RoadRunner is a high-performance PHP application server and process manager written in Go and powered with plugins.
RoadRunner addresses the limitations of traditional PHP deployment stacks like Nginx plus FPM by providing a unified, high-performance alternative. It works by running PHP applications within a Go-based server that manages worker processes, eliminating the overhead of spawning new PHP processes for each request. The server supports multiple protocols including HTTP/2, HTTP/3, and FastCGI, with built-in PSR-7 and PSR-17 compatibility. Beyond basic HTTP serving, the tool includes a plugin architecture that extends functionality to queue systems like RabbitMQ and Kafka, key-value stores such as Redis and Memcached, gRPC servers, OpenTelemetry observability, and workflow orchestration via Temporal.
RoadRunner suits teams running PHP applications that need better performance than traditional FPM setups and want to consolidate infrastructure. It works well for projects requiring queue processing, caching, metrics collection, or gRPC services, since these capabilities are built in rather than requiring separate services. The tool is production-ready and handles concerns like automatic TLS management, process lifecycle management with auto-restarts, and execution time limits. Organizations already invested in Go tooling or those seeking to reduce operational complexity by consolidating multiple services into a single application server will find it particularly valuable.
The project maintains active development with continuous integration testing and code coverage tracking. Contributions are welcomed through community channels including a Discord server for discussion and support.
