Active Records Performance vs Raw Queries

From what I've seen, the performance loss is minimal unless you're running systems where every .001 seconds counts.

Orms usually take more heat for being slow. While I personally think that most people who claim ORM's are slow are people who don't optimize queries within the orm itself, raw php sql queries will always be quicker.

Unless you're trying to squeeze every microsecond of performance out of your app and you've already combed through every other piece of code to speed things up, you should be fine using active record. I wouldn't switch away from active record for performance unless I've deeply optimized my front end, my back end code, my server OS, and other PHP configs.

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