What are differences between PECL and PEAR?

PECL: PECL is a PHP expansion pack or in other words, a PHP Extension Community Library. But unlike others, it does not belong to PHP basic extension scope. It is nothing but a way to use C or C++ to generate an external module that is loaded into PHP. All extensions are needed to be installed which appear as Dynamic Link Libraries under Windows and then compiled separately under another operating system (Linux), in the form of code written in C language and in accordance with the official PHP standard. The source code is open source but is not available for change to the common users at their will. The homepage of pecl.php.net. PECL is used for providing a series of known extensions written in languages other than PHP such as C++ which are in the form of Dynamic Link Libraries. It is much faster than PEAR but it is mandatory for PECL to configure the whole code on the server and then register to the host.

PEAR: PEAR is a script level language that is older than PHP. PHP has borrowed PEAR from its section of regular expressions. It is the top extension of PHP whereas, on the other hand, PECL is the underlying extension of PHP. PEAR includes the official open-source class library for PHP. It stands for PHP Extension and Application Repository. The main function of PEAR is to write the common functions of a PHP program development into a library of classes.

It operates mainly on the components such as page face, database access, file operation, data structure, network protocol, caching operation and many more. These are the components that can be easily used by common users. PEAR can be used as an application of a code warehouse and can also be called as PHP cpan. The homepage of PEAR is pear.php.net. It provides ready-made functions or classes for some particular applications. PEAR can also be considered as a written comparison specification. In PHP, it is considered as a popular foreign Toolbox, containing a set of codes.