Ultimate Guide to Laravel Caching: Speed, Scalability, and Best Practices

Published in Laravel, Caching, PHP, Performance on Oct 31, 2025

Caching is the single most effective way to supercharge the speed and performance of your Laravel application. By storing frequently accessed or computationally expensive data in a faster, easily accessible storage layer (the "cache"), you can drastically reduce database queries, external API calls, and heavy lifting on your application server.

This results in:

⚡️ Lightning-Fast Response Times: A snappier experience for your users.
📉 Reduced Server Load: Less strain on your database and CPU.
💰 Increased Scalability: Your application can handle more traffic without costly hardware upgrades.

Cache Drivers: Choosing the Right Tool

Laravel provides a unified API, allowing you to switch between storage backends (drivers) with a single change in your .env file (CACHE_STORE).

Driver	Use Case	Recommendation
`file`	Local development, simple testing.	Avoid in production. Does not scale well.
`database`	Small apps with shared hosting.	Avoid for high traffic. Slower than in-memory.
`redis`	Production & High Traffic. Supports advanced features like Cache Tags.	Highly Recommended for performance and scale.
`memcached`	Production environment with dedicated cache server. Also supports Cache Tags.	Excellent, but Redis is often preferred for its feature set.

The Workhorse: `Cache::remember()`

The Cache::remember() method implements the Cache-Aside pattern:

It checks the cache for the $key.
If found (a Cache Hit), it returns the value instantly.
If not found (a Cache Miss), it executes the provided Closure, stores the result in the cache with the defined Time-To-Live ($ttl), and then returns the result.

Example 1: Caching an Expensive Database Query

This is the most common use case: reducing database load.

Copied!

 1use App\Models\Product;
 2use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;
 3 
 4public function getFeaturedProducts()
 5{
 6    // Caches the list of products for 3600 seconds (1 hour)
 7    $products = Cache::remember('featured_products_list', 3600, function () {
 8        // This query runs only on a cache miss (first request or after expiry)
 9        return Product::where('is_featured', true)
10                      ->with('category')
11                      ->take(10)
12                      ->get();
13    });
14 
15    return $products;
16}

use App\Models\Product;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

public function getFeaturedProducts()
{
    // Caches the list of products for 3600 seconds (1 hour)
    $products = Cache::remember('featured_products_list', 3600, function () {
        // This query runs only on a cache miss (first request or after expiry)
        return Product::where('is_featured', true)
                      ->with('category')
                      ->take(10)
                      ->get();
    });

    return $products;
}

Advanced Technique: Cache Tags for Granular Control

Cache Tags are crucial for complex, high-traffic applications. They allow you to group multiple cache items and invalidate that group with a single command, without flushing the entire cache.

Note: Cache Tags are only supported by the redis and memcached drivers.

Example 2: Invalidation using Cache Tags

Imagine you cache a single post, a list of posts, and a post count. You need to clear all three when a single post is updated.

A. Storing with Tags

Copied!

 1use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;
 2 
 3// Caching the Post details (Tagged with 'posts' and the specific post ID)
 4Cache::tags(['posts', 'post:'.$post->id])->remember('post:'.$post->id, 3600, function () use ($post) {
 5    return $post->load('author', 'comments');
 6});
 7 
 8// Caching a List of Posts (Tagged with just 'posts')
 9Cache::tags(['posts'])->remember('latest_posts_page_1', 600, function () {
10    return Post::latest()->paginate(10);
11});

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

// Caching the Post details (Tagged with 'posts' and the specific post ID)
Cache::tags(['posts', 'post:'.$post->id])->remember('post:'.$post->id, 3600, function () use ($post) {
    return $post->load('author', 'comments');
});

// Caching a List of Posts (Tagged with just 'posts')
Cache::tags(['posts'])->remember('latest_posts_page_1', 600, function () {
    return Post::latest()->paginate(10);
});

B. Invalidating the Group

When a single post is updated, you can clear all related items:

Copied!

