Top Redis™ Alternatives for 2025
Redis™ was released by Salvatore Sanfilippo in 2009. From its inception, it was a fully open-source product that rapidly gained popularity by providing a fast, robust in-memory database that was both easy to use and simple to manage.
Today, Redis™ is ubiquitous in web applications—it’s used as a caching layer to accelerate performance, as an ultra-fast in-memory database, as a reliable pub/sub system, as a session manager, and even as a message queue.
In March 2024, however, Redis™ switched its license from open source to a source-available model. This move left many longtime users wondering whether they should continue using the “good old” Redis™ or migrate to a different vendor.
Fortunately, Redis™ drop-in replacements have been available for over a decade, making a switch with minimal code changes entirely possible. In recent years, the number of alternatives has grown significantly, and each vendor now offers unique features that might make their solution more suitable for certain use cases.
In this post, I provide an overview of well-known Redis™ alternatives to help you choose the one that best fits your use case and requirements. I’ve strived to keep this review as objective as possible so you can make an informed decision for your project. If you notice any omissions or inaccuracies, please email me and I’ll update the article accordingly. While most vendors claim that their solution is the best, I aim to offer a neutral perspective based on my own experience and expertise.
Redis™
Redis™ is the original implementation, ensuring 100% compatibility with its documented behavior and features. Over the years, Redis™ has proven to be extremely stable and has built a massive community. Whether you need help from community members or support from Redis™ Labs, assistance is never far away.
However, Redis™’s conservative development approach means it has not fully embraced some of the latest trends in hardware and software design. For example, being single-threaded, Redis™ can utilize only one CPU core—limiting its ability to leverage modern multi-core architectures.
If stability and reliability are your primary concerns and you don’t require bleeding-edge features or maximum performance, Redis™ remains an excellent choice.
KeyDB
KeyDB was launched in 2019 and is often cited as the first Redis™ drop-in replacement. This fork of Redis™ has been optimized for multi-threading and includes several performance enhancements over the original. While early versions claimed 100% Redis™ compatibility, some incompatibilities existed initially—but many have been addressed over time.
In my experience, KeyDB is less stable than Redis™ and isn’t maintained as actively. Its smaller community means that issues might take longer to resolve—or, in some cases, you may need to implement fixes yourself.
Update: On January 1, 2025, KeyDB’s main maintainer, John Sully, announced that he would be leaving the project announcement.
Valkey
Valkey was created shortly after Redis™ transitioned to a source-available license. As a fork of Redis™ (originating from version 7.2.4), Valkey was 100% compatible from the start. In less than a year, Valkey released a major update featuring unique enhancements such as RDMA support, improved multi-core utilization, and enhanced I/O multithreading- benchmarks suggest throughput increases of over three times compared to its previous version.
Valkey is a promising project that has been actively maintained and continues to evolve. Although its cutting-edge features like RDMA may introduce some stability trade-offs compared to Redis™, my experience so far has been very positive. If you value an open-source, Redis™-compatible service and want to leverage the latest hardware and software advancements, Valkey is a strong contender.
DragonflyDB
DragonflyDB is a Redis™-compatible service developed by a commercial company. Unlike Redis™—which is written in C—DragonflyDB is built from scratch in C++, a significant architectural shift. DragonflyDB claims full Redis™ compatibility, and in my experience, this holds true. The development team is highly active, with a clear focus on maximizing performance and stability.
One of DragonflyDB’s key advantages is its advanced multithreading capabilities, enabling it to harness multi-core CPUs for significant performance gains. It also offers unique features like improved memory utilization (up to 60% better) and a snapshotting mechanism that can be up to 30 times faster than Redis™.
At the time of writing, DragonflyDB lacks support for Append-Only Files (AOF). This means you must rely on RDB snapshotting for persistence—a method that, while reliable, may not provide the same level of data safety as AOF in the event of a crash. In my opinion, deploying DragonflyDB in a high-availability setup with replication is the best way to mitigate this risk.
Regarding licensing, DragonflyDB is offered under a source-available license similar to recent Redis™ releases. This license allows free usage but restricts cloud providers from offering DragonflyDB as a managed service. In other words, you can deploy it on your own infrastructure—but if you want a fully managed service, you must use DragonflyDB’s cloud offering.
If you’re looking for a Redis™ drop-in replacement that prioritizes performance and stability—and you’re comfortable with a source-available license and the current lack of AOF support—DragonflyDB is an excellent option.
Upstash
Upstash is a commercial, Redis™-compatible service offered exclusively as a fully managed cloud solution. Unlike some alternatives, you cannot deploy Upstash on your own infrastructure; you must use their cloud service.
One of Upstash’s primary advantages is its serverless architecture, which automatically scales based on your application’s needs. For instance, you don’t have to worry about memory constraints—Upstash dynamically adjusts memory allocation as usage increases.
Upstash is an attractive option if you prefer a fully managed service without the overhead of infrastructure management, and if automatic scaling is a priority. However, its pricing model—charging per Redis™ command executed rather than a fixed monthly fee—can make it more expensive, particularly for high-throughput applications. In my experience, while Upstash is stable and reliable, it may not deliver the raw performance of some other alternatives. If performance isn’t your primary concern and you value a hassle-free, automatically scaling service, Upstash is a solid choice.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon has significantly expanded its Redis™-compatible offerings in recent years, now providing a diverse array of services with varying features and pricing. Let’s review each of these options.
