Benchmarking PHP 8.4 and Node.js 22 Across Real Backend Workloads

There is a conversation that has been going on in backend development circles for over a decade now, and it refuses to die. PHP or Node.js? Which one should you use? Which one is faster? Which one has a future?

I spent the last several weeks setting up identical environments, running real benchmarks, building small but representative applications in both, and reading through a significant amount of documentation, community data, and developer surveys. I went in with assumptions. Most of them were wrong.

This is not a fan piece. I have no allegiance to either camp. This is what I actually found.

Why These Two?

PHP and Node.js do not look like obvious competitors on paper. PHP is a language with its own runtime. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime. But in practice, both are used to build web backends, APIs, and server-rendered applications — which is why they end up...

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