phpser benchmarks

A decoder-optimized binary serializer for read-heavy PHP cache workloads, measured against igbinary (the reference), PHP's native serialize(), and msgpack across cache-shaped payloads. Lower is better on every metric. igbinary is the baseline; each percentage is that column's delta vs. igbinary — green beats igbinary, red loses to it.

PHP 8.4.21 arch aarch64 os Linux 6.17.0-1010-oracle iters 1000 median of 9 phpser 0.1.2 igbinary 3.2.16 msgpack 3.0.1 date 2026-06-03

Bars are normalized per row to the largest value (longer = slower / bigger).best in rowphpser column

SIZEbytes — lower is better

shape phpser igbinary * serialize msgpack
rowset_100
4,771
+4%
4,570
21,046
+361%
9,593
+110%
rowset_1000
47,972
+1%
47,459
214,949
+353%
98,509
+108%
packed_1k
1,941
-65%
5,495
11,789
+115%
2,619
-52%
packed_10k
21,749
-63%
59,495
137,790
+132%
29,619
-50%
deep_50
424
+1%
419
1,512
+261%
457
+9%
dto_100
6,362
-10%
7,083
28,190
+298%
14,909
+110%
dto_1000
64,863
-12%
73,372
285,891
+290%
152,725
+108%
dto_mixed
17,927
-17%
21,644
85,395
+295%
46,433
+115%

ENCODEns / op — lower is better

shape phpser igbinary * serialize msgpack
rowset_100
14.4k
-19%
17.8k
65.2k
+267%
39.2k
+120%
rowset_1000
133.9k
-48%
258.4k
712.4k
+176%
405.1k
+57%
packed_1k
2.5k
-75%
9.7k
23.5k
+141%
12.7k
+31%
packed_10k
26.3k
-72%
94.5k
247.6k
+162%
128.9k
+36%
deep_50
1.4k
-51%
2.8k
3.2k
+15%
6.8k
+145%
dto_100
27.2k
-3%
28.0k
37.6k
+34%
47.2k
+68%
dto_1000
279.3k
-10%
309.2k
375.8k
+22%
511.8k
+66%
dto_mixed
85.6k
-20%
107.4k
211.9k
+97%
164.2k
+53%

DECODEns / op — lower is better

shape phpser igbinary * serialize msgpack
rowset_100
21.2k
-3%
21.9k
68.4k
+213%
67.2k
+207%
rowset_1000
218.1k
-0%
218.8k
730.1k
+234%
701.7k
+221%
packed_1k
3.4k
-79%
16.3k
37.3k
+129%
17.8k
+9%
packed_10k
36.7k
-77%
161.6k
401.4k
+148%
178.0k
+10%
deep_50
3.1k
-12%
3.6k
6.0k
+69%
7.3k
+105%
dto_100
48.6k
-13%
55.8k
126.1k
+126%
156.9k
+181%
dto_1000
512.9k
-15%
603.7k
1602.3k
+165%
1627.8k
+170%
dto_mixed
179.4k
-22%
231.3k
516.4k
+123%
569.4k
+146%