The best Redis alternatives, compared honestly
Redis is still the reference in-memory data store, and Redis 8 is genuinely open source: since the announcement on 1 May 2025 you can use it under GNU AGPLv3, an OSI-approved licence. What changed underneath is that "Redis" now means three separate things: a licence you pick from three options, an engine, and whatever your managed provider actually runs. This page compares seven alternatives on the axis that decides most migrations, which is the licence, who maintains the code and what the clouds now price as the cheap default.
The best Redis alternative depends on what's actually hurting:
- You want a drop-in with no licence homework → Valkey: 3-Clause BSD under the Linux Foundation, wire-compatible, and the cheapest engine on Amazon ElastiCache at $6 per month.
- You want maximum throughput on one big box → Dragonfly: fast, but BSL 1.1 and therefore not open source until it converts to Apache 2.0 on 1 November 2030.
- You only use Redis as a string cache → Memcached: BSD-3, no persistence, no data structures, one less moving part.
- Nothing is hurting → stay on Redis: under AGPLv3 it is OSI-approved open source, and the real question is whether network copyleft fits your product, not whether the code is available.
Narrower cases are in the table below: Garnet if you need MIT, Kvrocks if the working set no longer fits in RAM.
Why teams look elsewhere
What pushes teams off Redis
Redis did not get worse at storing data in memory. Every reason below is about the paperwork and the bill that now sit around the engine, and each one carries a date you can check.
The licence moved twice in fourteen months
Redis was BSD for its whole life until March 2024, when it went dual source-available under RSALv2 and SSPLv1. On 1 May 2025 came the AGPLv3 announcement for Redis 8. The second move was a return to open source; the cost is that two changes in fourteen months taught a lot of teams to plan for a third.
Three licences, and you pick one
Redis states that "a user may select one of the following three license options to use Redis Open Source (starting with Redis 8) and subsequent versions": RSALv2, SSPLv1 or AGPLv3. Only AGPLv3 is OSI-approved. That is a real choice, but it is also a legal review that a BSD or MIT engine never triggers.
The cheap managed default is now Valkey
AWS lists ElastiCache for Valkey from $6 per month, with a 33% lower price on ElastiCache Serverless and a 20% lower price on node-based ElastiCache than other supported engines. Existing Redis OSS reserved nodes can be converted to Valkey for 20% more value. For a large fleet, that is the whole argument.
The modules are inside the same licence
Since Redis 8, RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries and RedisBloom are an integral part of Redis and carry the same tri-licence. If you adopted them assuming a separate track, they are not one; and they are also the part of your stack a fork is least likely to replace.
The jump from free to Pro is steep
Redis Cloud gives you 30 MB free. Essentials is listed "From $0.007/hour" and "Total $5/month" for a single database of 250 MB to 100 GB. Pro is listed "From $0.014/hour" with a $200/month minimum (the first $200 free). There is no middle rung between $5 and a $200 floor.
Popular fork does not mean living fork
KeyDB has roughly 12,500 stars and is the multithreaded fork everyone remembers. Its last push was 29 May 2024. The repository is not archived, so it looks maintained from a listicle; it has simply stood still for over two years. Check the commit log, not the star count.
The shortlist
7 Redis alternatives worth evaluating
The category splits into three jobs that get mixed up: a wire-compatible replacement for the Redis you already run, a faster engine you would migrate to on purpose, and a plain cache you may have been using Redis as all along. This ranking optimises for the first job, because that is what "Redis alternative" almost always means in practice. Each pick lists one honest strength and one real weakness.
A fork of the Redis codebase, licensed 3-Clause BSD and governed by the Linux Foundation (LF Projects, LLC) rather than a single vendor. Release 9.1 landed on 19 May 2026 and the project reports over eighty contributors. Wire-compatible, so existing clients connect unchanged, and it is the engine AWS prices lowest on ElastiCache. Weakness: it is a fork with its own roadmap, so over time the command sets diverge, and the Redis 8 modules are not part of the deal.
A modern engine written from scratch rather than forked, aimed at getting far more out of a single large machine. Weakness: it is licensed BSL 1.1, which is source-available, not open source. The Additional Use Grant forbids embedding it in a product that is itself an in-memory data store and forbids offering it as a managed service; the conversion to Apache 2.0 is dated 1 November 2030, or the fourth anniversary of a given release if that comes first.
A remote cache-store out of Microsoft Research, RESP-compatible so Redis clients can talk to it, licensed MIT and actively worked on (a push on 13 August 2026, roughly 11,900 stars). Weakness: it is the youngest and least battle-worn option here, the ecosystem around it is thin compared with the Redis lineage, and its .NET heritage shapes how you operate it.
