Zend vs. IonCube

Originally Posted by TECK

Since APC doesn't like Zend, I needed to stick with ionCube.
IonCube + APC = Fast vBulletin
Zend = Lazy vBulletin

I totally agree with this. With my new server we choosed to stick with APC Cache and ioncube and all users reported back to use that they have nearly 50% better perfonmance with the new server. Of course new server has better specs and shall have better perfonmance but the only important thing changed was the processor. Ram is same as old server and i also added another vBulletin forum on the server. Page creation times were around 0.16 ~ 0.20 in the old server on forumhome with zend and eccalerator but on the new server page creation time is around 0.09 ~ 0.12

Hi All!

A bit late contributing to this, but worth doing so to clarify some of the misconceptions and inaccuracies here.

File Size: ionCube encoded files do tend to be larger, but this is for beneficial reasons, and does not mean slower performance. In fact, the results have historically been the opposite. Larger file size is partly due to files typically having an ASCII encoding layer around the binary layer. Binary files, which used to be the ionCube default format a few years ago, are easily corrupted by FTP when installed due to incorrect use of ASCII transfer modes causing cr/lf (linebreak) conversion and failed files that need to be reinstalled. ASCII formatted files may still get converted by FTP or WinZIP, but the line breaks are not part of the data and so there is no corruption. Other reasons for larger file size can be the nature of the security algorithms used and the amount of data compression used.

At an implementation level, files are not read using file I/O but by memory mapping the files into the process memory space. Whilst more intensive compression algorithms may require increased runtime overhead to process them, memory mapping a file of 2K vs. 3K, the contents of which are likely to be cached by the OS, may be equally as efficient and the larger file size wins overall. Benchmarks from one third party give some comparisons.

Performance: The best performance for ionCube files comes when the Loader is installed in the php.ini file as opposed to the runtime install method. The scripts execution speed is the same, but runtime install whilst popular from its convenience adds a few 10's of milliseconds overhead on each request. This wouldn't be noticable except perhaps on an overloaded or low spec server, but is definitely measurable, and for those having control over their servers a php.ini install is best.

The other thing to note with performance is that on unencoded scripts, ZO may slow servers down and not make them faster. We've measured this when working on compatibility and tuning the Loader, as have other third parties when they sat down to actually check and not just assume that there would be a speedup. The reason here is that whilst ZO does a fair job of optimising the compiled code and files will generally execute faster, the optimisation takes time too and it can take longer to optimise than you get back with speed improvements. Whether there is a net benefit or not depends very much on the nature of the PHP scripts and factors such as how long requests take to run, the percentage of code actually executed, the script design and so on. Long running scripts such as computing prime numbers benefit because the optimisation gains are cumulative whereas the optimisation time is independent of execution time, and the longer a script takes to run the more benefit there is from the optimisation. Percentage of code executed is a factor because any code not executed is not only excess time in the parser and compiler, but wasted optimisation effort.

Compatibility: The ionCube Loader and Zend Optimiser are compatible, and many hosts install or use both together. Care must be taken to ensure that the Loader appears first in a php.ini file and this can catch people out, but reading the install docs make this clear. To help out, the Loader should log an error if that mistake is made. If there are problems then making sure that the latest Loader is installed is prudent, as it is with ZO, system drivers and any software really. Bizarrely, one version of ZO a couple of years ago did contain code to explicitly check for the Loader and then cause a crash to feign incompatibility, however with a new Loader we quickly worked around the misguided sculduggery and that same ZO and new Loader once again played nicely together as they always had. Our approach is to maximise compatibility for the end user as far as possible because it makes no sense to do anything else and is counter productive.

At the end of the day, and any bugs in ZO or the Loader that force a decision excepted, it won't generally matter which you install. If either ZO or the Loader are already installed, which is shown with a phpinfo page, then picking the corresponding download makes sense and should work out of the box. If neither ZO nor the Loader are installed on the server and if there isn't access to the php.ini file, runtime install of the Loaders is likely to work and avoids having to have the php.ini file modified by the host. Lastly, if one goes for an ionCube install and needs help with that then we'll always do our best to help out if a support ticket is logged.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Very please to have an IonCube dev visit us and provide further information.

Originally Posted by ioncube

Hi All!

Many thanks for taking the time to address these concerns in such a comprehensive way. I'm sure this information will serve useful for many vBSEO webmasters. Welcome to the boards!

I have installed the Zend version of the product although I still think that the ionCube is much better according to my friend.

I installed the ioncube version cause that's what my server supports by default setup. I didn't notice any extra server load. I am happy with this and i don't intend to do any experiment.

If something works don't break it

But the real question is which version vbseo.com has installed ?

If something works don't break it

Exactly, and given that both should work on a suitably configured system, it's essentially irrelevant as to which version anyone installs, vbseo.com included. The ionCube encoded version may offer better performance but the performance of both will be broadly similar and differences most likely immeasurable and certainly unnoticable amongst other random fluctuations, particularly on a shared host. If a system has just one of Zend Optimiser or the ionCube Loader installed already, then going for the corresponding encoded version obviously makes the most sense. If neither are installed then the ionCube version will be easier to install if the runtime method is supported by the host because no special install of Loaders will be required, but otherwise the php.ini install the requirements is essentially the same for both.

So, install one, if it works then leave it. If it doesn't then try the other, and if neither work, contact support.

Originally Posted by Tefra

I installed the ioncube version cause that's what my server supports by default setup. I didn't notice any extra server load. I am happy with this and i don't intend to do any experiment.

If something works don't break it

But the real question is which version vbseo.com has installed ?

Not really. My server responded that I should have the Zend version installed but I never cared about it because sometimes the script can be wrong and so I've decided to go for the IonCube version which is much better, in my opinion.

So far, everything seems to work just fine!

Can this thread be unstickied now as vbseo no longer uses encrypted source code? This forum looks a bit messy with lots of stickied threads.