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 #2 188.01 19,392 447 188.00 PHP #3 54.65 19,392 1166 217.72 PHP #4 55.26 19,520 1168 219.72 PHP 225.18 19,392 488 225.17 Perl #3 1,253.65 19,656 433 1,253.60 Perl #2 428.72 19,656 577 1,710.91 Perl 1,719.04 19,656 463 1,718.97 n-body source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #3 66.45 19,396 1088 66.43 Perl #2 433.35 19,640 1431 433.33 spectral-norm source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP 6.85 19,396 1157 27.12 PHP #2 56.73 19,396 403 56.73 PHP #3 16.19 19,396 1214 63.39 Perl #4 23.84 19,644 562 93.18 Perl #5 97.85 19,640 346 97.84 Perl 106.13 19,644 340 106.10 Perl #2 488.38 19,644 350 488.35 Perl #3 122.80 19,640 857 488.65 mandelbrot source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP 86.84 19,396 452 86.84 PHP #3 23.33 48,384 881 92.86 Perl 569.19 76,928 592 2,273.81 pidigits source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #5 1.02 19,396 405 1.02 PHP #4 1.04 19,396 396 1.04 PHP #3 1.05 19,396 510 1.04 PHP #2 1.47 19,396 552 1.46 Perl 11.68 19,380 471 11.66 PHP 330.35 19,396 756 330.33 Perl #2 Failed Perl #4 Failed regex-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP 1.87 194,876 822 3.72 Perl 22.47 205,652 471 22.46 Perl #2 17.23 205,436 717 29.80 Perl #4 10.48 157,300 823 30.98 Perl #3 10.69 409,956 854 31.50 Perl #5 Bad Output fasta source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #3 21.34 19,396 1065 21.33 PHP #2 28.90 19,396 1054 28.90 Perl 62.98 55,296 875 62.98 Perl #4 133.86 19,656 969 133.60 Perl #2 182.59 19,656 926 182.43 k-nucleotide source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #4 20.89 260,560 1084 69.85 Perl #2 121.96 659,584 365 120.07 Perl 38.23 1,247,428 659 131.70 Perl #4 41.87 1,070,080 483 136.26 Perl #3 52.15 1,147,904 520 171.73 reverse-complement source secs mem gz cpu secs Perl #4 5.65 998,596 268 5.65 Perl #3 6.55 1,495,204 295 6.55 PHP 9.76 1,489,428 323 9.76 PHP #2 11.67 1,787,276 288 11.67 PHP #3 7.59 536,536 452 11.93 binary-trees source secs mem gz cpu secs PHP #3 45.78 921,600 434 45.78 PHP #7 15.25 948,480 767 54.73 PHP #4 18.02 918,400 786 55.68 PHP 62.31 748,808 457 62.30 PHP #2 62.55 748,812 429 62.54 PHP #5 32.58 805,504 1048 83.64 PHP #6 26.90 805,396 877 88.00 Perl #6 38.93 760,064 800 143.68 Perl #5 50.13 1,048,576 805 182.28 Perl 248.15 599,680 401 248.14 Perl #4 79.07 2,519,560 769 275.66 Perl #3 107.10 2,200,560 655 361.91 Perl This is perl 5, version 38 subversion 2 (v5.38.2) x86_64-linux-thread-multi PHP PHP 8.3.3 (cli) (built: Mar 3 2024 08:47:21) (NTS) Copyright (c) The PHP Group Zend Engine v4.3.3, with Zend OPcache v8.3.3, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies all Perl programs & measurements all PHP programs & measurements