BSD-3, still actively maintained (a push on 10 July 2026, roughly 14,200 stars), and radically simpler: a pure cache with no persistence and no data structures. If your Redis holds serialized strings with a TTL, this does that job with fewer moving parts. Weakness: the moment you want lists, sorted sets, streams, pub/sub or durability, Memcached is the wrong tool and no amount of tuning fixes that.
An Apache Software Foundation project under Apache-2.0, active (a push on 12 August 2026, roughly 4,400 stars), speaking the Redis protocol but storing data on disk through RocksDB. That is a different trade: capacity instead of RAM, which makes warm data cheap to keep. Weakness: disk is not memory, so latency profiles differ and it is not a drop-in for a hot path tuned around in-memory access.
A BSD-3 multithreaded fork of Redis with roughly 12,500 stars, and for years the standard answer to "Redis only uses one core". Weakness, and it is the decisive one: the repository (Snapchat/KeyDB) last saw a push on 29 May 2024. It is not archived, so it still shows up in every listicle, but adopting it in 2026 means adopting code that nobody has touched in over two years.
An independent fork of Redis OSS 7.2.4 under LGPL-3.0-only, hosted on Codeberg, deliberately small and conservative in scope. If your objection to Redis was governance rather than features, this is the option that keeps the old shape and copylefts it. Weakness: a small project with a small community, pinned to the 7.2.4 lineage, so you should not expect it to track new Redis or Valkey features.
Not shortlisted: managed wrappers around these same engines, such as Redis Cloud or Amazon ElastiCache. This page compares engines and their licences; which cloud you rent them from is a separate decision, and the pricing figures below are cited only where they show which engine a provider now treats as the cheap default.
Side by side
Redis alternatives compared
Prices and repository activity as of August 2026, from each project's own site, licence file or repository. The column that decides most migrations is the licence one: it is the difference between a swap your legal team never hears about and a review that outlasts the migration itself. Redis's own row is included as the baseline.
| Tool | Licence | OSI-approved? | Who maintains it | Maintenance signal (checked Aug 2026) | Speaks the Redis protocol? | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redis | Tri-licence: RSALv2, SSPLv1 or AGPLv3 | ✓ only if you pick AGPLv3 | Redis Ltd. | Redis 8 shipped with the AGPLv3 option announced 1 May 2025 | It is Redis | You want the modules and can live with AGPLv3 |
| Valkey | 3-Clause BSD | ✓ permissive | Linux Foundation (LF Projects, LLC) | Release 9.1 on 19 May 2026, over eighty contributors | Yes, fork of the Redis codebase, wire-compatible | You want a drop-in replacement and lower managed pricing |
| Dragonfly | BSL 1.1, converts to Apache 2.0 on 1 Nov 2030 | ✗ source-available | DragonflyDB | Vendor-maintained; no release date verified for this page | Not verified here | Throughput matters more than licence purity |
| Microsoft Garnet | MIT | ✓ permissive | Microsoft Research | Repository push on 13 Aug 2026, approx. 11,900 stars | Yes, RESP-compatible | The licence has to be MIT |
| Memcached | 3-Clause BSD | ✓ permissive | The Memcached project | Repository push on 10 Jul 2026, approx. 14,200 stars | ✗ different protocol and model | You only need a cache, not a data store |
| Apache Kvrocks | Apache-2.0 | ✓ permissive | Apache Software Foundation | Repository push on 12 Aug 2026, approx. 4,400 stars | Yes, Redis protocol over RocksDB storage | Capacity matters more than in-memory latency |
| KeyDB | 3-Clause BSD | ✓ permissive | Snapchat repository, no active owner visible | ✗ last push 29 May 2024, approx. 12,500 stars | Yes, fork of Redis | You are already running it and pinned |
| Redict | LGPL-3.0-only | ✓ copyleft | Independent project on Codeberg | Deliberately small and conservative, forked from Redis OSS 7.2.4 | Yes, fork of Redis OSS 7.2.4 | You want copyleft governance, not new features |
Numbers that do not fit in the cells: Redis Cloud is free up to 30 MB, Essentials is listed "From $0.007/hour" and "Total $5/month" for a single 250 MB to 100 GB database, and Pro is listed "From $0.014/hour" with a $200/month minimum and the first $200 free. Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey starts at $6/month, with a 33% lower price on ElastiCache Serverless and a 20% lower price on node-based ElastiCache than other supported engines. Star counts and push dates were read on 13 August 2026 and move constantly; pricing and free tiers change often, so check each vendor for current terms. Compiled August 2026.
