Maybe you're using that name because you're accustomed to, but as a standard you should be using proxy_fcgi with Apache. Should squeeze out a bit of extra memory out of Apache and leave room for more PHP requests.
> should be using proxy_fcgi with Apache
I'd in general use Nginx instead of Apache, until .htaccess handling is needed - which is still a thing in shared hosting and around area mostly from my perspective - if you really care about "squeeze out a bit of extra memory" of course.
[1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/plugins/servlet/mobile?c...
> Why you shouldn't use mod_php with the prefork mpm anymore
>
> mod_php is loaded into every httpd process all the time. Even when httpd is serving static/non php content, that memory is in use.
> mod_php is not thread safe and forces you to stick with the prefork mpm (multi process, no threads), which is the slowest possible configuration
I probably very biased here - I silently imply it's a Nginx in front of Apache in 99.9% cases - so serving static files and long-living connections is not a problem with mpm_prefork [for setups and system administration around me].