Supercharge Your PHP Apps with FrankenPHP Classic Mode

PHP deployment hasn't seen a shift this exciting in years. FrankenPHP is here, and while everyone talks about "worker mode", Classic Mode is the immediate upgrade your servers need.

I've written a comprehensive guide on how to replace PHP-FPM with FrankenPHP behind Nginx.

What is Classic Mode?

It allows FrankenPHP to act as a standard request handler, just faster and simpler than FPM. It integrates perfectly with your existing Nginx setups.

Why it's better:

• 103 Early Hints: Speeds up perceived load times by sending assets before the page is ready.
• Observability: Detailed Prometheus metrics and structured logging out of the box.
• Robustness: Benefits from Go's memory safety for the server layer.

Static vs Dynamic (Glibc) Builds

One of huge advantages of FrankenPHP is the static build.

• Static: Zero dependencies. Runs on Alpine, Debian, CentOS without needing libraries like libpng installed. Perfect for containers.
• Dynamic: Uses system libraries. Better if you need specific system-patched versions of libs.

The Tool

I also released an open-source tool, frankenphp-classic-setup, which automates:

1. Binary installation (smartly chooses Static or Dynamic based on need).
2. Systemd service creation.
3. Nginx configuration generation.
4. CLI wrapper setup (use fphp instead of php).

The Guide

I cover the manual "hard way" to help you learn, and the automated "easy way" to get you into production fast.

Manual Steps Summary

1. Download frankenphp.
2. Set up a systemd service pointing to your doc root.
3. Proxy Nginx to port 9000.

Automated Way

git clone https://github.com/iperamuna/frankenphp-classic-setup.git
sudo ./setup.sh

Read the full technical breakdown and guide here

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About the Author
Indunil Peramuna is a software engineer passionate about optimizing modern web infrastructure.

• GitHub: @iperamuna
• LinkedIn: indunilperamuna
• Telegram: @iperamuna
• Discord: iperamuna
• WhatsApp: [phone]

Comments

[sinni800]

Thanks. We currently use fpm on a website with 4000 requests/sec and 10 million daily unique users, so having an alternative on the back burner in case it causes problems at some point is good.