Javier Casares

Joan Artes

WordPress Varnish as a Service is a plugin for <a href="https://www.varnish-cache.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">Varnish Cache</a> that purges/bans a cache server.
Supports Varnish 2 (purge) and Varnish 3 (ban) versions, Secret Key (for Admin Port) and HTTP Purge.
Based on <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-varnish/">WordPress Varnish</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/varnish-purger/">Plugin Varnish Purges</a>.

WordPress Varnish as a Service

Clear your Varnish cache when new, edited or deleted content happens.

Daniel Bachhuber

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

Danila Vershinin

Kira Schroder

Mike Schroder

techpriester

This plugin does not install nor configure a cache proxy. It acts as an interface with such services.
One common method of caching content for websites is via the use of reverse proxy caching. Common examples of this are <a href="https://www.varnish-cache.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">Varnish</a> and <a href="https://www.nginx.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">NGINX</a>. These systems allow a website to update content and have the visitor’s experience cached without the need for complex plugins storing the files locally and using up a user’s disk space.
A reverse proxy cache is installed in front of a server and reviews requests. If the page being requested is already cached, it delivers the cached content. Otherwise it generates the page and the cache on demand.
The Proxy Cache Purge plugin sends a request to delete (aka flush) the cached data of a page or post every time it’s modified.
<h4>How It Works</h4>
When content on a site is updated by WordPress, the plugin reaches out to the proxy cache service with the URL of the page, requesting the cache be deleted.
Not all pages are deleted from the cache on every change. For example, when a post, page, or custom post type is edited, or a new comment is added, only the following pages will purge:
<ul>
<li>The front page</li>
<li>The post/page edited</li>
<li>Any categories, tags, and/or custom taxonomies associated with the page</li>
<li>Related feeds</li>
<li>Associated JSON API pages</li>
</ul>
In addition, your entire cache will be deleted on the following actions:
<ul>
<li>Changing themes</li>
<li>Pressing the Empty Cache button on the toolbar</li>
</ul>
Plugins can hook into the purge actions as well, to filter their own events to trigger a purge.
On a multisite network using subfolders, only network admins can purge the main site.
<h4>Development Mode</h4>
If you’re working on a site and need to turn off caching in one of two ways:
<ol>
<li>Add <code>define( 'VHP_DEVMODE', true );</code> to your <code>wp-config.php</code> file</li>
<li>Go to Proxy Cache -> Settings and enable Debug Mode for 24 hours at a time</li>
</ol>
That will break cache on page loads. It is not recommended for production!
<h4>Cache Tags (BETA)</h4>
As of version 5.4.0, Proxy Cache Purge includes an optional Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys purge mode. This feature is marked as BETA and is disabled by default.
When enabled, the plugin:
<ul>
<li>Adds cache-tag headers to WordPress responses (for example, tagging pages by post ID, post type, taxonomy terms, author, and archives).</li>
<li>Uses tag-based purges instead of individual URL purges when content is updated, which can reduce purge traffic and improve consistency on complex sites.</li>
</ul>
Requirements:
<ul>
<li>A proxy cache that supports Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys and advertises this via standard <code>Surrogate-Capability</code> headers (for example, <code>Surrogate-Capability: vhp="Surrogate/1.0 tags/1"</code>).</li>
</ul>
How to enable:
<ul>
<li>Go to Proxy Cache → Settings → Purge Method and check “Use Cache Tags (Surrogate Keys)”. The checkbox is only enabled when your cache tells WordPress it supports tags (or when you explicitly enable it via a define).</li>
<li>
Alternatively, you can force-enable or force-disable detection via <code>wp-config.php</code>:
define( ‘VHP_VARNISH_TAGS’, true ); // Force treat cache as tag-capable 
define( ‘VHP_VARNISH_TAGS’, false ); // Force treat cache as not tag-capable
</li>
</ul>
Because this feature depends on your cache configuration, it is recommended that you test it carefully in staging before enabling it on production.
