Azul Zulu vs Zend PHP Engine comparison

Azul Systems and Zend are both solutions in the Application Infrastructure category. Azul Systems is ranked #11, while Zend is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.5. Azul Systems holds a 3.7% mindshare in AIS, compared to Zend’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azul Systems users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zend users who would recommend it.

Azul Zulu

Read 2 Azul Zulu reviews

711 Views
675 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Zend PHP Engine

Read 11 Zend PHP Engine reviews

496 Views
496 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azul Zulu

Zend PHP Engine

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azul Zulu and Zend PHP Engine based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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January 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Azul Zulu

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

11th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Customer Experience Personalization (21st), AI Content Creation (58th)

Zend PHP Engine

Ranking in Application Infrastructure

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Azul Zulu is 3.7%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zend PHP Engine is 1.7%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azul Zulu	3.7%
Zend PHP Engine	1.7%
Other	94.6%

Application Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

BasilJiji

System Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

Standardized our Java estate and have reduced licensing costs while maintaining strong support

Azul Zulu's ability to allow us to standardize our Java estate on a single and well-supported platform stands out as one of its best features. This standardization simplifies our compliance audits and ensures all our applications receive timely security updates.Azul Zulu positively impacts our organization by providing a platform that allows us to standardize Java on a well-supported platform. Without the high cost associated with other proprietary vendors, Azul Zulu provides an excellent platform for running our applications.

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SatyendraGupta

External Consultant (Digital Tool Developer and Intervention Specialist) at IQVIA

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature. A general scripting language should be further developed and should be embedded into it. I have been Zend PHP Engine for nine years. Multiple people are using the solution. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We achieved specific outcomes from using Azul Zulu by reducing our Java licensing and support costs by approximately 70% when compared to our previous Oracle contract."

"The cache modules that Zend provides have been able to optimize and accelerate the loading of the pages when there was exponential growth in data volume and quantity of requests. At the same time, the monitoring console allowed us to have a real-time understanding of the resources and to make decisions when they were at the limit."

"We have not encountered issues with scalability as long as we effectively use caching to optimize performance of our web applications as well as a proper use of database connectivity."

"Zend PHP Engine is more secure than any other framework, and I usually prefer Zend PHP Engine for big applications."

"The Zend Framework provides an easy, open source way to produce coding based on the needs of our customers."

"Zend Engine gives the flexibility to use external modules to easily expand the functionalities you need for your web project."

"The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature."

"Offers a complete environment to develop PHP applications. It is valuable because it allows you to have a complete stack (PHP, MySQL, Zend Server) enabling the building of a development environment, and to deploy to the production system."

"Faster web app implementation, when PHP dev is required by customers."

More Zend PHP Engine pros

Cons

"Improvements for Azul Zulu could include more automated tools for unused code visibility integrated directly into the standard portal to help further optimize our cloud footprints."

"Its object oriented programming language needs improvement."

"The biggest problem with PHP is you have to write lot of conditions or have to use a framework."

"Integration of MVC with ORM tools for PHP is okay, but lacking a short list of decent ORM tools for PHP to choose from; there is ample room for improvement in both areas."

"Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features."

"The process of installing and configuring the product is a bit complex and could be improved."

"SQL queries have always been an issue with PHP, especially if you use large tables, which require caution from the side of the developer."

"Zend PHP Engine needs to improve the loading time of its libraries and make it faster."

"The main area that Zend needs to improve is to support asynchronous programming tasks, which is facilitated in PHP 7, but not at the same degree as HHVM."

More Zend PHP Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Its pricing depends on the number of users."

"Zend PHP Engine is not an expensive solution."

"The Zend PHP engine is open source technology, so there's no need for us to worry about licensing or other costs."

"No problem with pricing and licensing, as tools are open source. You have to consider training cost, mindset setup cost, as part of the TCO."

"The solution is open source and you just pay for the server cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

30%

Retailer

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Real Estate/Law Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Azul Zulu?

Improvements for Azul Zulu could include more automated tools for unused code visibility integrated directly into the standard portal to help further optimize our cloud footprints. The other core J...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azul Zulu?

Azul Zulu serves as our primary Java runtime, providing a stable, 100% open-source, and certified solution for our production microservices. We utilize it to ensure cross-platform compatibility acr...

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What advice do you have for others considering Azul Zulu?

My advice for others looking into using Azul Zulu is to perform a pilot migration with one non-critical application first. You will likely find that it is truly a drop-in replacement, which will gi...

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What do you like most about Zend PHP Engine?

The fact that it is available open-source is the best feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zend PHP Engine?

PHP is an open-source solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zend PHP Engine?

Integrating AI tools would make PHP more competitive, as other tools already have AI features.

See all answers

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Compared 58% of the time

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Compared 42% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

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Also Known As

No data available

PHP Engine

Overview

Zulu is a 100% open source certified build of OpenJDK, running on Linux, Windows, and OS X. Zulu complies with the Java SE standard for Java SE 8, 7, and 6. Free to download and use, Zulu is available on Azure, AWS, Canonical’s Charm Store and the Docker hub. Zulu Enterprise subscriptions deliver 24 x 7 x 365 access to Azul’s Support team.

Azul Systems

The Zend PHP Engine is designed to optimize PHP code and improve performance, making it a popular choice for web developers. It is easy to use, stable, does not require a lot of code, is open source, and only requires payment for server costs. The initial setup is straightforward, and there is no real need to set up the solution because it's built into the deployment.

Zend

Sample Customers

Microsoft, Kyocera, OKI, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Voya Financial

Cisco

Buyer's Guide

Application Infrastructure

January 2026

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