Support for the Falcon and Basic cache will be removed

My website page load time is 2.3 seconds.

Once I disabled the Falcon Engine my page load time increased to 3.3 seconds! This is a 43% reduction!

The only reason why I am using Wordfence, beyond the security features, is because of the Falcon Engine.

If the new release will continue to tax the system and result in poor page load times I’ll need to disable Wordfence. i don;t want to do this so I hope you guys have something else up in mind to replace it?

Please share.

I agree. removing established features is not a great business practice. I really hope this isn’t an upsell to the premium package. This is going to be a huge hassle, to have to find new caching software for dozens of sites… not to mention explaining to clients why their site is running slowly all of a sudden, and how that will cost them more money for my time to update the site with new caching software. Totally unacceptable, especially with such short notice, and on a plugin that has, for a long time, promoted auto-updates.

I am also very concerned about the handling of this message. It is very uncommon for the wordfence team to be so quiet. I have several premium sites as well as free sites and received the same message. I posted on the wordfence as well but got crickets.

Wordfence where are you?

@barbours

It is mentioned in the Falcon Cache support doc.

https://docs.wordfence.com/en/Falcon_Cache

https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/10/removing-falcon-cache-wordfence-heres-need-know/

As of Wordfence version 6.2.1, we are removing support for Falcon. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly. We discussed it internally for a while before we finally decided to remove it. We have released a statement about it on our blog:

https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/10/removing-falcon-cache-wordfence-heres-need-know/

The bottom line is that we’re focusing our energies on security, which we are very good at. If you need a recommendation for a caching solution, there is a great post at this link comparing caching plugins:

https://www.designbombs.com/top-wordpress-caching-plugins-compared/

Users that didn’t have Falcon enabled should no longer see “Performance Setup” in the wordfence menu on their sites. Users who came into the update with Falcon enabled should see it. Defining the constant WF_ENABLE_FALCON in wp-config.php will cause it to be shown no matter if it was or was not enabled prior to the update.

We have no plans to release this part of the plugin to the community at large as a separate plugin.

As always, thanks for your support and for using Wordfence.

For anyone looking for a simple, one-click caching plugin, I’ve been testing Simple Cache and it looks good. Very easy to install and configure.

Apologies. You need to add this to wp-config.php to have the performance menu re-enabled until it is permanently removed.

define(WF_ENABLE_FALCON, ‘true’);

i’m very angry about the unilateral exclusion of falcon. i’m a developer and i’ve been paid the hours required to engage falcon and i’ve achieved successful results for clients since it works well and comprehensively and reliably. now that you’re eliminating falcon my clients will think i’m stupid for having advocated it and charge fair hourly rates to install and use or they’ll think i’m a rat!!! do you understand? – i hope so.

why can it not be left for 9 months or forever but with no improvements to it’s operation or many other business models, that are less destructive to respectful, appreciative, successful users.

terminating it in the fashion you’re doing may be good business but it is not fair. what’s more important to you, money, or fairness? good luck

There was a time that I considered deactivating Wordfence; simply because it slowed down my website significantly. However, the Falcon Engine was a dream that improved my sites page load time by almost 50%.

In my case, I use a Managed WordPress solution where the hosting provider takes care of caching and blacklists other caching plugins from being used. However, the Falcon Engine worked like a dream! Once it’s gone, I’ll have no choice but to abandon Wordfence.

If seems to me that the Voice of the Customer is not being heard. I understand that Wordfence is making a business decision. However, making such a decision contrary to the Voice of the Customer can be risky.

I’m upset as many other people here of this sudden decision by WordFence staff.
I immediately disabled the automatic WordFence updates, so Falcon will stay on until I find another easy and lightweight solution for cacheing.

@wfsupport : your statement “We have no plans to release this part of the plugin to the community at large as a separate plugin” is not very open minded…
You created a great plugin, and Falcon was a very well implemented cacheing system, please rethink about it ??

This for me is also a reason to jump ship. I was already annoyed by the warning notification emails about plugin updates, as I have automatic updates in place. This is the tipping point.