Web Hosting - Wordpress CDN & Varnish Caching options

Here is a breakdown of how each option works to help you choose the right fit for your site.

Option 1: CloudFront CDN (Content Delivery Network)

• How it works: We supply a CloudFront CDN for your site and credentials. You will then use the W3 Total Cache plugin to route and manage the delivery of your static asset files to the CDN.

• The Benefit: CloudFront distributes your site's files across a global network of "Edge" servers. If a user visits your site from Europe, CloudFront delivers your static assets from a European server, drastically reducing load times for international visitors.

• Documentation: Web Hosting - WordPress - Content Delivery Network (CDN) with W3 Total Cache

Option 2: Varnish Cache

• How it works: We configure Varnish at the web server level. As users navigate your site, Varnish automatically builds a cache of your pages and delivers those saved copies instantly, entirely bypassing the need for the server to render the page from scratch.

• Default Cache Times: HTML pages are cached for 1 hour, while static assets (.js, .css, images, etc.) are cached for 24 hours.

• Managing Updates: Because Varnish holds onto cached pages for an hour, you will need to install a specific Varnish-clearing plugin if you want to manually purge the cache immediately after editing a page.

• Documentation: Web Hosting - WordPress Varnish Cache

How to Choose Between the Two

Recommendation: If a global "Edge" presence is not a primary concern, Varnish Cache is our first recommendation for ease of complexity and maximizing general page load speed.

Please reach out to us at webhosting@doit.wisc.edu with any questions