Short Answer

Use $this to refer to the current object. Use self to refer to the current class. In other words, use $this->member for non-static members, use self::$member for static members.

Full Answer

Here is an example of correct usage of $this and self for non-static and static member variables:

<?php
class X {
    private $non_static_member = 1;
    private static $static_member = 2;

    function __construct() {
        echo $this->non_static_member . ' '
           . self::$static_member;
    }
}

new X();
?>

Here is an example of incorrect usage of $this and self for non-static and static member variables:

<?php
class X {
    private $non_static_member = 1;
    private static $static_member = 2;

    function __construct() {
        echo self::$non_static_member . ' '
           . $this->static_member;
    }
}

new X();
?>

Here is an example of polymorphism with $this for member functions:

<?php
class X {
    function foo() {
        echo 'X::foo()';
    }

    function bar() {
        $this->foo();
    }
}

class Y extends X {
    function foo() {
        echo 'Y::foo()';
    }
}

$x = new Y();
$x->bar();
?>

Here is an example of suppressing polymorphic behaviour by using self for member functions:

<?php
class X {
    function foo() {
        echo 'X::foo()';
    }

    function bar() {
        self::foo();
    }
}

class Y extends X {
    function foo() {
        echo 'Y::foo()';
    }
}

$x = new Y();
$x->bar();
?>

The idea is that $this->foo() calls the foo() member function of whatever is the exact type of the current object. If the object is of type X, it thus calls X::foo(). If the object is of type Y, it calls Y::foo(). But with self::foo(), X::foo() is always called.

From http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10354489:

By http://board.phpbuilder.com/member.php?145249-laserlight

Depends on your priorities.

If performance is your absolute driving characteristic, then by all means use the fastest one. Just make sure you have a full understanding of the differences before you make a choice

• Unlike serialize() you need to add extra parameter to keep UTF-8 characters untouched: json_encode($array, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE) (otherwise it converts UTF-8 characters to Unicode escape sequences).
• JSON will have no memory of what the object's original class was (they are always restored as instances of stdClass).
• You can't leverage __sleep() and __wakeup() with JSON
• By default, only public properties are serialized with JSON. (in PHP>=5.4 you can implement JsonSerializable to change this behavior).
• JSON is more portable

And there's probably a few other differences I can't think of at the moment.

A simple speed test to compare the two

<?php

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

// Make a big, honkin test array
// You may need to adjust this depth to avoid memory limit errors
$testArray = fillArray(0, 5);

// Time json encoding
$start = microtime(true);
json_encode($testArray);
$jsonTime = microtime(true) - $start;
echo "JSON encoded in $jsonTime seconds\n";

// Time serialization
$start = microtime(true);
serialize($testArray);
$serializeTime = microtime(true) - $start;
echo "PHP serialized in $serializeTime seconds\n";

// Compare them
if ($jsonTime < $serializeTime) {
    printf("json_encode() was roughly %01.2f%% faster than serialize()\n", ($serializeTime / $jsonTime - 1) * 100);
}
else if ($serializeTime < $jsonTime ) {
    printf("serialize() was roughly %01.2f%% faster than json_encode()\n", ($jsonTime / $serializeTime - 1) * 100);
} else {
    echo "Impossible!\n";
}

function fillArray( $depth, $max ) {
    static $seed;
    if (is_null($seed)) {
        $seed = array('a', 2, 'c', 4, 'e', 6, 'g', 8, 'i', 10);
    }
    if ($depth < $max) {
        $node = array();
        foreach ($seed as $key) {
            $node[$key] = fillArray($depth + 1, $max);
        }
        return $node;
    }
    return 'empty';
}