Competitor gap analysis (2026-10-03): php-fpm-ng compared with Octane, RoadRunner, FrankenPHP, Swoole and others

Baseline:

• php-fpm-ng main at 96801bc (38faff8 + #713) and async at 80ff55d.
• Issues come from gh issue list -R crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng --state all (404 issues) and the wiki page Feature-Ideas-2026-10-03 (anti-features), both read 2026-10-03.

Competitor versions: Laravel Octane v2.20.0, RoadRunner v2025.1.15, FrankenPHP v1.12.7, Swoole 6.2.3 (6.3.0-rc1 prerelease), OpenSwoole 26.2.0, symfony-swoole/swoole-bundle v0.35.3, Hyperf 3.2.4, Workerman 5.2.2, amphp/http-server 3.4.6, ReactPHP http 1.11.1, NGINX Unit 1.35.0 (archived), TrueAsync php-8.6.0-trueasync-0.10.0.

Not verified:

• I did not open the docs for: Swoole-bundle features, RR Centrifuge, Workerman, webman and Hyperf crontab.
• FrankenPHP has no PHP-side app-metrics API: I believe this is true, but did not check the source.
• Xdebug was not checked.

1-2. Gaps: what competitors have and main does not, grouped by category

Columns: async? (yes, no or partly; "main: partly" means main already covers part of it). Issue: "none" means no issue found; "anti" means an anti-feature on the wiki. Value / Size: H/M/L.

Runtime model and framework integration

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
Framework adapter for worker mode: Symfony Runtime and PSR-7 on top of the existing fpmng_worker_* boot-once loop	FrankenPHP (Symfony 7.4+ native), RoadRunner (spiral/roadrunner-http, baldinof bundle), Octane, swoole-bundle, php-pm	main: loop exists, no adapter. async: fiber framework results, no adapter	#660, #663	H	M
Reset of framework state between requests: sandbox, kernel.reset, listeners, warm and flush, GC threshold	Octane (listeners, warm, flush, garbage), swoole-bundle, RR bundle	partly (fiber isolates statics and ini)	none (inside #660)	H	M
Laravel Octane driver	Octane drivers for Swoole, RoadRunner, FrankenPHP	no	anti until worker leaves beta	H	M
Worker executor leaves beta. The README criterion points to closed #191, so a new criterion is needed	All competitors ship worker mode as stable	n/a	none	H	M
Testing fakes for the worker lifecycle	Octane Testing/Fakes	no	none	L	S
Transparent IO hooks for curl, pgsql and file IO	Swoole runtime hooks, TrueAsync	partly: tcp/unix/TLS/sleep/select/flock; curl, libpq and file IO block	#81, #599, #600	M	L
Many concurrent requests per process	Swoole, Workerman, AMPHP, TrueAsync	main: partly (worker executor plus userland Revolt/ReactPHP, examples only, beta). async: fiber, 128 requests per child	async milestone	M	L
Built-in concurrent tasks and task-worker pool	Octane concurrently on Swoole, Swoole task(), webman	main: partly through amphp async() on the worker loop	none	L	M
Thread or process autoscaling	FrankenPHP max_threads auto, max_idle_time	no	none (fastcgi has dynamic/ondemand; http-direct is pm=static only)	L	M

Process management and reload

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
Zero-downtime reload. Main: partly. FastCGI children drain on SIGUSR2, selective reload, supervisor rolling restart. Missing: gateway drain, keeping the gateway listener across exec, safe reload	Octane octane:reload, RR rr reset, FrankenPHP admin API, Swoole SIGUSR1	no	#640, #641, #661	H	M
Docroot follows a symlinked current release (a bug in our gateway: realpath cached once)	FrankenPHP resolve_root_symlink (default on), nginx $realpath_root	no	#638	M	S
Crash backoff and max_consecutive_failures for request workers. Main has only the upstream emergency_restart_threshold (reload after SIGSEGV/SIGBUS)	FrankenPHP (default 6)	no (supervisor pools have backoff)	none	M	S
Connect and read timeout toward the FastCGI upstream	RR pool timeouts, nginx	no	#716	M	S
Run a job once from the CLI with the pool's environment	webman, Octane artisan	no	#655	M	S

