks tested Codeigniter 3 produced the most requests per second and least memory usage. Laravel 5.2 produced the least requests per second and the most memory usage.

No framework: 5,241 requests per second, .34M memory.

Codeigniter 3: 1,696 requests per second, .38M memory.

Lumen 5.1: 1,454 requests per second, .78M memory.

Fuel 1.8: 887 requests per second, .56M memory.

Symfony 3.0: 330 requests per second, 2.13M memory.

Zend 2.5: 273 requests per second, 1.77M memory

Laravel 5.2: 180 requests per second, 2.29M memory

Requests Per Second

Codeigiter produces the most requests per seconds and lumen is close behind. Fuel performs decently well but the rest of the frameworks produced very low results.

(higher the better)

Memory

Codeigniter consumes the least amount of memory. Lumen comes in under 1M but Laravel, Symfony and Zend consume more then double the memory of the other frame works, hovering over 1.5M.

(lower the better)

Execution Time

Laravel and Zend take the longest time to execute. Symfony and Fuel are considerably faster but Lumen and Codeigniter are the fastest.

(lower the better)

Included Files

Symfony 3 and Zend 2.5 require around 200 files. Laravel 5.2 and Fuel 1.8 require around 50 files. Lumen and Codeigniter require the least amount of files, under 40.