diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..66f8fb50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+.idea/
+.vscode/
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 7ec1d6db..3e3c2f1e 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-2.1.0
+2.1.1
diff --git a/cache.go b/cache.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a6260a47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cache.go
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+// Copyright 2023 Adam Tauber, Andrzej Lichnerowicz
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//	http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package colly
+
+import (
+	"crypto/sha1"
+	"encoding/gob"
+	"encoding/hex"
+	"errors"
+	"net/http"
+	"os"
+	"path"
+)
+
+// Cache is an interface which handles caching Collector's responses
+// The default Cache of the Collector is the NullCache.
+// FileSystemCache keeps compatibility with non-pluggable caching in legacy
+// Collector. For this reason, one can set cache folder via `CACHE_DIR`
+// environment variable, or by passing CacheDir to NewCollector.
+// Collector's caching backend can be changed too by calling new method
+// Collector.SetCache
+type Cache interface {
+	// Init initializes the caching backend
+	Init() error
+	// Get retrieves a previously cached response for the given request
+	Get(request *http.Request) (*Response, error)
+	// Put stores a response given request in cache
+	Put(request *http.Request, response *Response) error
+	// Close finalizes caching backend
+	Close() error
+}
+
+const (
+	// DefaultCacheFolderPermissions is set to rwx(user), rx(group), nothing for others
+	DefaultCacheFolderPermissions = 0750
+)
+
+var (
+	ErrCacheFolderNotConfigured = errors.New("Cache's base folder cannot be empty")
+	ErrCacheNotConfigured       = errors.New("Caching backend is not configured")
+	ErrRequestNoCache           = errors.New("Request cannot be cached")
+	ErrCachedNotFound           = errors.New("Cached response not found")
+)
+
+type NullCache struct {
+}
+
+func (c *NullCache) Init() error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+// Get always retrieves an error to force re-download
+func (c *NullCache) Get(request *http.Request) (*Response, error) {
+	return nil, ErrCachedNotFound
+}
+
+func (c *NullCache) Put(request *http.Request, response *Response) error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (c *NullCache) Close() error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+// FileSystemCache is the default cache backend of colly.
+// FileSystemCache keeps responses persisted on the disk.
+type FileSystemCache struct {
+	BaseDir string
+}
+
+// Init ensures that specified base folder exists
+func (c *FileSystemCache) Init() error {
+	if c.BaseDir == "" {
+		return ErrCacheFolderNotConfigured
+	}
+
+	return os.MkdirAll(c.BaseDir, DefaultCacheFolderPermissions)
+}
+
+func (c *FileSystemCache) getFilenameFromRequest(request *http.Request) (string, string) {
+	sum := sha1.Sum([]byte(request.URL.String()))
+	hash := hex.EncodeToString(sum[:])
+	dir := path.Join(c.BaseDir, hash[:2])
+	return dir, path.Join(dir, hash)
+}
+
+// Get returns an error for HTTP verbs other than GET and if request headers
+// specify `Cache-Control: no-cache`.
+func (c *FileSystemCache) Get(request *http.Request) (*Response, error) {
+	if request.Method != "GET" || request.Header.Get("Cache-Control") == "no-cache" {
+		return nil, ErrRequestNoCache
+	}
+
+	_, filename := c.getFilenameFromRequest(request)
+
+	if file, err := os.Open(filename); err == nil {
+		resp := new(Response)
+		err = gob.NewDecoder(file).Decode(resp)
+		file.Close()
+		return resp, err
+	} else {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+}
+
+// Put persists response on disk. For compatibility with legacy non-pluggable version,
+// it keeps only one level of folder hierarchy.
+func (c *FileSystemCache) Put(request *http.Request, response *Response) error {
+	dir, filename := c.getFilenameFromRequest(request)
+
+	if _, err := os.Stat(dir); err != nil {
+		if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, DefaultCacheFolderPermissions); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+	file, err := os.Create(filename + "~")
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	if err := gob.NewEncoder(file).Encode(response); err != nil {
+		file.Close()
+		return err
+	}
+	file.Close()
+	return os.Rename(filename+"~", filename)
+}
+
+func (c *FileSystemCache) Close() error {
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/colly.go b/colly.go
index fdca9451..9df359f7 100644
--- a/colly.go
+++ b/colly.go
@@ -85,9 +85,6 @@ type Collector struct {
 	// 0 means unlimited.
 	// The default value for MaxBodySize is 10MB (10 * 1024 * 1024 bytes).
 	MaxBodySize int
-	// CacheDir specifies a location where GET requests are cached as files.
-	// When it's not defined, caching is disabled.
-	CacheDir string
 	// IgnoreRobotsTxt allows the Collector to ignore any restrictions set by
 	// the target host's robots.txt file.  See http://www.robotstxt.org/ for more
 	// information.
@@ -119,6 +116,7 @@ type Collector struct {
 	// Set it to 0 for infinite requests (default).
 	MaxRequests uint32
 