Official pages: Redis licences · Redis pricing · Valkey · Amazon ElastiCache pricing · Dragonfly repository · Garnet repository · Memcached · Apache Kvrocks · KeyDB repository · Redict
A fair call
When Redis is still the right choice
Moving an in-memory store is not free: you repoint clients, re-run failover drills, and you carry two systems through at least one release cycle. Redis 8 under AGPLv3 is open source by the OSI's own definition, so "get off the proprietary thing" is not, on its own, a reason to move.
Redis is still right if…
- Your product is not distributed to third parties and never ships modified Redis over a network, in which case AGPLv3 asks nothing awkward of you and the tri-licence is simply a choice you make once.
- You use RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries or RedisBloom. They are an integral part of Redis from version 8 onward, and no fork on this page gives you the same set.
- Your Redis Cloud bill sits inside the free 30 MB tier or the $5 per month Essentials plan, where the pricing everyone complains about does not apply to you.
- You want the code maintained by the company that employs the people who wrote it, with a support contract attached.
Look elsewhere if…
- Legal cannot sign off on network copyleft, and RSALv2 or SSPLv1 are not options because they are not open source: Valkey is 3-Clause BSD.
- Managed spend is the real problem: Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey starts at $6 per month and prices 20% below other supported engines on node-based clusters.
- You are only storing strings with a TTL: Memcached does that with less to operate.
- The working set no longer fits in RAM: Apache Kvrocks keeps the protocol and puts the data on disk.
- You need a permissive licence with no vendor attached at all: Garnet is MIT.
Common questions
Common questions about Redis alternatives
What is the best Redis alternative in 2026?
Valkey, for most teams. It is a fork of the Redis codebase kept under the Linux Foundation (LF Projects, LLC) on the 3-Clause BSD licence, it is wire-compatible with Redis clients, and release 9.1 landed on 19 May 2026 with over eighty contributors. It is also the cheapest engine on Amazon ElastiCache, which starts at $6 per month for Valkey. If you only cache strings, Memcached is simpler; if you want maximum throughput on one large machine and can live with a source-available licence, Dragonfly is the other serious candidate.
Is Redis still open source in 2026?
Yes, if you choose the right licence. Redis Open Source 8.0.0 and later ships under a tri-licence: a user may select one of Redis Source Available License v2 (RSALv2), Server Side Public License v1 (SSPLv1), or GNU AGPLv3. Only AGPLv3 is approved by the Open Source Initiative, so Redis 8 under AGPLv3 is genuinely open source. The nuance is what AGPLv3 asks of you: it is a network copyleft licence, so distributing or offering modified Redis over a network carries source-disclosure obligations that BSD-licensed Valkey and MIT-licensed Garnet do not.
Why did managed providers move to Valkey?
Licensing and price. Valkey is a fork of the Redis codebase under the permissive 3-Clause BSD licence, governed by the Linux Foundation rather than a single vendor, which makes it straightforward for a cloud to package and resell. AWS prices it accordingly: Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey starts at $6 per month, with a 33% lower price on ElastiCache Serverless and a 20% lower price on node-based ElastiCache compared to other supported engines. Existing Redis OSS reserved nodes can be converted to Valkey for 20% more value.
How much does Redis Cloud cost in 2026?
Redis Cloud has a free tier of up to 30 MB. Essentials is listed from $0.007 per hour with a total of $5 per month, covering a single database between 250 MB and 100 GB. Pro is listed from $0.014 per hour with a minimum of $200 per month, and the first $200 is free. The practical shape of that ladder: the free tier is a scratchpad, Essentials covers one modest database, and the next real step up is a $200 monthly floor.
Is Dragonfly open source?
No. Dragonfly is licensed under the Business Source License 1.1, which is source-available rather than open source. Its LICENSE.md sets the conversion to Apache 2.0 for 1 November 2030, or the fourth anniversary of a given release, whichever comes first. The Additional Use Grant also forbids two things outright: embedding Dragonfly in a product that is itself an in-memory data store, and offering it as a managed service. For internal use that is usually fine, but it is not a licence you can treat as BSD or MIT.
Can I move from Redis to Valkey without changing code?
In most cases yes, because Valkey forked the Redis codebase and stays wire-compatible, so existing Redis clients speak to it unchanged. The work that remains is operational rather than in your application: repoint the connection string, re-check any client library that pins a Redis version, and confirm that every command and module you rely on exists on the target. That last check matters most if you use the modules that became part of Redis 8, namely RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries and RedisBloom.