Perl versus PHP fastest performance Always look at the source code. If the fastest programs are hand-written vector instructions, does the host language matter? You might be more interested in the less optimised programs — more seconds, less gz source code. fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #2 187.39 12,976 441 187.38 PHP #4 54.97 13,440 1162 217.94 PHP #3 55.84 13,500 1160 222.26 PHP 223.52 12,988 482 223.42 Perl #3 1,233.33 10,840 427 1,233.17 Perl #2 421.78 12,164 570 1,677.14 Perl 1,806.93 10,844 457 1,806.70 n-body source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #3 65.75 13,100 1082 65.74 Perl #2 405.03 10,904 1429 404.98 spectral-norm source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP 6.81 14,120 1152 26.92 PHP #2 57.19 13,528 397 57.19 PHP #3 16.17 14,188 1210 63.74 Perl #4 25.06 12,116 555 98.69 Perl #5 102.09 10,908 340 102.07 Perl 103.18 10,908 333 103.17 Perl #3 128.66 10,908 850 510.64 Perl #2 529.19 10,908 343 529.02 mandelbrot source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP 86.88 13,016 449 86.87 PHP #3 23.25 48,484 875 92.76 Perl 478.47 77,044 586 1,900.78 pidigits source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #5 0.90 14,248 399 0.90 PHP #4 0.91 14,216 389 0.91 PHP #3 0.92 14,324 504 0.92 PHP #2 1.38 14,636 545 1.38 Perl 10.35 12,684 463 10.35 PHP 334.16 15,344 750 334.14 Perl #4 Failed Perl #2 Failed regex-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP 1.82 194,824 816 3.60 Perl 22.52 205,596 464 22.52 Perl #2 17.08 205,220 710 29.44 Perl #4 10.41 157,184 820 30.81 Perl #3 10.52 409,996 854 31.05 Perl #5 Bad Output fasta source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #3 21.34 13,084 1062 21.34 PHP #2 28.62 13,048 1050 28.61 Perl 61.00 55,380 871 60.99 Perl #4 123.00 10,896 966 122.68 Perl #2 174.19 10,896 922 173.96 k-nucleotide source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #4 20.80 260,644 1079 70.63 Perl #2 114.21 659,832 359 114.19 Perl #4 40.72 1,069,244 476 127.66 Perl 38.38 1,247,436 652 131.20 Perl #3 51.56 1,146,964 513 168.22 reverse-complement source secs mem gz cpu secs Perl #3 6.44 1,495,072 287 6.44 PHP 9.25 1,489,448 318 9.24 PHP #2 10.91 1,787,268 281 10.91 PHP #3 7.09 536,544 446 11.20 binary-trees source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #3 45.39 921,556 428 45.38 PHP #7 15.05 948,676 760 53.85 PHP #4 17.63 918,536 779 54.47 PHP #2 61.41 748,808 423 61.39 PHP 61.61 748,832 451 61.60 PHP #5 32.52 805,504 1040 84.00 PHP #6 26.81 805,532 868 88.08 Perl #5 53.48 1,048,556 797 197.47 Perl 254.18 599,668 395 254.16 Perl #4 79.93 2,519,600 761 288.88 Perl #3 113.93 2,203,376 648 383.93 Perl This is perl 5, version 36 subversion 0 (v5.36.0) x86_64-linux-thread PHP PHP 8.2.1 (cli) (built: Jan 13 2023 15:31:11) (NTS) Copyright (c) The PHP Group Zend Engine v4.2.1, with Zend OPcache v8.2.1, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies all Perl programs & measurements all PHP programs & measurements