ElastiCache for Redis™
Amazon’s ElastiCache for Redis™ is a fully managed Redis™ service with a long track record of stability and reliability. Its key benefits include high availability, automatic failover, and reduced infrastructure management.
While performance is generally good, ElastiCache may not match the speed of some newer alternatives optimized for modern hardware. Its pricing is competitive—costs are based on the memory allocated to your Redis™ instances, allowing for flexible scaling. One important consideration is that ElastiCache is accessible only from within the Amazon network. If you require external access, you might need to set up a VPN or AWS Direct Connect, which can complicate the configuration and add extra costs.
ElastiCache Valkey
Due to licensing changes that prevented Amazon from continuing with the latest original Redis™ releases, they decided to support the Valkey project. This Valkey-based version of ElastiCache is fully compatible with Redis™ and offers the same features—such as high availability, automatic failover, and clustering—as the original ElastiCache for Redis™, with the added advantage of leveraging the latest enhancements found in Valkey.
ElastiCache Serverless
The latest addition to the ElastiCache family is the Serverless Redis™ service. Similar to Upstash, this service is serverless, offers 99.99% uptime, and scales automatically based on your application’s demands. However, unlike Upstash, ElastiCache Serverless is only accessible within the Amazon network, which may limit external access. The pricing model is straightforward: you pay for the total memory used along with the number of ElastiCache Processing Units (ECPUs). Since understanding the practical implications of ECPUs for your application can be challenging, it’s advisable to conduct tests to accurately gauge costs for your specific use case. Notably, this serverless option is available for both open-source Redis™ and Valkey, incorporating the latest features of the Valkey project.
MemoryDB
MemoryDB, released by Amazon in 2021, is designed with a strong emphasis on data durability and availability, making it one of the safest Redis™-compatible options available. It is offered solely as a fully managed service and is intended for deployment on large EC2 instances—generally making it one of the more expensive alternatives.
MemoryDB is an excellent choice if data durability, high performance, and high availability are paramount and you’re willing to invest in a premium solution. Apart from its enhanced guarantees, MemoryDB shares many similarities with other ElastiCache services and, like them, is accessible only from within the Amazon network.
Other Cloud Providers
While AWS dominates the cloud market, other providers offer robust Redis™-compatible solutions:
- Azure Cache for Redis: Fully managed service with enterprise-grade security and Redis™ 7.0 compatibility.
- Google Cloud Memorystore: Supports Redis™ clustering and seamless integration with GCP services.
Feature Comparison
| Solution | License | Managed Option | Multithreading | Unique Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redis™ | Source-available | Yes (Redis Ltd) | No | Proven stability, large community | Legacy systems, simplicity |
| KeyDB | BSD-3 | No | Yes | Multi-threading, performance improvements | Performance-critical workloads |
| Valkey | BSD-3 | Yes (AWS) | Yes | RDMA support, active development | High-throughput, open-source fans |
| DragonflyDB | BSL 1.1 | Yes (Vendor) | Yes | Memory efficiency, horizontal scaling | Performance-critical workloads |
| Upstash | Proprietary | Yes (vendor) | No | Serverless, pay-per-request | Ephemeral workloads, auto-scaling |
| AWS ElastiCache | Proprietary | Yes | Varies | Deep AWS integration, serverless option | AWS-centric teams |
| AWS MemoryDB | Proprietary | Yes | No | Enhanced data durability, high performance | High-availability, data safety |
Conclusion
Choosing the right Redis™ replacement ultimately depends on your application’s requirements, budget, and your preference between managing your own infrastructure versus using a fully managed service. Here’s a quick recap:
- Redis™ remains a rock-solid, community-backed option if stability is your top priority and you don’t need the latest performance optimizations.
- KeyDB offers multi-threading and performance improvements but may lag behind in stability and community support.
- Valkey provides modern features like RDMA and enhanced multi-core utilization, making it ideal for those who want to leverage the latest hardware advancements, and want to stick with an open-source solution.
- DragonflyDB excels in performance and memory utilization with advanced multithreading—if you can work within its current licensing model and persistence limitations.
- Upstash is perfect for those who prefer a fully managed, serverless solution, despite its potentially higher cost per command.
- Amazon’s offerings (ElastiCache for Redis™, ElastiCache Valkey, ElastiCache Serverless, and MemoryDB) cater to a wide range of needs, from cost efficiency and scalability to enhanced data durability and performance, albeit with the caveat of network accessibility constraints.
The landscape of Redis™-compatible solutions is evolving rapidly. What might be the best choice today could shift as projects mature and new features emerge. It’s important to stay informed, run performance tests, and consider your specific use case before making a final decision.
References
About the Author
Manuel Astudillo is a software engineer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Taskforce.sh Inc., a company that provides consulting services for software development and cloud infrastructure. He is also the creator of BullMQ, a Node.js library for handling distributed job queues. You can find him on GitHub and Twitter.