HTTP features

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
X-Accel-Redirect / X-Sendfile	FrankenPHP (Caddy intercept), RR sendfile	no	#649	M	S
Static Range/206, Cache-Control, precompressed sidecars, per-pattern headers. Main already serves ETag/304/sendfile	Caddy file_server, RR static, Octane static_file_headers, Swoole	no	#648, #662	M	M
Response header directive (HSTS, CORS) and error pages	RR headers (incl. CORS), Caddy	no	#650 (does not cover CORS)	M	S
Host-based routing	Caddy, NGINX Unit	no	#658	M	S
RFC 7239 Forwarded header	RR proxy_ip_parser, amphp ForwardedMiddleware	no	none (#629 covers only X_Forwarded_* on the route hop)	L	S
Compression on the fly	Caddy, RR gzip, amphp CompressionMiddleware, Swoole	no	anti (zlib.output_compression and sidecars in #648)	M	M
Rate limiter. Main has a per-client connection cap	Hyperf, Caddy (third-party module)	no	anti	L	M
Streamed or very large request bodies (gateway buffers the whole body; http-direct is capped at 32 MiB)	FrankenPHP, RR, Swoole	no	decided against (task 031; spooling dropped in the wiki)	L	L

Protocols

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
WebSocket through the gateway. Native WS and SSE already exist on the http-direct worker (#343, #342)	Swoole, Workerman, Octane behind nginx, TrueAsync	no	#659	M	M
Cross-worker push and broadcast	Swoole push to any fd, FrankenPHP Mercure, RR Centrifuge	no	#191 not planned; hub is anti	M	L
HTTP/2 and HTTP/3	FrankenPHP, RR, Swoole, AMPHP, TrueAsync	no	anti (#69, #186-188)	M	L
PROXY protocol v1/v2	Caddy, HAProxy setups	no	#651	L	S
gRPC, raw TCP/UDP	RR, Swoole, Workerman, TrueAsync	no	anti	L	L

Observability

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
Readiness endpoint (503 while starting, draining, optionally all targets dead)	RR status plugin /ready	no	#646	M (target audience is not k8s)	S
systemd Type=notify and watchdog	upstream FPM	no	#643	M	S
Gateway access log with duration, upstream time, JSON and request id (http-direct already has access.format %d)	upstream FPM, RR, Caddy, Octane	no	#642	H	S
Request-duration histograms, listen queue, max_children_reached. Main has active/idle workers	Caddy duration histograms, FrankenPHP queue_depth/busy/ready, RR http_metrics	partly	#652, #644	M	S
X-Request-Id generate and propagate. traceparent is already forwarded as an ordinary header (docs only)	RR otel, Caddy	no	#642	M	S
Structured log API from PHP	FrankenPHP frankenphp_log() (1.11), RR app-logger	no	none	L	S
OPcache restart and loop-lag metrics	FrankenPHP opcache_restarts, OpenSwoole	no	none	L	S
Live TUI dashboard	rr workers; Ember (third-party, for Caddy/FrankenPHP)	no	none	L	M

Deploy and DX

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
Official multi-arch container images	FrankenPHP, RR, Swoole	no	#647	H	S
arm64 packages	FrankenPHP, RR, Swoole	no	#653	H	M
Getting-started page, migration guides, framework recipes (examples fixed in #639/#713)	FrankenPHP, Octane, RR docs	no	#645 (v0.14.0)	H	S
Zero-config dev server	FrankenPHP php-server, Octane octane:start, php -S	no	none	M	S
Single-file app executable	FrankenPHP embed, webman	no	#425, #429-431 (v0.15.0)	M	M
File watch and auto reload in development	FrankenPHP watch and hot reload, Octane --watch, swoole-bundle, AMPHP	no	anti in the C master; an external watcher recipe is allowed	M	S
Trusted local dev certificates	FrankenPHP trust	no	none	L	S
macOS and Windows. Ours: macOS from source for development only, Windows none	FrankenPHP (Windows since 1.12.0), Swoole (Windows in 6.3.0-rc1)	no	none	L	L
Public benchmark	FrankenPHP, RR	no	#656	M	M

Security, TLS and isolation

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
Automatic HTTPS as stable (ours is beta)	FrankenPHP/Caddy, RR ACME	no	#254, #657	M	M
Slow-client limits: response trickle on the gateway, and a body idle timeout	FrankenPHP request_body_timeout	no	#705	M	S
Namespaces and cgroups per app	NGINX Unit (archived)	no	anti (cgroup management)	L	M
On-demand TLS, DNS-01, OCSP	Caddy	no	anti	L	M

