# Varnish Cache

11 Hacker News commenters recommended Varnish Cache and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free HTTP cache and reverse proxy that people use to absorb traffic spikes and scale sites simply. Critics say TLS setup is confusing.

## Why people recommend it

- Absorbs traffic spikes and scales HTTP (5 comments): "I've had good luck scaling git, specially doing clones, in the HTTP layer, using Varnish." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47934395)) "I had to use varnish to set up a reverse proxy cache to properly handle the influx." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46060434)) "varnish (vinyl these days) in front of the website should dramatically reduce this" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499074))
- Simpler than heavier caching setups (3 comments): "You could do the same with varnish/nginx or wp-cache with 10% of the complexity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280746)) "this problem was solved 20 years ago with Varnish cache" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026416)) "just use the tool that does the job." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47728603))
- Works well in practice (2 comments): "I've had good luck scaling git, specially doing clones, in the HTTP layer, using Varnish." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47934395)) "Varnish works great for that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45903465))

## What people warn about

- TLS setup is confusing or painful (2 comments): "the docs on varnish and tls are hella confusing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47743358)) "A bit of a pain but eminently doable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47622987))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Vinyl Cache](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vinyl-cache.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Varnish Cache", https://hackerapproved.com/p/varnish-cache/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).