Vinyl HTTP Cache, formerly Varnish Cache, is a high-performance HTTP reverse proxy designed to accelerate websites and web applications. It sits between clients and origin servers, storing reusable HTTP responses so that subsequent requests can be served without repeatedly contacting the backend.
The software is particularly suited to websites with high traffic volumes, frequently requested content or expensive application processing. By handling cacheable requests independently, Vinyl reduces backend workloads, network traffic and response times.
Its behaviour is controlled through Varnish Configuration Language (VCL), which lets administrators define caching policies, select backend servers and customise request and response processing. This offers considerably more flexibility than a cache controlled solely through configuration directives.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- HTTP reverse-proxy caching – stores reusable responses and delivers them without contacting the origin server.
- Varnish Configuration Language (VCL) – defines custom caching, routing and request-handling policies.
- Configurable cache lifetimes – controls freshness, grace periods and retention of cached objects.
- Stale-content delivery – serves expired objects when appropriate, including during backend failures or cache revalidation.
- Backend health checks – monitors origin servers and adjusts request handling according to their availability.
- Load balancing – distributes requests across multiple backend servers using configurable directors.
- Cache invalidation – supports purging and VCL-controlled banning of cached objects.
- Edge Side Includes (ESI) – assembles responses from independently cacheable fragments.
- Vinyl Modules (VMODs) – extends VCL functionality through additional modules.
- HTTP streaming – forwards eligible responses while data is being retrieved from the origin.
- Shared-memory logging – provides detailed request and response information through the VSL logging system.
- Command-line management – supplies tools for administration, statistics, logging and configuration inspection.
- Compression support – handles gzip-compressed HTTP responses.
- PROXY protocol support – preserves client connection information when operating behind compatible proxies.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux and macOS.
Website: vinyl-cache.org
Support:
Developer: Vinyl Cache project
License: BSD 2-Clause ‘Simplified’ License
Vinyl is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Web Caches | |
|---|---|
| Vinyl | Web accelerator written with performance and flexibility in mind |
| HAProxy | High availability load balancer and proxy server |
| nginx | Very powerful and efficient web server and reverse proxy |
| Traffic Server | High-performance building block for cloud services |
| Squid | High-performance proxy caching server and web cache daemon |
| Envoy | High performance edge and service proxy |
| Apache APISIX | Dynamic API gateway with load balancing and traffic management |
| Apache | Hugely popular web server with caching modules |
| Souin | HTTP cache system |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Web Delivery Tools | |
|---|---|
| Vinyl HTTP Cache | Web accelerator written with performance and flexibility in mind |
| Traffic Server | HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2.0 compliant caching proxy server |
| Squid | High-performance proxy caching server and web cache daemon |
| Tinyproxy | Lightweight web proxy daemon |
| Privoxy | Non-caching Web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities |
| Polipo | Caching HTTP proxy which has modest resource needs |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 LinuxLinks helps you discover the best free and open source software for Linux. Explore our extensive collection of recommended applications, including alternatives to popular proprietary software.We also publish software reviews, Linux tutorials, hardware reviews, free programming books and articles covering the wider open source community. Browse our Linux resources to discover more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application we haven't covered? Suggest a program for inclusion. Has your software been featured on LinuxLinks? Display one of our Featured on LinuxLinks badges on your website or GitHub README. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.