Is this a good method to include ??

Hi there to day I used SSI to include my template html that usually used for every page. but it so slow. I think php is better for this ,is it ? I don't know how to include it ,but only method that I can do is use file() function to read from my template and echo() each line for out put What do you think about my method ?? I can't use include() or require() because if I do that I have to put all my html template in variable . Thanks Tongdee