Caffeine vs Varnish Enterprise
Caffeine
github.com
Varnish Enterprise
varnish-software.comSide by side
| Figure | Caffeine | Varnish Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Caching Software | 8.2 (#5) | 7.1 (#18) |
| Integrations | The project lists community integrations including Spring Cache, Play Framework, Micronaut, Quarkus, Camel, and Kotlin and Scala wrappers. | Documented VMOD integrations include DataDome bot protection, Akamai, and AWS services including S3 and Secrets Manager. |
| Purpose | Caffeine is a high-performance, near-optimal in-memory caching library for Java. | Varnish Enterprise is a programmable delivery layer for live video, dynamic web and API traffic, and CI/CD artifact delivery. |
Plans
In their own words
Caffeine
Caffeine is a free, open-source in-memory caching library for Java, distributed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. It provides an API inspired by Google Guava and can load entries automatically, including asynchronously. Size-based eviction uses configured limits with frequency and recency, while entries can expire according to time since their last access or write. When a stale entry is first requested, Caffeine can refresh it asynchronously. Other functions include weak keys, weak or soft values, removal notifications, writes to external resources, and cache statistics. The project offers JSR-107 JCache, Guava adapters, and a simulation extension, with community integrations listed for Spring Cache, Play Framework, Micronaut, Quarkus, and Apache Camel. The project directs users to Maven Central and provides Gradle coordinates for the core library and optional extensions. Version 3.x is intended for Java 11 or newer; earlier Java versions use 2.x. Maven Central artifacts are accompanied by GPG and Sigstore signature files according to the security policy.
Varnish Enterprise
Varnish Enterprise has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.