Why We Disable Caching on Webform Pages

Tuesday 26 August 2025

Webforms help users connect, give feedback, and access services—securely and privately. The GovCMS policy of disabling caching on pages containing Drupal Webforms was a decision guided by both security best practices and performance considerations. While webforms provide a valuable way for the website owner to collect feedback or other information, their implementation, especially when placed on every page, can undermine site performance.

Why Webforms Are Not Cached

Web forms often collect personal data (e.g., names, emails, comments). Caching these pages can expose sensitive information and compromise privacy principles, resulting in:

  • Exposure of sensitive data, where one visitor sees data entered by another
  • Incorrect form states, such as pre-filled fields or submission errors
  • Legacy of prefilled or stale data from previous sessions, leading to confusion or errors for the user.

For this reason, pages with webforms are excluded from Akamai’s edge caching and Drupal’s internal page caching mechanisms.

Pitfalls of Webforms on Every Page

It may seem helpful to include a quick feedback form (e.g., “Was this page helpful?”) across every page of a site, but this can introduce performance and caching issues at the Drupal level and via Akamai. Every homepage visit requires a call back to the origin server for the page to be retrieved as it will not exist in the Akamai cache.

In addition, with no caching, your homepage load times will also increase. The origin server will receive more traffic and may struggle to respond under load, especially during high-demand events or promotions.

If the Drupal origin server experiences an outage, Akamai cannot serve a cached version of the homepage. This may result in your homepage becoming unavailable to all users, even during short-term outages.

Web Forms That Work

We encourage site builders and content authors to apply thoughtful placement of webforms across your website, ensuring your interface remains clean, secure and navigable. Tips to keep in mind:

  • Create standalone pages for contact, newsletter sign-up, or feedback collection.
  • Link to these pages from the homepage, rather than embedding the form directly.

More Information

Need help crafting a webform strategy that strikes the right balance between functionality and performance? We're here to help — get in touch via our GovCMS Service Desk.