+	cache                    Cache
 	store                    storage.Storage
 	debugger                 debug.Debugger
 	robotsMap                map[string]*robotstxt.RobotsData
@@ -240,7 +238,14 @@ var envMap = map[string]func(*Collector, string){
 		c.AllowedDomains = strings.Split(val, ",")
 	},
 	"CACHE_DIR": func(c *Collector, val string) {
-		c.CacheDir = val
+		if c.cache != nil {
+			c.cache.Close()
+		}
+		c.cache = &FileSystemCache{
+			BaseDir: val,
+		}
+		c.cache.Init()
+		c.backend.CacheBackend = c.cache
 	},
 	"DETECT_CHARSET": func(c *Collector, val string) {
 		c.DetectCharset = isYesString(val)
@@ -393,7 +398,14 @@ func MaxBodySize(sizeInBytes int) CollectorOption {
 // CacheDir specifies the location where GET requests are cached as files.
 func CacheDir(path string) CollectorOption {
 	return func(c *Collector) {
-		c.CacheDir = path
+		if c.cache != nil {
+			c.cache.Close()
+		}
+		c.cache = &FileSystemCache{
+			BaseDir: path,
+		}
+		c.cache.Init()
+		c.backend.CacheBackend = c.cache
 	}
 }
 
@@ -471,10 +483,12 @@ func (c *Collector) Init() {
 	c.MaxRequests = 0
 	c.store = &storage.InMemoryStorage{}
 	c.store.Init()
+	c.cache = &NullCache{}
+	c.cache.Init()
 	c.MaxBodySize = 10 * 1024 * 1024
 	c.backend = &httpBackend{}
 	jar, _ := cookiejar.New(nil)
-	c.backend.Init(jar)
+	c.backend.Init(jar, c.cache)
 	c.backend.Client.CheckRedirect = c.checkRedirectFunc()
 	c.wg = &sync.WaitGroup{}
 	c.lock = &sync.RWMutex{}
@@ -699,7 +713,7 @@ func (c *Collector) fetch(u, method string, depth int, requestData io.Reader, ct
 		c.handleOnResponseHeaders(&Response{Ctx: ctx, Request: request, StatusCode: statusCode, Headers: &headers})
 		return !request.abort
 	}
-	response, err := c.backend.Cache(req, c.MaxBodySize, checkHeadersFunc, c.CacheDir)
+	response, err := c.backend.Cache(req, c.MaxBodySize, checkHeadersFunc)
 	if proxyURL, ok := req.Context().Value(ProxyURLKey).(string); ok {
 		request.ProxyURL = proxyURL
 	}
@@ -1027,6 +1041,16 @@ func (c *Collector) SetStorage(s storage.Storage) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// SetCache overrides the default in-memory storage.
+// Storage stores scraping related data like cookies and visited urls
+func (c *Collector) SetCache(cache Cache) error {
+	if err := cache.Init(); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	c.cache = cache
+	return nil
+}
+
 // SetProxy sets a proxy for the collector. This method overrides the previously
 // used http.Transport if the type of the transport is not http.RoundTripper.
 // The proxy type is determined by the URL scheme. "http"
@@ -1295,7 +1319,6 @@ func (c *Collector) Clone() *Collector {
 	return &Collector{
 		AllowedDomains:         c.AllowedDomains,
 		AllowURLRevisit:        c.AllowURLRevisit,
-		CacheDir:               c.CacheDir,
 		DetectCharset:          c.DetectCharset,
 		DisallowedDomains:      c.DisallowedDomains,
 		ID:                     atomic.AddUint32(&collectorCounter, 1),
diff --git a/colly_test.go b/colly_test.go
index 91f1441e..a632edd5 100644
--- a/colly_test.go
+++ b/colly_test.go
@@ -368,8 +368,9 @@ var newCollectorTests = map[string]func(*testing.T){
 		} {
 			c := NewCollector(CacheDir(path))
 
