If you want fast, build a static site. If you're iterating on your builds and doing something non-trivial, pick your tools carefully but don't be afraid to try new things.
As of PHP7... it actually is quicker than other languages in it's domain.
They've made some impressive gains in PHP7 that others should take note of. Ruby's particularly out of shape here compared to the competition, though Python isn't exactly a speed demon either.
See an older counter-point with the much slower PHP 5.5:
https://philsturgeon.uk/php/2013/11/12/benchmarking-codswall...
For anything with a server-side component, PHP might be fast if you know a lot about how to get PHP up and running properly.
Node, as a counter-example, runs on Windows and POSIX systems indifferently, and with very little effort can be a self-hosted web server for development that can be deployed to production almost effortlessly.
If you have a favorite hosting provider which better supports some tools than others, certain things will be faster, but that's because of preference and familiarity rather than any factual differences.
Getting WAMP or whatever configured and installed, or loading the PHP module into Apache or Nginx and getting that working is a giant pain in the ass compared to either of those two things, even if you've done it a dozen times before.