 1use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;
 2 
 3// Invalidate ONLY the caches related to posts (the individual post, the list, etc.)
 4public function updatePost(Post $post, array $data)
 5{
 6    $post->update($data);
 7 
 8    // This command flushes ALL cache items that were tagged with 'posts'
 9    Cache::tags('posts')->flush();
10 
11    return $post;
12}

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

// Invalidate ONLY the caches related to posts (the individual post, the list, etc.)
public function updatePost(Post $post, array $data)
{
    $post->update($data);

    // This command flushes ALL cache items that were tagged with 'posts'
    Cache::tags('posts')->flush();

    return $post;
}

This ensures that unrelated cached data (like user profiles, settings, or product categories) remains untouched and fast.

The Crucial Pitfall: `null` vs. `false` in Caching

As a best practice, you must be careful when caching the results of a query that returns no result.

The core Laravel cache methods (Cache::get() and the closure of Cache::remember()) treat a returned null value as a cache miss and will NOT store it.

The Problem:

If a query inside Cache::remember() returns null (e.g., User::find(123) for a non-existent user), the value is not cached. On the very next request, the closure runs again, hitting the database unnecessarily.

The Solution: Return `false`

To cache the fact that a resource is missing (a negative result), you should return the boolean value false instead of null. Laravel treats false as a valid cacheable value.

Example 3: Handling Negative Caching Correctly

Copied!

 1use App\Models\User;
 2use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;
 3 
 4public function getUser(int $id)
 5{
 6    $cacheKey = 'user_details_' . $id;
 7 
 8    $user = Cache::remember($cacheKey, 300, function () use ($id) {
 9        $user = User::find($id);
10 
11        // ✅ If the user is NOT found, return false.
12        // This caches the 'non-existence' for 5 minutes (300 seconds).
13        return $user ?? false;
14    });
15 
16    // You MUST check for the false sentinel value upon retrieval.
17    if ($user === false) {
18        // The value came from the cache, and we know the user doesn't exist.
19        return response()->json(['message' => 'User not found'], 404);
20    }
21 
22    // $user is either the actual User model or a cache miss (which we avoided)
23    return $user;
24}

use App\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Cache;

public function getUser(int $id)
{
    $cacheKey = 'user_details_' . $id;

    $user = Cache::remember($cacheKey, 300, function () use ($id) {
        $user = User::find($id);

        // ✅ If the user is NOT found, return false.
        // This caches the 'non-existence' for 5 minutes (300 seconds).
        return $user ?? false;
    });

    // You MUST check for the false sentinel value upon retrieval.
    if ($user === false) {
        // The value came from the cache, and we know the user doesn't exist.
        return response()->json(['message' => 'User not found'], 404);
    }

    // $user is either the actual User model or a cache miss (which we avoided)
    return $user;
}

Key Takeaway: Always return a value other than null (like false or an empty array []) if you want the result of the closure to be cached, even if the query returns nothing.

Housekeeping: Artisan Commands

These commands are essential for managing your application's caches, particularly after deployment:

Command	Purpose	When to Run
`php artisan cache:clear`	Clear all general-purpose cache keys (like those from `Cache::remember()`).	After deployment, or when debugging.
`php artisan route:cache`	Compile all routes into a single fast file.	Production only after routes are final.
`php artisan config:cache`	Compile all configuration files into a single fast file.	Production only after configs are final.
`php artisan view:clear`	Clear all compiled Blade views.	Automatically done, but useful for manual view troubleshooting.

Ultimate Guide to Laravel Caching: Speed, Scalability, and Best Practices

#Cache Drivers: Choosing the Right Tool

#The Workhorse: Cache::remember()

#Example 1: Caching an Expensive Database Query

#Advanced Technique: Cache Tags for Granular Control

#Example 2: Invalidation using Cache Tags

#A. Storing with Tags

#B. Invalidating the Group

#The Crucial Pitfall: null vs. false in Caching

#The Problem:

#The Solution: Return false

#Example 3: Handling Negative Caching Correctly

#Housekeeping: Artisan Commands

Cache Drivers: Choosing the Right Tool

The Workhorse: `Cache::remember()`

Example 1: Caching an Expensive Database Query

Advanced Technique: Cache Tags for Granular Control

Example 2: Invalidation using Cache Tags

A. Storing with Tags

B. Invalidating the Group

The Crucial Pitfall: `null` vs. `false` in Caching

The Problem:

The Solution: Return `false`

Example 3: Handling Negative Caching Correctly

Housekeeping: Artisan Commands