diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index ae11ba6f9..095fa0e87 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ parking_lot = { version = "0.12.3", features = ["arc_lock"] }
 cfg-if = "1.0"
 once_cell = "1.21"
 anyhow = { version = "1", optional = true }
+smartstring = { version = "1", optional = true }
 ext-php-rs-derive = { version = "=0.11.6", path = "./crates/macros" }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
@@ -49,6 +50,7 @@ default = ["enum", "runtime"]
 closure = []
 embed = []
 anyhow = ["dep:anyhow"]
+smartstring = ["dep:smartstring"]
 enum = []
 runtime = ["bindgen/runtime"]
 static = ["bindgen/static"]
diff --git a/src/types/string.rs b/src/types/string/mod.rs
similarity index 99%
rename from src/types/string.rs
rename to src/types/string/mod.rs
index fd88ccd3c..ebbc19a6f 100644
--- a/src/types/string.rs
+++ b/src/types/string/mod.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 //! Represents a string in the PHP world. Similar to a C string, but is
 //! reference counted and contains the length of the string.
 
+#[cfg(feature = "smartstring")]
+mod smartstring_impl;
+
 use std::{
     borrow::Cow,
     convert::TryFrom,
diff --git a/src/types/string/smartstring_impl.rs b/src/types/string/smartstring_impl.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8db43235e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/types/string/smartstring_impl.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+use super::{DataType, FromZval, IntoZval, Result, Zval};
+use smartstring::{LazyCompact, SmartString};
+
+impl<M: smartstring::SmartStringMode> IntoZval for SmartString<M> {
+    const TYPE: DataType = DataType::String;
+    const NULLABLE: bool = false;
+
+    fn set_zval(self, zv: &mut Zval, persistent: bool) -> Result<()> {
+        zv.set_string(self.as_str(), persistent)
+    }
+}
+
+impl FromZval<'_> for SmartString<LazyCompact> {
+    const TYPE: DataType = DataType::String;
+
+    fn from_zval(zval: &Zval) -> Option<Self> {
+        zval.str().map(SmartString::from)
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+#[cfg(feature = "embed")]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use crate::convert::FromZval;
+    use crate::embed::Embed;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_smartstring_from_zval() {
+        Embed::run(|| {
+            let result = Embed::eval("'hello smartstring';");
+            assert!(result.is_ok());
+
+            let zval = result.as_ref().unwrap();
+            let smart: Option<SmartString<LazyCompact>> = FromZval::from_zval(zval);
+            assert_eq!(smart, Some(SmartString::from("hello smartstring")));
+        });
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_smartstring_into_zval() {
+        Embed::run(|| {
+            let smart: SmartString<LazyCompact> = SmartString::from("test string");
+            let zval = smart.into_zval(false).unwrap();
+
+            assert!(zval.is_string());
+            assert_eq!(zval.str(), Some("test string"));
+        });
+    }
+}