Varnish WordPress
This is a plugin for wordpress to intergrate the varnish cache for high performance websites.
Consider an alternative
Varnish WordPress shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 70+ sites and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 25/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (70+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 8 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 4.9 (latest is 7.1)
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Varnish WordPress stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| High Performance WordPress | >100 |
| varnish cache | >100 |
| Varnish WordPress | >100 |
| wordpress cache | >100 |
| WordPress Varnish | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Varnish WordPress
From the official readme · v1.7Description
This is a plugin for wordpress to intergrate the varnish cache for high performance websites.
This plugin will purge the cache on,
- Post changes (new, edit, trash, delete).
- Page changes (add, edit, remove)
- Comment changes (add, edit, approve, unapprove, spam, trash, delete)
- Theme changes
Features
At present some of the features are,
- Multiple varnish backends
- Manually purge the cache
- Enable/Disable Feed Purging
- Ability to purge entire cache on changes
- Debug logging
- Minimize number of purges and remove duplicate purges for speed on larger installations
- Supports varnish 4 + 5
- Support for Woocommerce
Speed
Our tests show that by utilizing varnish you gain a ~70x capacity increase over standard WordPress making you resistant to traffic floods (slashdot, digg, reddit, stumbleupon).
Installation
To install the WordPress plugin.
- Get the latest version from https://www.admingeekz.com/files/varnish-wordpress.zip
- Copy the varnish-wordpress folder to wp-content/plugins/
- Login to wp-admin
- Go to Plugins->Installed Plugins on the left menu
- Under “Varnish WordPress” click “Activate”
- You should now see the varnish menu under “Settings”
To install the varnish VCL.
- Copy the file “default.vcl” provided with this plugin to your varnish installation path (/etc/varnish/default.vcl on most systems)
- Configure the backend in the default.vcl to point to the ip and port your webserver(s) are running on
- Restart varnish
To configure the WordPress plugin
- In the varnish backends box input the backends we need to access to purge the cache. (Format: ip:port)
- Check the enabled box
- Click Save
The setup should be complete. You can enable Debug Logging temporarily to monitor what the plugin is doing. Test by enabling debug logging and adding a new post.
Changelog
Now available via the WordPress plugin directory
1.7
- Verified support with latest wordpress 4.9
- Added woocommerce support
1.6
- Added better HTTPS support
- Added varnish 4 and varnish 5 VCL’s
- Fixed purging of all
- Fixed enabling/disabling of plugin
- Added extra debug logging
- Show last logs and server headers when debug log is enabled
1.5
- Introduce support for separate wp-admin backend to allow for longer timeouts
- Add comments/support to default varnish config for multiple domains/subdomains and SSL
- Bugfix: the timeout for backends was not processed so defaulted to 0 seconds
- Bugfix: typo in the error reporting when unable to connect to a backend
- Bugfix: default styling for checkboxes was malformed in certain themes
1.4
- Updating readme, screenshots and installation documents to package and list as a plugin in the WordPress directory
1.3
- Processing purges on shutdown to prevent duplicates
- Reintroduced transition status hook
- Purge on theme change
- Moved to github
1.2
- Added disable feed purge option
- Added purge all option
- Added manual purge option
- Fixed a bug where the cache would not clear if you had wordpress in a subdirectory
- Minor text and formatting bug fixes
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.
FAQ
Varnish WordPress: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 16, 2026
Is Varnish WordPress free?
Yes. Varnish WordPress is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Varnish WordPress safe to use in 2026?
Varnish WordPress shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 70+ sites and was last updated 9 years ago, and scores 25/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Varnish WordPress?
Varnish WordPress is active on 70+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 4,768 times since it launched in October 2013. It was downloaded 72 times in the last 30 days.
Does Varnish WordPress work with WordPress 7.1?
Varnish WordPress is officially tested up to WordPress 4.9.34, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Varnish WordPress last updated?
The latest version, 1.7, was released on February 20, 2018 (9 years ago).
Who makes Varnish WordPress?
Varnish WordPress is developed and maintained by AdminGeekZ.
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