HTTP Cache Packages for Laravel

We wrote about Joseph Silber’s Laravel page cache package, which provides static HTTP response caching for Laravel. There are other open-source packages for caching HTTP responses in Laravel so we thought we’d gather a list of HTTP cache packages you should check out. These packages have unique features that make each of them useful with some functionality overlapping between them, so all of these plugins will be useful depending on your needs.

barryvdh/laravel-httpcache

The barryvdh/laravel-httpcache by Barry vd. Heuvel—initially released in 2013 as a package for Laravel 4.1—is an HTTP cache package for Laravel 5.

This packages uses barryvdh/laravel-stack-middleware to use StackPHP middleware with Laravel 5, allowing your Laravel app to utilize HTTPCache.

Using the package, you can set a TTL or MaxSharedAge in a response:

Route::get('my-page', function(){
   return Response::make('Hello!')->setTtl(60); // Cache 1 minute
});

You can also use the provided middleware:

protected $routeMiddleware = [
    // ...
    'ttl' => \Barryvdh\HttpCache\Middleware\SetTtl::class,
];

Route::get('my-page', function(){
   return 'Hello'
})->middleware('ttl:60'); // Cache 1 minute

Check out the barryvdh/laravel-httpcache GitHub repo for more information.

spatie/laravel-responsecache

Spatie’s laravel-responsecache package speeds up your Laravel app by caching the entire response. I like how this package leverages the existing cache drivers defined in the config/cache.php file (i.e. redis, file, memcached).

You can define a group of routes to be cached for a given time using a middleware:

Route::group(function() {
   Route::get('/another-special-snowflake', 'AnotherSnowflakeController@index');

   Route::get('/yet-another-special-snowflake', 'YetAnotherSnowflakeController@index');
})->middleware('cacheResponse:10');

Another nice feature is that you can programmatically clear the entire cache or specific URIs:

ResponseCache::clear();

// Forget several URIs
ResponseCache::forget(['/some-uri', '/other-uri']);

Or via the command:

php artisan responsecache:clear

The package also allows you to provide a custom caching profile which should implement the provided CacheProfile interface. Defining a custom caching profile gives you granular control on which requests get cached, and for how long.

silber/page-cache

The Laravel Page Cache package by Joseph Silber is another HTTP cache package that is an excellent alternative to static site builders. You can gain the benefit of the performance of a static site, without an extra build step, and without sacrificing the ability for a fully dynamic functionality through PHP.

This package works by using a middleware with your routes and generating static HTML files. Used in tandem with a web server like Nginx, your cached responses won’t touch the application server:

for truly static pages on a site there really is no reason to have to boot up a full PHP app just to serve a static page. Serving a simple HTML page from disk is infinitely faster and less taxing on the server.

The solution? Full page caching.

Using the middleware included in this package, you can selectively cache the response to disk for any given request. Subsequent calls to the same page will be served directly as a static HTML page!

Whether you want to cache all of your routes or a select few that never change, this package offers an excellent way to offload requests from your PHP application and let Nginx serve static files for lightning fast responses.