Advantages of HHVM Web Server

HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine) was initially developed by Facebook as an alternative execution engine for PHP, aiming for better performance compared to the standard PHP interpreter. However, since PHP 7 significantly improved its performance, HHVM has shifted its focus to the Hack programming language.

Key Advantages of HHVM

• Just-In-Time (JIT) Compilation: HHVM uses JIT compilation to convert PHP or Hack code directly into machine code, improving execution speed.
• High Performance for Large-Scale Applications: Designed to handle high-traffic applications efficiently, making it ideal for large-scale platforms like Facebook.
• Lower Resource Consumption: Compared to PHP-FPM, HHVM can reduce CPU and RAM usage in some cases, especially when using Hack.
• Standalone Web Server Mode: HHVM can run as an independent web server without requiring Nginx or Apache, reducing overhead.
• Optimized for Hack: Since shifting its focus, HHVM is now more efficient for Hack-based development, offering better type safety compared to PHP.

Disadvantages of HHVM

• No Longer Focused on PHP: Since version 4, HHVM only supports Hack and is no longer compatible with newer PHP versions.
• Less Popular Outside Facebook's Ecosystem: Its usage has declined since PHP 7 and 8 improved significantly.
• Limited Compatibility: Many modern PHP frameworks no longer support HHVM, making it less flexible than PHP-FPM.

If you are still using PHP and need high performance, a better solution is PHP-FPM with OPcache or a combination of Nginx + PHP-FPM + Redis/Memcached for caching. However, if you want to explore Hack and build large-scale applications, HHVM can be a viable option.