View Poll Results: Zend or ionCube

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  • Zend

    25 67.57%
  • ionCube

    12 32.43%
Results 1 to 18 of 18

Thread: Zend or ionCube

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
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    United Kingdom
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    39

    Question Zend or ionCube

    Well i think i mite need a encoder for some scripts such as modern bill, which is best, faster, less hassle free, and whats your views if any at all,

    would you bother installing such device?
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  2. #2
    well for me zend is a must and i like it, installing is easy and lots of clients ask for it.

    so i go for zend, and never had any problem with it my self.

    but this is me only
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  3. #3
    There are two pieces of software that are involved with this. There is an Encoder, Loader/Optimizer and then there is an Accelerator.

    IonCube offers a free Accelerator and loaders. You can increase your PHP script execution as well as run IonCube encoded files without any additional costs.

    Zend offers a free Optimizer. This is not to be confused with an Accelerator. It optimizes the code and allows you to run Zend encoded files. In order to also accelerate php script execution you need to purchase Zend Accelerator. The cheapest I found this for was $295 yearly per CPU, per server with no support or updates included.

    Now if you would like to get the best of both worlds using Zend Optimizer and IonCube Accelerator, you can forget that. They are not compatible.

    Also worthy to mention is the fact that Zend Optimizer and Accelerator together will clearly surpass the performance of the IonCube equivalents.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Vancouver, Canada
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    760
    IonCube is significantly cheaper though..... (for the encoder)
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  5. #5
    Originally posted by codywatkins
    IonCube is significantly cheaper though..... (for the encoder)
    The Encoder from IonCube is significantly cheaper. Add that to the fact you can get the IonCube loaders and Accelerator for free and it's a nice package.

    Zend does have propietory advantages since they wrote PHP. When PHP 5 comes out Zend will already be compatible (obviously) whereas IonCube will likely have some work to do.

    Zend will always be better, faster and more current then IonCube but you certainly pay for that advantage in using Zend's solutions...

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Posts
    551
    Just thought I might mention Turck MMCache's Encoder.

    turck-mmcache.sourceforge.net/#encoder

    its GPL software. and their cache seems mighty fast.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Harrogate UK
    Posts
    14

    Re: Zend or ionCube

    Originally posted by Felxi

    would you bother installing such device?
    A lot of customers ask for an encoder, most ask for the Ioncube as they can encode their scripts by uploading to ioncubes server for a reasonable amount.
    Some commercial scripts need it and you may need it yourself if you are coding as well.
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  8. #8
    Originally posted by ambirex
    Just thought I might mention Turck MMCache's Encoder.

    turck-mmcache.sourceforge.net/#encoder

    its GPL software. and their cache seems mighty fast.
    Wow - thanks for posting this. I had researched IonCube and Zend but only heard of MMCache and dismissed it as probably something not 'good enough'. I specifically was looking at a low cost alternative to encoding and was going to use IonCube. But I decided to check out the site because of your post and it really impressed me with what they promise - now the real test is to actually use it. If it is comparable to Zend then I would much ratther have free

    Does anyone have any experience using both MMCache and Zend and provide feedback?

  9. #9
    I don't think Zend plays well with others. I know it doesnt play well with IonCube but with MMCache I don't know.

    What would you need Zend and MMCache for though?

  10. #10
    Sorry - I wasn't clear. I was looking for people who have had experience with both software packages - but not used at the same time. I have no need to run Zend and MMCache concurrently. I was just looking for experiences and preferences between the two.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    2,677
    I prefer Zend, but as Watcher stated it does not always play well with others. Luckily I have only ran into that issue once and was able to find a workaround.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
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    291
    Originally posted by rokamortis
    Sorry - I wasn't clear. I was looking for people who have had experience with both software packages - but not used at the same time. I have no need to run Zend and MMCache concurrently. I was just looking for experiences and preferences between the two.
    I've been using MMCache for some time, and it's really great. There are some benchmarks where MMCache (free and open source) was outperforming Zend ($$$). Take a look at http://turck-mmcache.sourceforge.net/

    As it usually happens in these cases, the guys from Zend hired the MMCache main developer, and I don't think there's going to be any update soon....

    For more info about what happened: http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.p...orum_id=236228

    For current PHP versions, however, MMCache is still the best option out there IMO (considering price and performance).

