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memcached

High-performance, distributed memory object caching system.

memcached

memcached Reviews and Details

This page is designed to help you find out whether memcached is good and if it is the right choice for you.

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  • memcached Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-23

Features & Specs

  1. High Performance

    Memcached is incredibly fast and efficient at caching data in memory, enabling quick data retrieval and reducing the load on databases. Its in-memory nature significantly reduces latency.

  2. Scalability

    Memcached can be easily scaled horizontally by adding more nodes to the caching cluster. This allows it to handle increased loads and large datasets without performance degradation.

  3. Simplicity

    Memcached has a simple design and API, making it easy to implement and use. Developers can quickly integrate it into their applications without a steep learning curve.

  4. Open Source

    Memcached is free and open-source software, which means it can be used and modified without any licensing fees. This makes it a cost-effective solution for caching.

  5. Language Agnostic

    Memcached supports multiple programming languages through various client libraries, making it versatile and suitable for use in diverse tech stacks.

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Videos

Course Preview: Using Memcached and Varnish to Speed Up Your Linux Web App

Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you see what people think about memcached and what they use it for.
  • Redis vs. Memcached: How to Choose Your NoSQL Champion
    Memcached has a single, focused goal: to be a high-performance, distributed, in-memory object caching system. It stores all data in RAM, which means reads and writes are incredibly fast. But its main weakness is just as clear: data is completely lost when the service restarts, as it offers no persistence. Its data model is a simple key-value store, limited to basic get, set, and delete operations. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • MySQL Performance Tuning Techniques
    Memcached can help when lightning-fast performance is needed. These tools store frequently accessed data, such as session details, API responses, or product prices, in RAM. This reduces the laid on your primary database, so you can deliver microsecond response times. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 10 Best Practices for API Rate Limiting in 2025
    In-memory tools like Redis or Memcached for fast Data retrieval. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Outgrowing Postgres: Handling increased user concurrency
    A caching layer using popular in-memory databases like Redis or Memcached can go a long way in addressing Postgres connection overload issues by being able to handle a much larger concurrent request load. Adding a cache lets you serve frequent reads from memory instead, taking pressure off Postgres. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • API Caching: Techniques for Better Performance
    Memcached โ€” Free and well-known for its simplicity, Memcached is a distributed and powerful memory object caching system. It uses key-value pairs to store small data chunks from database calls, API calls, and page rendering. It is available on Windows. Strings are the only supported data type. Its client-server architecture distributes the cache logic, with half of the logic implemented on the server and the other... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • story of upgrading rails 5.x to 7.x
    The app depends on several packages to run, so I need to install them locally too. I used a combination of brew and orbstack / docker for installing packages. Some dependencies for this project are redis, mongodb and memcache. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • List of 45 databases in the world
    Memcachedโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠHigh-performance distributed memory object caching system. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • How to Setup a Project That Can Host Up to 1000 Users for Free
    One of the most effective ways to improve the applicationโ€™s performance is caching regularly accessed data. There are two leading key-value stores: Memcached and Redis. I prefer using Memcached Cloud add-on for caching because it was originally intended for it and is easier to set up, and using Redis only for background jobs. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Consistent Hashing: An Overview and Implementation in Golang
    Distributed caching Consistent hashing is a popular technique for distributed caching systems like Memcached and Dynamo. In these systems, the caches are distributed across many servers. When a cache miss occurs, consistent hashing is used to determine which server contains the required data. This allows the overall cache to scale to handle more requests. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • How to choose the right type of database
    Memcached: A simple, open-source, distributed memory object caching system primarily used for caching strings. Best suited for lightweight, non-persistent caching needs. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • A Developer's Journal: Simplifying the Twelve-Factor App
    Stores session state in a session store like Memcached or Redis. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Django Caching 101: Understanding the Basics and Beyond
    Django supports using Memcached as a cache backend. Memcached is a high-performance, distributed memory caching system that can be used to store cached data across multiple servers. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • Node.js server-side authentication: Tokens vs. JWT
    In server-side authentication, the session state is stored on the server-side, which can be scaled horizontally across multiple servers using tools like Redis or Memcached. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • How Instagram handles data?
    The main components are sharding and caching. The storage is done with MySQL. The cache is done by memcached. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Scaling moderate sized websites
    Caching - while it's not possible to cache everything, there's always a large percentage of your website / app that can be cached for an hour or ten minutes or 1 day etc... - all depends on the type of content but the longer you can cache for without negatively effecting content quality - the better. A good caching server example would be redis : https://redis.io/ or https://memcached.org/. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Why do people curse JS so much, but also say it's better than Python
    If you really care about optimising this, you need, as other traders pointed out, a cache. Caches are a way of ensuring that the data you query stays in memory on a separate machine so you don't have the delay to disk & to commit. Things like memcached are created for this exact purpose. If you care about optimisation, look into it and other options. This is not a simple problem. Distributed systems like these are... Source: over 3 years ago
  • Maximize Your Productivity with Redis: A Comprehensive Guide
    There are several alternatives to Redis that are worth considering, depending on your specific needs and requirements. Some popular options include Memcached, which is another in-memory data store that is often used for caching, and Apache Cassandra, which is a distributed NoSQL database that is designed for scalability and high availability. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Web resource caching: Server-side
    A couple of dedicated server-side resource caching solutions have emerged over the years: Memcached, Varnish, Squid, etc. Other solutions are less focused on web resource caching and more generic, e.g., Redis or Hazelcast. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • How to Scale Ruby on Rails Applications
    Now that we know what to cache and the techniques Rails provides to store things in the cache, the next logical question is โ€” where do we cache this data? Rails comes with several in-built cache store adapters. The most popular cache stores for production use cases are Redis and Memcached. There are a couple of other options as well โ€” the file store and memory store. A full discussion of these stores can be found... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • November Starlite development updates
    We have an all new Session middleware With support for client- and server-side sessions, including backends for redis, Memcached, file system and SQLAlchemy. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Deep Dive: Migrating from a Data Center to AWS
    Most of our refactoring was simple: making hard-coded values configurable, or turning certain features on or off depending on environment. Sending email through SES meant specifying an SMTP hostname and credentials, and in some cases upgrading email delivery to use TLS for improved security. We introduced Memcached to cache database query results and server-side rendered views. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

