Supports all of the PHP MySQL extensions.

Little to no application changes are required, dependent on the required usage scenario.

Opens less connections to the MySQL server.

Less connections to MySQL mean less work for the MySQL server. In a client-server environment scaling the server is often more difficult than scaling the client. Multiplexing helps with horizontal scale-out (scale-by-client).

Pooling saves connection time.

Multiplexed connection: multiple user handles share the same network connection. Once opened, a network connection is cached and shared among multiple user handles. There is a 1:n relationship between internal network connection and user connection handles.

Persistent connection: a network connection is kept open at the end of the web request, if the PHP deployment model allows. Thus, subsequently web requests can reuse a previously opened connection. Like other resources, network connections are bound to the scope of a process. Thus, they can be reused for all web requests served by a process.