# Phalcon

High performance, full-stack PHP framework delivered as a C extension.

Repository: https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/phalcon
Homepage: https://phalcon.io
Language: PHP
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: phalcon, php, extension, php-extension, framework, phalcon-framework, ext-phalcon, phalcon-extension, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T23:16:55+00:00
Link (homepage): https://phalcon.io
Link (site_page): https://docs.phalcon.io/
Link (site_page): https://phalcon.io/en-us/about
Link (site_page): https://docs.phalcon.io/latest/installation
Link (site_page): https://phalcon.io/about

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 99, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5394, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 7, "gap_med": 4, "n_releases_24m": 24}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 10829, forks 1937 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:44.422984+00:00)

## What it is
Phalcon is a full-stack PHP web framework delivered as a compiled C extension (written in Zephir/C), exposing its functionality as PHP classes under the Phalcon namespace. It provides MVC/HMVC structure, an ORM with PHQL, dependency injection, routing, caching, and templating with very low overhead compared to interpreted PHP frameworks.

## Use cases
- build a high-performance PHP web application
- find the fastest PHP MVC framework
- PHP framework with low memory and CPU overhead
- build REST APIs in PHP with a micro or full-stack framework
- use an ORM with a SQL-like query language in PHP
- build multi-module PHP applications with dependency injection
- install a PHP framework as a C extension via PECL or PIE

## When to choose
- you need maximum performance and minimal resource usage from a PHP framework
- you want a full-stack MVC framework without writing C yourself
- you need an ORM, DI container, router, and templating bundled in one extension
- you are comfortable installing PHP extensions on your server

## When to avoid
- you need a pure-PHP framework that works on shared hosting without extension installation
- your team relies on a large ecosystem of Composer packages tightly coupled to Laravel/Symfony conventions
- you require support for PHP versions below 8.1
- you prefer frameworks with frequent major releases and very large community plugin ecosystems

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: active
- function: web-framework, orm, routing, templating, caching, middleware
- domain: web-development, backend, developer-tools
- platform: php, windows, bsd
- tags: php-extension, c-extension, zephir, mvc, hmvc, volt-template-engine, phql, high-performance, full-stack, dependency-injection, linux, macos, web-server

## Member repositories
- phalcon/cphalcon (main) score 99
- phalcon/phalcon-devtools (plugin) score 57

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.422984+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:17:38.464153+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:44.422984+00:00, sha b3ce310dd464)
  - homepage: https://phalcon.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:00.433849+00:00, sha 871bd6217100)
  - site_page: https://docs.phalcon.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:00.444350+00:00, sha 1145479d8ecb)
  - site_page: https://phalcon.io/en-us/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:00.446227+00:00, sha 70825fbe3b25)
  - site_page: https://docs.phalcon.io/latest/installation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:00.448176+00:00, sha f384ad18c9f4)
  - site_page: https://phalcon.io/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:00.450452+00:00, sha 49898c8d6cb4)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.