Surge
Surge is a very simple and fast page caching plugin for WordPress.
Solid choice
Surge is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 4K+ sites, is rated 4.9/5 and was last updated 5 months ago, and scores 74/100 on our health check.
- Loved by users — 4.9/5 from 31 reviews
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 Surge stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| cache | >100 |
| caching | #40 |
| performance | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 from 31 reviews
About Surge
From the official readme · v1.2.1Description
Surge generates and serves static HTML files for your WordPress site, causing quicker requests, faster load times and a shorter time to first byte (TTFB).
Surge does not require configuration, and has no options. It works out of the box on any well-configured hosting platform. Cached files are stored on disk, and automatically invalidated when your site is updated.
In various load tests, Surge has shown to easily handle 1000-2500 requests per second at 100 concurrent, on a small single-core server with only 1 GB of RAM. That’s over 70 times faster than a stock WordPress install.
Installation
Via the WordPress Dashboard: navigate to Plugins – Add New. In the search bar type “surge” and hit Enter. Find the Surge plugin in the search results, hit Install, then Activate.
Manually: download the Surge plugin .zip file from WordPress.org. In your WordPress admin navigate to Plugins – Add New – Upload. Select the .zip file and hit Upload. Activate the plugin after upload is successful.
Manually via FTP: download the Surge plugin .zip file from WordPress.org, extract the archive, make sure the directory is called “surge”. Use your FTP/SFTP client to upload the “surge” directory to wp-content/plugins. Then activate the plugin in your WordPress admin from the Plugins section.
Using WP-CLI: wp plugin install surge –activate
Frequently asked questions
Where is the plugin configuration screen?
There isn’t one.
How do I clear the cache?
Toggle the plugin activation or run wp surge flush using WP-CLI.
Is my cache working?
Visit the Site Health screen under Tools in your WordPress dashboard. Common caching errors, like installation problems, etc. will appear there. Otherwise, open your site in an Incognito window to see the cached version. You could also look for the “X-Cache” header in the server response.
Why am I getting cache misses?
Below are a few common reasons: You are logged into your WordPress site You have a unique cookie set in your browser A unique query parameter will also cause a cache miss, except common marketing parameters, such as utm_campaign, etc. Request methods outside of GET and HEAD are not cached
Can I exclude page X from being cached?
Of course. If you pass a “Cache-Control: no-cache” header (or max-age=0) the request will automatically be excluded from cache. Note that most WordPress plugins will already do this where necessary.
fpassthru() has been disabled for security reasons
It seems like your hosting provider disabled the fpassthru() function, likely by mistake. You can use the fpassthru_alt configuration option for compatibility with such hosts.
How can I support Surge?
If you like Surge, consider giving us a star on GitHub and a review on WordPress.org.
Changelog
1.2.1
- Bug fix in SURGE_ config constants
- Add support for SURGE_CONFIG_CALLBACK
1.2.0
- Added fpassthru_alt configuration option for compatibility with hosts that do not support fpassthru
- Added the cache status to the event system
- Added a CLI status command
- Added support for SURGE_ configuration constants
- Updated ignore_query_vars
1.1.0
- Improved Multisite compatibility
- Fixed occasional stat() warnings in cleanup routines
- Fixed expiration by path being too broad
- Added a filter for flush actions
- Feature: added a simple events system for s-maxage and stale-while-revalidate support
1.0.5
- Fix woocommerce_product_title compatibility
- Honor DONOTCACHEPAGE constant
- Use built-in is_ssl() WordPress function for better compatibility
1.0.4
- Add a WP-CLI command to invalidate/flush page cache
- Fix redirect loop with Core’s redirect_canonical for ignore_query_vars
- Fix warnings for requests with empty headers
- Fix warnings when cron cleanup attempts to read a file that no longer exists
- Add a filter to disable writing to wp-config.php
1.0.3
- Invalidate cache when posts_per_page is changed
- Fix redirect loop with unknown query vars caused by Core’s redirect_canonical
- Ignore X-Cache and X-Powered-By headers from cache metadata
- Allow multiple headers with the same name
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 Surge alternatives
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FAQ
Surge: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 27, 2026
Is Surge free?
Yes. Surge is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Surge safe to use in 2026?
Surge is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 4K+ sites, is rated 4.9/5 and was last updated 5 months ago, and scores 74/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Surge?
Surge is active on 4K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 50,401 times since it launched in December 2021. It was downloaded 782 times in the last 30 days.
Does Surge work with WordPress 7.1?
Surge is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.6, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
What PHP version does Surge need?
Surge requires PHP 7.3 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Surge last updated?
The latest version, 1.2.1, was released on May 6, 2026 (5 months ago).
Who makes Surge?
Surge is developed and maintained by Konstantin Kovshenin.
What are the best alternatives to Surge?
The most popular alternatives to Surge are WP Super Cache (1M+ installs), WP Fastest Cache (1M+ installs) and WP-Optimize (1M+ installs).
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