# php-rdkafka/php-rdkafka

Production-ready, stable Kafka client for PHP

Repository: https://github.com/php-rdkafka/php-rdkafka
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/php-rdkafka
Homepage: https://php-rdkafka.github.io/php-rdkafka-doc/
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: kafka-client, php, kafka, php-extension
Last push: 2026-07-01T19:45:48+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 90, release rhythm 40, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4174, "days_push": 63, "days_rel": 667, "gap_med": 10, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2181, forks 275 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:23.310589+00:00)

## What it is
php-rdkafka is a stable, production-ready PHP extension binding to librdkafka for Apache Kafka. It provides low-level and high-level producer, consumer, and metadata APIs for producing and consuming Kafka messages from PHP applications.

## Use cases
- produce messages to kafka from php
- consume kafka topics in php
- build event-driven php applications with kafka
- stream data between services using kafka
- php kafka producer and consumer client
- integrate kafka messaging into a php backend

## When to choose
- your PHP application needs a fast, battle-tested Kafka client
- you want a low-level, un-opinionated librdkafka binding with long-term support
- you need both high-level and low-level consumer/producer APIs
- you run PHP 8.x with modern librdkafka and Kafka brokers

## When to avoid
- you use a language other than PHP
- you need a pure-PHP client without compiling a C extension
- you use a message broker other than Kafka
- you need PHP 5 support on the latest version

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: message-queue, database-driver, streaming
- domain: microservices, backend, developer-tools
- platform: php, windows, cross-platform
- tags: kafka, librdkafka, php-extension, event-streaming, producer-consumer, messaging, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- php-rdkafka/php-rdkafka (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:23.310589+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 2026-08-30T02:48:41.724837+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/php-rdkafka/php-rdkafka (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:23.310589+00:00, sha 5b27355d3389)
  - homepage: https://php-rdkafka.github.io/php-rdkafka-doc/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:28:29.482405+00:00, sha bdc8e90937f9)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.