Object Cache
Learn about the benefits and requirements of our Object Cache performance addon.
The Object Cache performance addon for freistilbox is based on Valkey, an open source high-performance key/value datastore.
What is Valkey?
Valkey is an open-source, in-memory data store that your Drupal or WordPress site can use as an object cache. It’s a community-maintained fork of Redis and fully compatible with existing Redis caching plugins.
Why Use an Object Cache?
Every time a visitor loads a page, your CMS runs database queries to fetch content, configuration, and other data. Many of these queries return the same results over and over again—your site’s menu structure, for example, rarely changes between requests.
An object cache stores these query results in memory. When your application needs the same data again, it can retrieve it from the cache in microseconds instead of waiting for a database round-trip. This reduces load on your MySQL database and makes your site respond faster, especially under heavy traffic.
How Valkey Works on freistilbox
When you enable the Valkey addon, we provision a dedicated Valkey instance for your website. Your application connects to this instance using connection details we provide, and all cached data stays isolated from other customers’ sites.
Because Valkey stores data in memory only, the cache starts empty whenever the service restarts. Your site will automatically rebuild the cache as visitors request pages, so this doesn’t cause errors—just a temporary period of slower responses while the cache warms up.
Benefits for Your Sites
- Faster response times: Retrieving data from memory is orders of magnitude faster than querying the database.
- Lower database load: Fewer queries reach MySQL, which frees up resources for the queries that actually need the database.
- Better scalability: During traffic spikes, your site can serve more visitors without overwhelming the database.