<h4>Background Purging with WP-Cron</h4>
On busy sites, sending many PURGE requests directly from admin requests can slow things down. When you define <code>DISABLE_WP_CRON</code> as <code>true</code> in <code>wp-config.php</code> (because you are running a real system cron that calls <code>wp-cron.php</code>), Proxy Cache Purge automatically switches to an asynchronous mode:
<ul>
<li>Purge requests (both URL-based and tag-based, when Cache Tags are enabled) are collected into a small per-site queue.</li>
<li>The queue is processed by WP-Cron in the background, keeping your admin and content-editing actions responsive even when many URLs or tags must be invalidated.</li>
</ul>
Object-cache purges (the \”Purge Database Cache\” option) remain synchronous and are not affected by this behaviour. The Proxy Cache settings page and Site Health integration expose basic queue status so you can verify that background purging is healthy; if the queue appears large or very old, check that your system cron is correctly invoking WordPress cron.
Important: Cron Frequency and Cache Freshness
When using background purging, the frequency of your system cron determines how quickly cache invalidations are processed. The longer the interval between cron runs, the longer visitors may see stale content after updates.
For minimal stale content, run your system cron every minute:
<pre><code>* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/wp-cron.php
</code></pre>
If you can tolerate slightly longer delays, every 2-5 minutes is also acceptable. However, running cron less frequently (e.g., every 15 minutes) means cache purges may be delayed by that amount after content changes.
Note: Scheduled posts are handled specially. When a scheduled post is published via WP-Cron, the cache is purged synchronously within the same cron run, ensuring immediate cache invalidation without waiting for the next cron execution.
For detailed instructions on setting up a proper Linux-based WordPress cron, see: <a href="https://www.getpagespeed.com/web-apps/wordpress/wordpress-cron-optimization" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress Cron Optimization</a>.
<h3>WP CLI</h3>
Purge
Purge commands let you empty the cache.
<ul>
<li><code>wp varnish purge</code> – Flush the cache for your front page</li>
<li><code>wp varnish purge [<url>]</code> – Flush the cache for one URL</li>
</ul>
You can use the parameter <code>--wildcard</code> to empty everything from that URL down. So if you wanted to empty cache for all themes, you would do this:
<ul>
<li><code>wp varnish purge https://example.com/wp-content/themes --wildcard</code></li>
</ul>
Debug
Debugging can help you figure out why your cache isn’t working as well as it could. The default is for your home page, but you can pass any URL on your domain.
<ul>
<li><code>wp varnish debug [<url>]</code></li>
</ul>
Available parameters:
<ul>
<li><code>[--include-headers]</code> — Include headers in debug check output</li>
<li><code>[--include-grep]</code> — Grep active theme and plugin directories for common issues</li>
</ul>
DevMode
Development mode allows you to disable the cache, temporarily.
<ul>
<li><code>wp varnish devmode [<activate|deactivate|toggle>]</code> – Change development mode state</li>
</ul>
Async purge queue (cron-mode)
When you define <code>DISABLE_WP_CRON</code> as <code>true</code> and run a real system cron for WordPress, Proxy Cache Purge can move heavy purge work into a small background queue that is processed by WP‑Cron.
You can inspect and manage that queue via WP‑CLI:
<ul>
<li><code>wp varnish queue status</code> – show whether cron-mode is active, if a full purge is queued, counts of queued URLs/tags, and the last queue run time.</li>
<li><code>wp varnish queue process</code> – process any items currently in the queue (useful to run after deploys or cache‑sensitive operations).</li>
<li><code>wp varnish queue clear</code> – clear the queue without sending any PURGE requests.</li>
</ul>
These commands do not replace your normal WordPress cron (you still need a cron entry that calls <code>wp cron event run --due-now</code> or hits <code>wp-cron.php</code>), but they give you a simple operational handle when using cron‑mode.

Proxy Cache Purge

Automatically empty proxy cached content when your site is modified.

WordPress Varnish as a Service vs Proxy Cache Purge