Smart Varnish
Smart Varnish A simple plugin to bypass varnish caching for logged in users and serve uncached content.
Consider an alternative
Smart Varnish shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 10 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 10 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.6 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Smart Varnish stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| varnish | >100 |
| varnish bypass | #75 |
| varnish cache | >100 |
| varnish caching | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews
About Smart Varnish
From the official readme · v1.0.2Description
Smart Varnish A simple plugin to bypass varnish caching for logged in users and serve uncached content.
Useful for websites that don’t want to serve cached content for logged in users and at the same time want to serve cached content to guests.
NOTE: This plugin requires knowledge of varnish caching and server administration, it will not work out of the box. We cannot guarantee it will work in every scenario and recommend usage with discretion.
Please follow the tutorial here.
Installation
- Install Smart Varnish either via the WordPress.org plugin directory, or by uploading the files to your server.
- Activate Smart Varnish through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- There are no settings. Make sure that you edit your varnish configurations files and restart varnish server.
Add the following lines of code to vcl_recv in default VCL configuration file.
if( req.request == "POST" || req.http.cookie ~ "smart_varnish_bypass" )
{
return( pass );
}
Warning: If you don’t have the expertise to edit the varnish configurations its better to hire some help as you could damage your server irreparably.
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best Smart Varnish alternatives
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FAQ
Smart Varnish: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 16, 2026
Is Smart Varnish free?
Yes. Smart Varnish is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Smart Varnish safe to use in 2026?
Smart Varnish shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 10 years ago, and scores 30/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Smart Varnish?
Smart Varnish is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 2,055 times since it launched in October 2014. It was downloaded 30 times in the last 30 days.
Does Smart Varnish work with WordPress 7.1?
Smart Varnish is officially tested up to WordPress 4.6.0, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Smart Varnish last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.2, was released on August 30, 2016 (10 years ago).
Who makes Smart Varnish?
Smart Varnish is developed and maintained by Smartpixels.
What are the best alternatives to Smart Varnish?
The most popular alternatives to Smart Varnish are Proxy Cache Purge (50K+ installs), CLP Varnish Cache (10K+ installs) and Purge Varnish Cache (1K+ installs).
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