I must admit I haven't run the numbers, but if this can be trusted, sync PHP isn't far off from golang - while async does rather well?
I probably would only reach for PHP if I needed to run on shared hosting (or rather, my customers did) - in which case few other technologies would compete, obviously.
https://phpbenchlab.com/php-vs-nodejs-vs-go-vs-python-io-ben...
> PHP 8.5 vs Node.js vs Go vs Python: I/O Performance Under Real Database Load (2026)
Thought it could warrant some discussion - maybe someone will spot obvious errors?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49845870
PS: golang is much faster at cpu - in this case one might argue a fairer comparison would use a compiled extension on the php side IMNHO - as that seems a likely path if a real project was cpu bound on a few small functions.
https://phpbenchlab.com/php-8-5-vs-nodejs-vs-go-vs-python-cp...