-			if got, want := c.CacheDir, path; got != want {
-				t.Fatalf("c.CacheDir = %q, want %q", got, want)
+			fileSystemCache := c.backend.CacheBackend.(*FileSystemCache)
+			if got, want := fileSystemCache.BaseDir, path; got != want {
+				t.Fatalf("c.backend.CacheBackend.BaseDir = %q, want %q", got, want)
 			}
 		}
 	},
diff --git a/http_backend.go b/http_backend.go
index 0b201d23..26adcd52 100644
--- a/http_backend.go
+++ b/http_backend.go
@@ -15,15 +15,10 @@
 package colly
 
 import (
-	"crypto/sha1"
-	"encoding/gob"
-	"encoding/hex"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"math/rand"
 	"net/http"
-	"os"
-	"path"
 	"regexp"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
@@ -35,9 +30,10 @@ import (
 )
 
 type httpBackend struct {
-	LimitRules []*LimitRule
-	Client     *http.Client
-	lock       *sync.RWMutex
+	LimitRules   []*LimitRule
+	Client       *http.Client
+	lock         *sync.RWMutex
+	CacheBackend Cache
 }
 
 type checkHeadersFunc func(req *http.Request, statusCode int, header http.Header) bool
@@ -94,13 +90,14 @@ func (r *LimitRule) Init() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-func (h *httpBackend) Init(jar http.CookieJar) {
+func (h *httpBackend) Init(jar http.CookieJar, cache Cache) {
 	rand.Seed(time.Now().UnixNano())
 	h.Client = &http.Client{
 		Jar:     jar,
 		Timeout: 10 * time.Second,
 	}
 	h.lock = &sync.RWMutex{}
+	h.CacheBackend = cache
 }
 
 // Match checks that the domain parameter triggers the rule
@@ -129,42 +126,21 @@ func (h *httpBackend) GetMatchingRule(domain string) *LimitRule {
 	return nil
 }
 
-func (h *httpBackend) Cache(request *http.Request, bodySize int, checkHeadersFunc checkHeadersFunc, cacheDir string) (*Response, error) {
-	if cacheDir == "" || request.Method != "GET" || request.Header.Get("Cache-Control") == "no-cache" {
-		return h.Do(request, bodySize, checkHeadersFunc)
-	}
-	sum := sha1.Sum([]byte(request.URL.String()))
-	hash := hex.EncodeToString(sum[:])
-	dir := path.Join(cacheDir, hash[:2])
-	filename := path.Join(dir, hash)
-	if file, err := os.Open(filename); err == nil {
-		resp := new(Response)
-		err := gob.NewDecoder(file).Decode(resp)
-		file.Close()
+func (h *httpBackend) Cache(request *http.Request, bodySize int, checkHeadersFunc checkHeadersFunc) (*Response, error) {
+	if resp, err := h.CacheBackend.Get(request); err == nil {
 		checkHeadersFunc(request, resp.StatusCode, *resp.Headers)
 		if resp.StatusCode < 500 {
 			return resp, err
 		}
 	}
+
 	resp, err := h.Do(request, bodySize, checkHeadersFunc)
 	if err != nil || resp.StatusCode >= 500 {
 		return resp, err
 	}
-	if _, err := os.Stat(dir); err != nil {
-		if err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0750); err != nil {
-			return resp, err
-		}
-	}
-	file, err := os.Create(filename + "~")
-	if err != nil {
-		return resp, err
-	}
-	if err := gob.NewEncoder(file).Encode(resp); err != nil {
-		file.Close()
-		return resp, err
-	}
-	file.Close()
-	return resp, os.Rename(filename+"~", filename)
+
+	err = h.CacheBackend.Put(request, resp)
+	return resp, err
 }
 
 func (h *httpBackend) Do(request *http.Request, bodySize int, checkHeadersFunc checkHeadersFunc) (*Response, error) {