What Does Varnish Do? [Infograph]

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Echo Diaz | Updated: March 4, 2021

Category: Hosting Basics | Tags: Apache, Caching, IIS, Linux, NginX

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What Does Varnish Do?

Varnish is a website accelerator. It’s designed to decrease the time it takes for your website to load and an ideal tool for improving performance on busy, mission-critical sites.

How Does it Work?

Once installed on your web server, Varnish will determine the most efficient way to serve your website. For duplicate requests, instead of executing new code it will have a copy sent out.

What are the Benefits?

Increase page speeds 300-1000x
More requests per minute mean high traffic capabilities
Using fewer resources is better for the environment
Outrun slower competitors

Which Web Server Can You Use?

Varnish is versatile and can be used with NGINX, Apache and IIS.

Find articles on How to Install Varnish and many more tutorials in our Knowledge Base.

About the Author: Echo Diaz

Throughout Echo's four year stint as a technical support specialist, her passion for breaking down complex concepts had to lead to a career in professional writing. As a former top tier support specialist, she added a distinctive element to her written work that spoke to customer feedback and concerns. Echo occasionally pops her head out from behind her computer to watch her dog energetically run around the yard and unabashedly shovels money into buying tickets to see her favorite musical artists.