Phalcon is a web framework written as an extension PHP seeking to improve the performance, taking advantage of low-level resources that no other traditional framework can take. Phalcon is a full stack framework, also providing a Micro approach, a template engine called Volt, the first ODM and ORM for PHP written in Zephir/C and many other components that ease the life of developers when creating web applications. Initial versions of Phalcon were created using C directly as main language. Given the framework success many developers were willing to help, however it required C knowledge and PHP internals expertise, this made it difficult for them the possibility of help. Since Phalcon 2, we started using Zephir, a brand new, high-level and compiled language created by the core team, that made our collaborators can help out easier to our project making it robust and stable. Best of all, Zephir allows the easy creation of extensions for both PHP5 and PHP7. An extension can sometimes improve performance, reduce overall memory and processor usage and protect intelectual property. The talk will be about the project evolution, Phalcon 3 as framework and the advantages of using Zephir for building extensions, also success cases and best practices in terms of performance.