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Posts
    98
    Originally posted by Watcher_TVI
    ...Zend does have propietory advantages since they wrote PHP. When PHP 5 comes out Zend will already be compatible (obviously) whereas IonCube will likely have some work to do.

    Zend will always be better, faster and more current then IonCube but you certainly pay for that advantage in using Zend's solutions...
    I don't think I would describe Zend as having "proprietary advantages." That would only be true if their source code was proprietary, and no one had direct access to its internals. The source is openly available, making it possible to develop plugins for it.

    I also wouldn't agree on the "better, faster" part. Again, since the PHP source is publicly available, better and faster is up to the skills of the individual or team developing the plugins to work within its application framework. And there's nothing preventing those skills from being acquired outside of Zend corporate (in fact, any attempts at preventing such competition on Zend's part could place them under the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission).

    On the other hand, you are absolute correct that Zend is in complete control of the direction which the language takes (the upcoming version 5 is such an example). So they will be the first to support any new language extensions and internals.


    I was looking at both IonCube and Source Guardian. After running the evaluation of Source Guardian 2, I found that some things that I encoded with it would not run when installed on another system (the correct Source Guardian 2 loader for the OS & PHP version was installed, and I verified this with their testing application). Another issue that I had with Source Guardian (outside of the plain source verses bit code issue) is that they only support 3 operating systems. IonCube supports 7 operating systems and costs less then Source Guardian (in fact, $100.00 less for the month or March).

    I just purchased IonCube a few days ago. It's nice, and I was able to compile a rather large and complex project and found it to run just fine (and with no speed differences). Something that I found a little disconcerting was that they issue a run time key tied to your network card. So if you are developing on a leased server, and then move it onto a different server (or if the network card is changed), you need to obtain a different run time key for the new hardware.

    On the plus side, IonCube runs at the command line. So you can set up an application to be distributed, and compile it specifically for the distribution/purchase/etc. So if you want to embed installation/sale specific information, it is quite easy to do.

    Tim

    PS, the BBS is setup so that you need to have posted 5 times before you can include URLs

    I had included these to show the operating systems supported between Source Guardian and IonCube. I'm hoping that the board's configuration will allow these, if I don't use the BBCodes for it.

    ...

    No, it won't, so unfortrunately I'm not able to include those page references for you. *sigh*


    www dot sourceguardian dot com/ixeds/index dot htm

    www dot ioncube dot com/loader_download dot php
    Last edited by Ishtaria; 03-09-2004 at 11:26 AM.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Ishtaria
    I don't think I would describe Zend as having "proprietary advantages." That would only be true if their source code was proprietary, and no one had direct access to its internals. The source is openly available, making it possible to develop plugins for it.

    I also wouldn't agree on the "better, faster" part. Again, since the PHP source is publicly available, better and faster is up to the skills of the individual or team developing the plugins to work within its application framework. And there's nothing preventing those skills from being acquired outside of Zend corporate (in fact, any attempts at preventing such competition on Zend's part could place them under the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission).

    On the other hand, you are absolute correct that Zend is in complete control of the direction which the language takes (the upcoming version 5 is such an example). So they will be the first to support any new language extensions and internals.
    We'll have to agree to disagree then. Since Zend has the most current up-to-date information on the direction PHP will go that certainly does give them a proprietary advantage. Granted it's not for a long period of time but that advantage most certainly assures that everyone else is playing 'catch-up' while Zend develops their Optimizer and Accelerator with the future PHP releases in mind. Everyone else must develop on what's currently available.

    I'm certainly not knocking IonCube, I think they have a great product and for the masses using a free product as opposed to paying for Zend's products will give IonCube a big market share I would think.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Chicago, Illinois
    Posts
    112
    I've used IonCube, and never really had any problems with it.
    John Kata

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Vancouver Island, BC
    Posts
    173
    I've run Zend and Turck MMCache together just fine.

    Zend and IonCube are another story altogether, they don't work well together.
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  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    79
    As it usually happens in these cases, the guys from Zend hired the MMCache main developer, and I don't think there's going to be any update soon....
    Way to ruin my day...

    I was wondering why MMCache hadn't been updated in a while. I had chalked it up to no new PHP release.

  18. #18
    I run MMcache, great program for free, seem to run well with Zend for me.

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