Summary of the public mentions of memcached

Memcached, an open-source distributed memory caching system, has long been a staple in modern web development environments. Designed for high-performance applications, it is often leveraged to reduce the load on databases by storing frequently accessed data in RAM, allowing for rapid data retrieval and optimized application response times. Its primary use case lies in caching session details, API responses, and product prices, making it a fundamental component for applications requiring microsecond-level response times.

Public opinion surrounding Memcached predominantly highlights its simplicity and efficiency as a caching solution, especially for lightweight, non-persistent data storage needs. It is regularly compared to similar technologies like Redis, another highly popular in-memory data store. While Redis is known for its rich feature set, offering support for more complex data types and persistence options, Memcached is lauded for its straightforward implementation and focus on key-value storage. This simplicity makes Memcached particularly well-suited for scenarios where data persistence isn't a strict requirement, and the emphasis is on speed and scalability.

However, Memcached's allocation strategy, specifically its slab allocator, has drawn some criticism. Once memory is allocated for a particular item size, it cannot be adjusted dynamically, potentially leading to memory wastage if item sizes vary significantly. Despite this potential inefficiency, many users find that Memcached's performance benefits outweigh these drawbacks for specific caching workloads.

Another aspect frequently mentioned in discussions is Memcached's lack of out-of-the-box support for distributed caching. Implementing distribution requires utilizing a consistent hashing algorithm on the client side, which involves additional architectural considerations. By contrast, alternatives like Redis provide more native support for clustering and distribution. Despite these limitations, Memcached remains a popular choice due to its well-established role in the industry, offering a robust, lightweight solution for applications that prioritize speed.

In recent discourse, Memcached is often cited in contexts where its direct competitors, such as Redis and newer entrants to the market, are evaluated. Community discussions emphasize Memcached's long-standing presence and its continued relevance despite an evolving technological landscape. Its capabilities for fast, efficient data access keep it at the forefront of many caching strategies, particularly in configurations where its simplicity and speed are prioritized over more feature-rich solutions.

Overall, Memcached is perceived as a reliable choice for memory object caching, especially in environments where rapid data access is critical, and the additional features offered by its competitors are not necessary. Its role as a tool that can unburden more complex database systems remains integral across various applications, reaffirming its standing in the software industry as a valuable asset for developers focused on performance optimization.

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