Background jobs and shared state

Feature	Who has it	async?	Issue	Value	Size
Shared-memory tables and cache	Swoole Table, Octane cache and tables, RR KV	no	anti (KV); APCu covers it, a docs note is enough	L	M
Queue brokers, Temporal, locks	RR, Hyperf	no	anti	L	L
Sub-minute timers. Main: partly (worker executor timers, supervisor loops)	Octane ticks, Swoole timers, Hyperf crontab	partly	none (cron has minute granularity)	L	S

Left out as trivial or out of scope:

• Go plugin and extension SDKs, Velox, the embeddable Go library.
• The custom Server header.
• Upload parsing in Go.
• ZTS thread mode.
• Arbitrary HTTP methods (libevent cannot do them; docs/http-direct.md).
• A writable control API (anti).

3. Where php-fpm-ng is ahead or unique

• Drop-in FPM: an unchanged index.php and FPM config run as before, and classic share-nothing is the default.
• Distribution libphp 8.5 NTS packages: no Go or Caddy, no ZTS, and the distribution's PHP security updates apply.
• Per-pool OS isolation: user/group, chroot, apparmor_hat, rlimit and clear_env.
• First-class cron pools: timezone and DST aware, jitter, expect_within staleness, history, stop signal.
• Supervisor pools: backoff and jitter, heartbeat staleness, max_memory/max_runtime, rolling restart.
• Selective reload of only the changed pools.
• Pool-full policy reject|wait: comparable to FrankenPHP max_wait_time. Ours adds a cap on the queue size and the X-Fpmng-Queue-Wait header.
• Application metrics from PHP: fpm_metric_* in shared memory, also from the CLI.
• mTLS with the client certificate in PHP (fpm_connection_info()), and ACME as a cron payload with one renewer for every gateway.
• One worker transport for many event loops: native WebSocket, SSE and streaming with backpressure, early hints, fpmng_respond(). Unmodified Revolt/amphp and ReactPHP run on it. This is beta.
• Mixed model in one daemon: FastCGI, gateway, http-direct classic or worker, cron and supervisor.

4. Top 10 recommendations, in priority order

1. Worker executor leave-beta pass. First replace the stale "#191" criterion in README. Then the Symfony Runtime / PSR-7 bridge with state-reset hooks (#660, #663). Fits main.
2. Official images and arm64 packages (#647, #653). Fits main.
3. Getting-started page, migration guides and framework recipes (#645). Examples are done (#639). Fits main.
4. Reload: safe reload, gateway drain, keep the listener (#640, #641, #661). FastCGI already drains; the gateway and broken configs are the gaps. Fits main.
5. Readiness path and sd_notify (#646, #643). Fits main.
6. Gateway access log, request id and histograms (#642, #652, #644), plus documenting that traceparent is already forwarded. Fits main.
7. X-Sendfile and static Range, Cache-Control and sidecars (#649, #648; decision #662 first). Fits main.
8. Zero-config dev server (new issue needed), plus an external file-watch recipe. Fits main.
9. Laravel Octane driver, after items 1 and 8 (anti until then). Separate package.
10. Public benchmark (#656). Fits main.

Next in line:

• Crash backoff for request-worker children (new issue needed). It is small and fixes a confirmed tight respawn loop.
• WebSocket through the gateway (#659).
• Upstream timeouts (#716) and slow-client limits (#705).
• Fiber IO coverage for curl and pgsql (#81). It stays on async until the io_hooks RFC lands (#599, #600).

Sources: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/php/frankenphp/main/docs/config.md, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/php/frankenphp/main/docs/metrics.md, https://docs.roadrunner.dev/docs/http/http, https://docs.roadrunner.dev/docs/http/proxy, https://gittrend.io/repo/alexandre-daubois/ember, GitHub releases (gh api) for every project listed. Local files: /Users/piotr.halas/work/crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng/README.md, /Users/piotr.halas/work/crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng/docs/http-direct.md, /Users/piotr.halas/work/crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng/docs/reload.md, /Users/piotr.halas/work/crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng/sapi/fpmng/fpm/fpm_children.c, /Users/piotr.halas/work/crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng/sapi/fpmng/fpm/fpm_conf.c, /Users/piotr.halas/work/crazy-goat/php-fpm-ng/examples/http-direct-worker/README.md, /tmp/fpmng-wiki-ro/Feature-Ideas-2026-10-03.md, /tmp/fpmng-async-ro/sapi/fpmng/fpm/fpm_pool_type_coop.c