Why is PHP so slow?

[Pixelateur]

Hey there,

I only just got into PHP and uploaded my first site today (yay!).
Now here's my question: To me it seems like my pages take an awful lot longer to download than previously when I used to code all my pages in HTML only (!!!). Basically, there's only one server request per page, so I really wonder what's going to happen when I have several server requests in one page. Is there any way to speed PHP up? Someone told me there's a way to "pre-bake" (???) pages, so they become as fast as ordinary HTML files...? Is this true? If yes, how can I do it?

Greetz to all of you.

[Pixelateur]

Oh by the way, feel free to check out my site: http://www.timokleemann.com

[HitRaj 47]

Your site loaded in 0.828 seconds for me... What connection are you on?

The site in your sig loaded in 0.328 seconds also.

Btw - FasterFox extension for firefox told me this.

[Pedro Monteiro]

Loaded pretty fast to me. By the way, lovely design you have there.

[Pixelateur]

It's hosted in Germany, at an ISP called Strato.
HitRaj, can you do me a favour and also check the times for http://www.pixellover.net/index.htm ?
That would be cool. Else I have no reference values...

[HitRaj 47]

That site took 1.172 seconds.

I am on 10mb though...

[Pixelateur]

That IS extremely strange...! Because I have tested both sites on various machines, and PixelLover always seems much faster. Maybe I'm just biased...?!
Thanks a lot by the way.

[Rubble]

If you have a lot of text on a page put the below at the top of your page as it can speed it up.

ob_start("ob_gzhandler"); 

Also this link is quite useful: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

Anthony

[agoossens]

I only just got into PHP and uploaded my first site today (yay!). Now here's my question: To me it seems like my pages take an awful lot longer to download than previously when I used to code all my pages in HTML only (!!!).

Of course they'll take longer to load - there's an extra step in the request pipeline now and that's PHP . If you're programming in HTML there's no PHP in the pipeline and so pages go straight from the server disk back to the user.

If your sites are taking an exorbitant amount of time to load (whatever you do, don't get pedantic. Users will tolerate a few extra tenth's of a second) then you most likely need to re-evaluate your code.

FWIW, both sites loaded quite quickly for me (and I'm on 128kbit ). It could be network congestion in your area.

[AutisticCuckoo]

If you're programming in HTML

HTML is not a programming language.

[Pixelateur]

But both sites, www.pixellover.net and www.timokleemann.com are hosted at the exact same company. And PixelLover feels an awful lot faster wherever I log on to the site (I normally use about 5 different computers every day).

Isn't there a way to ... let's say, "pre-compile" my PHP pages, so they load just as fast as static (HTML) pages? I'm sure this is possible, I've heard about it a couple of times. Any ideas?

[agoossens]

HTML is not a programming language.

Whoops, my mistake. You're right - HTML is a markup language. That was an artifact of an edit I never quite finished Ironic too, since I get get quite irked when people say what I did.

Isn't there a way to ... let's say, "pre-compile" my PHP pages, so they load just as fast as static (HTML) pages? I'm sure this is possible, I've heard about it a couple of times. Any ideas?

Yes, you can - you capture the output of the script and cache it. Look into the Output Buffering functions.