memcached vs Varnish

Struggling to choose between memcached and Varnish? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

memcached is a Network & Admin solution with tags like caching, memory, performance.

It boasts features such as In-memory key-value store, Distributed architecture, Simple protocol, Horizontal scalability and pros including Very fast data lookup, Reduces database load, Improves overall application performance.

On the other hand, Varnish is a Network & Admin product tagged with caching, content-delivery, acceleration.

Its standout features include Caching and optimization of content delivery, Speeds up websites by reducing requests to backend servers, Sits in front of web servers as a reverse proxy, Supports load balancing, Caching of static and dynamic content, Caching rules based on URLs, cookies, device type, etc, Health checks for origin servers, Grace mode to serve stale content if backends are down, Edge Side Includes for dynamic caching, Logging and monitoring capabilities, and it shines with pros like Significant performance improvements, Reduces load on backend servers, Open source with active development community, Highly configurable and customizable, Integrates well with many frameworks/CMSs, Can scale horizontally with multiple Varnish servers.

To help you make an informed decision, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison of these two products, delving into their features, pros, cons, pricing, and more. Get ready to explore the nuances that set them apart and determine which one is the perfect fit for your requirements.

memcached

memcached

Memcached is an open source, high-performance distributed memory object caching system. It is used to speed up dynamic web applications by alleviating database load for reading/writing frequently accessed data.

Categories:
caching memory performance

Memcached Features

  1. In-memory key-value store
  2. Distributed architecture
  3. Simple protocol
  4. Horizontal scalability

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Very fast data lookup

Reduces database load

Improves overall application performance

Cons

Data loss on server restart

Additional system complexity

Requires application code changes


Varnish

Varnish

Varnish is an open source web application accelerator designed to speed up websites by caching and optimizing content delivery. It sits in front of web servers and caches frequently-accessed content, reducing requests to backend servers.

Categories:
caching content-delivery acceleration

Varnish Features

  1. Caching and optimization of content delivery
  2. Speeds up websites by reducing requests to backend servers
  3. Sits in front of web servers as a reverse proxy
  4. Supports load balancing
  5. Caching of static and dynamic content
  6. Caching rules based on URLs, cookies, device type, etc
  7. Health checks for origin servers
  8. Grace mode to serve stale content if backends are down
  9. Edge Side Includes for dynamic caching
  10. Logging and monitoring capabilities

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Significant performance improvements

Reduces load on backend servers

Open source with active development community

Highly configurable and customizable

Integrates well with many frameworks/CMSs

Can scale horizontally with multiple Varnish servers

Cons

Complex configuration

Steep learning curve

No GUI, managed via command line

Caching needs to be configured properly

Not ideal for sites with highly dynamic content