Introducing Perfbase

PHP powers the majority of the web, yet performance monitoring tools for PHP are either outdated, overly complex, or built as afterthoughts on top of general-purpose APM platforms.

We built Perfbase to change that.

What is Perfbase?

Perfbase is a purpose-built PHP performance monitoring platform. Install a native PHP extension, connect a framework package, and you’re profiling every HTTP request, queue job, and CLI command with zero code changes.

The platform consists of:

• A PHP extension written in Rust and C that hooks directly into the Zend engine to capture function calls, timing, memory, and database queries.
• Framework packages for Laravel, Symfony, WordPress, CakePHP, Drupal, Slim, Joomla, CodeIgniter, and all three versions of Yii, plus a standalone PHP SDK for any framework.
• A web console for analyzing traces with flame graphs, function-level timing, database query analysis, and N+1 detection.

How it works

Install the extension with a single command:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://cdn.perfbase.com/install.sh)"

Then install the package for your framework. For example, with Laravel:

composer require perfbase/laravel

PERFBASE_ENABLED=true
PERFBASE_API_KEY=your-api-key

Add the middleware, and every request is profiled automatically. The extension captures the full call tree, the framework package handles the lifecycle and submission, and the console gives you the analysis.

What makes it different

Built for PHP, not bolted on

General-purpose APM tools treat PHP as one of many languages. Perfbase is PHP-only, which means we can go deeper. The extension hooks into PHP’s internals, using the Observer API on PHP 8.2+ and zend_execute_ex wrapping on older versions, to capture every function call without code annotations or manual instrumentation.

It tracks PDO, MySQLi, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached, Elasticsearch, curl, mail, and file I/O out of the box, with automatic query normalization so sensitive parameter values never leave your server.

Every feature on every plan

There’s no feature-gating. The free plan includes flame graphs, N+1 detection, memory profiling, API access, SSO, alerts, and unlimited projects and team members. Paid plans give you more traces per month and longer data retention. That’s the only difference.

N+1 detection

Perfbase groups database queries by their normalized pattern. When the same query structure repeats 5 or more times in a single trace, it flags it as a potential N+1, showing you the pattern, how many times it ran, and the total time spent. You see both the problem and how much it costs.

Flame graphs at scale

The web console renders flame graphs using a custom Canvas 2D renderer that handles large call stacks without lag. Zoom into any subtree, search for functions by name, and see wall time, CPU time, and memory allocation at every level.

Lightweight

Profiling data is serialized as MessagePack, compressed with Brotli, and submitted in the background. A typical request profile is a few kilobytes, small enough to capture every request in production without noticeable overhead.

Supported PHP versions

The extension supports PHP 7.4 through 8.5, on Linux and macOS, x86_64 and ARM64.

Get started

Install the extension, pick your framework package, and you’re profiling in under 5 minutes. Every feature is available free.

Create a free account →