Here are my top 4 PECL extensions I couldn’t live without:

1. Xdebug

When you really need to know what’s going on nothing beats Xdebug. As well as debug information this extension helps profile PHP scripts so they can be optimised.

2. APC.

The Alternative PHP Cache (APC) is an opcode cache. It caches the intermediate code that is created after PHP parses your file making the next request faster by removing the parse step. It’s an easy way to get extra speed when you need it.

3. memcache

The memcache extension allows you to work with memcached to store objects in memory. This allows you to decrease the load on your database.

4. PDO

PDO has been part of PHP since 5.1 but sadly some Linux distro’s don’t include it. The extension provides a uniform API for accessing different database backends, something PERL and Python have had for a while.

What PECL extensions can’t you live without?