AMIMOTO HHVM Performance Test

WordPress optimized environment, the AMIMOTO AMI series has added an HHVM preconfigured AMI.

WordPress Powered by AMIMOTO (HHVM) has a 14-day Free Trial. If you have created your AWS account 1 year ago, perhaps you are no longer eligible for EC2 Free Tier. We suggest you create a new AWS account to take advantage of one AMIMOTO HHVM t2.micro instance free of charge, including AWS infrastructure fees.

AMIMOTO AMI HVM and HHVM difference:

AMIMOTO php-fpm version AMIMOTO HHVM version
Virtualization Modes HVM HVM
OS Amazon Linux Amazon Linux
HTTP entry nginx nginx
upstream fastcgi fastcgi
PHP runtime php-fpm (5.5) hhvm (5.6 equivalent)
DB Percona Percona

Basically it does not change, but PHP is changed from php-fpm to HHVM.

When you are logged out, there is not much significant change in the performance because AMIMOTO uses Nginx reverse proxy cache. However, for some sites which can’t utilize Nginx reverse proxy cache, like membership sites, you will find the power of the HHVM version.

AMIMOTO HHVM version vs. AMIMOTO php-fpm version

Here is a comparison between HHVM and php-fpm version of AMIMOTO when Nginx reverse proxy cache is disabled and the same instance type:

Prerequisites

  • loader.io as a load testing tool
  • Instance Type: c3.large
  • Duration: 1 minute
  • Type: during the testing period, the number of clients increase from 0-300 (Maintain client load)

Top page

After WordPress installation, Nginx reverse proxy cache was disabled and the result of the load measurement of the top page is as follows:

AMIMOTO php-fpm version

AMIMOTO HHVM version

The number of clients are increasing for both AMIMOTO versions, and the response time is delayed steadily.
Based on the comparison, the response time is better and faster in AMIMOTO HHVM version.

Comparison Table

php-fpm version HHVM version (Reference) Nginx cache effectiveness
The average response time 3108ms 1566ms 15ms
Number of requests processed 2637 5387 386 830

Management screen

Here are the results when logged in to the admin:

  • Admin screen login (POST /wp-login.php)
  • Article list (GET /wp-admin/edit.php)

AMIMOTO php-fpm version

AMIMOTO HHVM version

At around 150-200 clients, the php-fpm could not be measured until the end and 50x errors are received. On the other hand, HHVM version is operating until the end, but the response time is slower.
The quick characteristics of AMIMOTO HHVM version can be seen.

AMIMOTO HHVM version is equivalent to PHP 5.6. Please check carefully before production, as some plugins and themes may not be used because of a fatal error.