APC (PHP Opcode Cache)

Alternative PHP Cache, or APC, is a module for Apache servers that is employed to cache the output code of script applications. It is very useful for scripts with large source code and could speed up such a website up to 3 times. PHP sites are dynamic and whenever a visitor accesses a page, the script hooks up to a database in order to retrieve some content, after that the code is parsed and compiled before it's shown to the site visitor. If the output code doesn't change however, that's the case with websites that display the exact same content at all times, such actions result in unnecessary reading and writing. What APC does is that it caches the already compiled program code and delivers it any time visitors browse an Internet site, so the database does not need to be accessed and the code doesn't need to be parsed and compiled over and over again, which in turn minimizes the Internet site loading time. The module can be rather helpful for informational sites, blogs, portfolios, etcetera.