by Danila Vershinin 4.4 (26 reviews)

Proxy Cache Purge

Name: Proxy Cache Purge
Rating: 4.4 (26 reviews)
Author: Danila Vershinin

Automatically empty proxy cached content when your site is modified.

Proxy Cache Purge ranks #786 among WordPress.org plugins with 50,000+ active installations, is #48 of 1,518 in the Performance category, a 4.4/5 rating from 26 reviews, and was last updated Sep 2, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Tested up to WP 7.0.4 (Current: 7.1)

v5.12.3 Current Version v5.12.3

Updated 1 week ago Last Update on 02 Sep, 2026

Refreshed 11 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#48 of 1,518 in Performance Top 1% by installs Downloads -29.1% this week Actively maintained

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#786

— No change

Active Installs

50K+

— No change

KW Avg Position

5.2

0.2 better

Downloads

2.4M

+312 today

Support Resolved

100%

— No change

Rating

88%

Review 4.4 out of 5

4.4 (26 reviews)

Next Milestone 60K

Total Progress 4.1%

50K+ 60K+

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

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Need 9,592 more installs to reach 60K+

Rank Changes

Current #786

Change

Best #

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

4.4

26 reviews

Overall 88%

19 (73%)

2 (8%)

3 (12%)

1 (4%)

Support Threads Overview

Resolved

Unresolved

Total Threads

Resolved

Unresolved

100%

Resolution Rate

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

No known vulnerabilities on record for Proxy Cache Purge. Checked 1 week ago.

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Plugin Details

Version: 5.12.3
Last Updated: Sep 02, 2026
Requires WP: 5.0+
Tested Up To: 7.0.4
PHP Version: 7.4 or higher
Author: Danila Vershinin

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4.4
Reviews: 26
Support Threads: 1
Resolved: 100%

Keywords

cache nginx proxy Purge varnish

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners running a reverse proxy cache like Varnish or NGINX in front of their site. It automatically purges the relevant cached pages whenever content is modified, so visitors don't see stale cached content.

Automatic cache purging on updates
Full cache purge on theme change
Admin bar Empty Cache button
Development/debug mode toggle
Cache Tags / Surrogate Keys support (BETA)
Background purging via WP-Cron
WP-CLI purge commands
Multisite network support

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Proxy Cache Purge

This plugin was originally adopted and updated for DreamHost's DreamPress server, however it is not (and never has been) for DreamHost only. I worked at DreamHost from 2012 to 2022, and have maintained the plugin since around 2014 or so. As of October 2023, this plugin is NO LONGER installed by default on DreamPress. Today, the plugin is maintained by GetPageSpeed, with a focus on advanced NGINX and proxy caching deployments and strong compatibility with the NGINX cache-purge module from the NGINX Extras collection.

No. This plugin tells your cache system when content is updated, and to delete the cached data at that time.

Speed and stability. Emptying too much of a cache on every change can slow a server down. This plugin does its best to determine what needs to be deleted and when, while providing hooks for developers to use as necessary.

It depends on the post, but in general the tool will delete cached content for: The post name The front page of the site All first pages of related tags/categories The JSON API pages All related RSS feeds

Not really, but in order to prevent your site from crashing by running the same checks over and over, if you try to purge more than 50 URLs at once, the plugin will do a full purge. Normally this never happens, but there are some plugins that hook into the options to add more pages to purge on an update. You can change this value in your settings, or via the define VHP_VARNISH_MAXPOSTS in your wp-config.php file. Keep in mind, the count of 50 does not include category/tags, API, or RSS pages. It's just the sheer number of individual posts/pages you're trying to purge at once.

Yes. If your environment doesn't cache logged-in users and you want to avoid purge noise from autosaves/drafts, you can exclude specific statuses network‑wide via wp-config.php (multisite‑friendly). Add a define to exclude drafts: define( 'VHP_EXCLUDED_POST_STATUSES', 'draft' ); Exclude multiple statuses (comma‑separated): define( 'VHP_EXCLUDED_POST_STATUSES', 'draft,pending' ); Or pass an array: define( 'VHP_EXCLUDED_POST_STATUSES', array( 'draft', 'pending' ) ); Developers can also use a filter to adjust the valid statuses programmatically: add_filter( 'varnish_http_purge_valid_post_statuses', function( $statuses, $post_id ) { return array_diff( $statuses, array( 'draft' ) ); }, 10, 2 ); By default, the plugin considers these statuses for purge URL generation: publish, private, trash, pending, draft.

Yes. Click the 'Empty Cache' button on the "Right Now" Dashboard (see the screenshot if you can't find it). There's also an "Empty Cache" button on the admin toolbar. If you don't see a button, then your account doesn't have the appropriate permissions. Only administrators can empty the entire cache. In the case of a subfolder multisite network, only the network admins can empty the cache for the primary site.

No. WordPress can't detect those file changes so it can't tell your cache what to do. You will need to use the Empty Cache buttons when you're done editing your code.

No. Some of them have behaviours that cause them not to cache, either by accident or design. It's incredibly hard to debug those, since many of the related issues are contextual (like if you save a page with a special setting). I've done my best to flag everything as possible issues with the debugger.

Yes. Full documentation can be found on Custom Filters in the wiki.