PHP NG was initially introduced in May 2014 with a significant effort to restructure the PHP codebase. This was aimed at reducing memory consumption and enhancing overall performance.
Even though PHP NG is still in its alpha development phase, it's already demonstrating remarkable performance enhancements compared to the stable PHP version (PHP 5.6). This is achieved while maintaining full compatibility.
Developer tests have indicated that PHP 5.7 NG is exhibiting performance gains ranging from 20% to 110% in real-world applications like WordPress, Drupal, or SugarCRM, when compared to PHP 5.6. Furthermore, there's a notable reduction in memory usage.
Additionally, PHP NG's redesigned codebase provides a solid foundation for future optimizations, and its performance continues to improve.
For now, PHP 5.7 NG is exclusively intended for development purposes and is unlikely to be suitable for production use within this year. Nevertheless, it holds the potential to become a significant advancement for servers globally, with more stable beta versions and potential release candidates expected in early 2015.
Enabling PHP NG can be done through the PHP Configuration section within the Web Hosting Control Panel.