PHP 7 vs HHVM - which will be a Wise Selection?

What benefits can PHP 7 bring to the development of websites? This is a quite  common question asked by php developers for the last couple of years. 

PHP 7, released at the end of November 2015 is a far more optimized version which help developers to double the performance of website. Right with the launch of PHP’s latest version, another discussion is capturing the attention of web-world. It is regarding the performance of PHP7 vs HHVM. 

HHVM has already established itself as a virtual tool for fast web  development. Many of the designers do not know much about PHP 7, hence it causes a bit confusion about the innovations that are to be included in it. 

Here is an attempt to take all the discussions as well as questions regarding these  topics a bit forward. 

HHVM: An Explanation

• The work on HHVM was initiated by the Social Media giant facebook in 2008. The real intention was to create a tool which helps to convert PHP scripts to C++. 

• Once the PHP script gets converted into C++, it will be very easy to compile it and execute. Facebook users were increasing at a fast rate in that point of time, and the need to increase the speed was deadly for facebook. By working on HHVM, they have made it successful to an extent. 

• This Hip Hop Virtual Machine(HHVM) makes use of a Just-In-Time compiler for converting the PHP code into a type of bytecode. This machine code assists in HHVM to increase the performance to a great extent. 

• However, this virtual tool created by facebook works with a great speed when compared to the use of PHP 5.

PHP 7: An Explanation

• PHP 7 is an attempt of the communities that support the platform against the rise of HHVM. The aim is to build a platform which works 100 times faster than PHP 5. 

• Then another question may raise in mind like why not PHP 6? Instead of releasing PHP 6, why we are talking about PHP 7? Work for releasing PHP 6 started very early and is delayed for many years. 

• Thus the title, PHP 6 proved to be ineffective, and the community decided to go with a new title, PHP 7. Fortunately, it has been launched by the end of November 2015. Even before its’ release the discussions on the working of PHP 7 and HHVM have been raised.

PHP 7 vs HHVM: A Comparison

• Both work with the aid of same language, but the basic difference arises in the way in which both these titles interpret the same PHP code. 

• PHP uses a free interpreter which helps in the direct execution of codes. PHP exhibits  content desired by the web user by generating the HTML codes. 

• On the other hand, HHVM works by altering the php codes into byte codes. These byte codes are rendered into machine codes and then the execution happens. 

• All the things that cause the performance of PHP codes get removed at the time of this rendering of codes into machine codes by causing a faster performance of HHVM. When it comes to the writing of codes, both work in the same way. 

• For using HHVM, users must install it in the server, and invoke it with the aid of HHVM command line itself. 

• PHP 7 is rightly made available as expected in November 2015 itself, and many developers have tested it’s performance, and they claim it offers improved performance in some situations compared to HHVM, and in some circumstances of HHVM works better. 

Benefits of using HHVM

• Dynamic translation is used, and it will help websites to run faster in many occasions. 

• It needs less memory space to proceed with requests.

• HHVM developers keep on increasing the types of PHP codes that they can covert into machine language having a very good speed. WorPress is an instance to the point. 

• HHVM is open for every developer to install, edit, and work with. 

Benefits of using PHP 7

• The already released version of PHP 7 works faster than HHVM, when tested with Drupal as well as latest versions of WordPress.

• PHP 7 developers claim that users do not have to install HHVM to increase the performance of applications.

• PHP 7 is a long time effort of communities that have offered stable help all the time. Thus we can expect fast performance, and less number of bugs in this new version of PHP.

Is Making A Choice Between The Two Even More Difficult?

Luckily, the stable version of PHP 7  has been released by the end of previous November 2015, and it offers an edge for php web development in totality. The new version claims outstanding performance. 

All these do not mean that companies will very soon stop the using of HHVM. HHVM ,still claims faster development in certain circumstances. 

Facebook developers are consistently working on it, and they have extended HHVM support to Apple devices, as well. If we consider the working of PHP 7, and HHVM, both are head to head, causing a confusion in the minds of users uprightly.

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