Redis vs Valkey
This is the pairing almost everyone actually means by "Redis alternative": the same codebase, split in two, running the same protocol. The axis is not features but custody. Redis is developed by Redis Ltd. and offered under a tri-licence you choose from; Valkey is the same code carried forward under 3-Clause BSD by the Linux Foundation, and it is the engine AWS now prices lowest.
Pick Valkey if you want a permissive licence with no legal review, foundation governance instead of a single vendor, and the lower managed price: Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey starts at $6 per month and is priced 20% below other supported engines on node-based clusters. Stay on Redis if you use RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries or RedisBloom, which are integral to Redis 8 and have no equivalent in the fork, or if AGPLv3 is simply not a problem for how you ship software.
Side by side
Redis vs Valkey at a glance
| Redis | Valkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Tri-licence: choose RSALv2, SSPLv1 or AGPLv3 | 3-Clause BSD |
| OSI-approved? | ✓ only if you choose AGPLv3 | ✓ permissive, no conditions to review |
| Who holds it | Redis Ltd. | Linux Foundation (LF Projects, LLC) |
| Codebase | The original | Fork of the Redis codebase, wire-compatible |
| Licence history | BSD, then dual source-available in March 2024, then AGPLv3 announced 1 May 2025 | 3-Clause BSD since the fork |
| Release noted here | Redis 8, the version the tri-licence starts at | 9.1, released 19 May 2026 |
| Contributors | Vendor team plus community; not counted here | Over eighty, by the project's own count |
| RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries, RedisBloom | ✓ integral since Redis 8, same tri-licence | ✗ not part of the fork |
| Amazon ElastiCache | A supported engine, priced above Valkey | From $6/month; 33% lower on Serverless, 20% lower node-based than other supported engines |
| Reserved nodes | Redis OSS reserved nodes already purchased | Those nodes can be converted for 20% more value |
| First-party cloud | Redis Cloud: free to 30 MB, Essentials $5/month, Pro from a $200/month minimum | ✗ none; you rent it from providers or run it yourself |
| Best for | Teams using the Redis 8 modules or buying vendor support | Teams that want the same engine without a licence conversation |
Sources: Redis licences · Redis pricing · Valkey releases · Amazon ElastiCache pricing. Compiled August 2026.
Where Valkey wins
A licence nobody has to read
Valkey carries the Redis code under the 3-Clause BSD licence. There is no selection to make, no network clause to interpret, and nothing for a lawyer to sign off. Redis 8 is open source too, but only along one of its three paths: Redis states that a user may select one of RSALv2, SSPLv1 or AGPLv3, and only AGPLv3 is OSI-approved. If your company ships software to customers, that difference is a meeting; on BSD it is not.
Custody sits with a foundation, not a vendor
Valkey is held by LF Projects, LLC under the Linux Foundation. The practical value is not ideological: a foundation-held project cannot be relicensed the way a company-held one can, and Redis relicensed twice between March 2024 and May 2025. The project reports over eighty contributors, which matters because a fork with one corporate sponsor has the same single point of failure it was meant to escape.
AWS prices it as the cheap default
On its own pricing page, AWS says Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey starts at $6 per month and offers a 33% lower price on ElastiCache Serverless, plus a 20% lower price on node-based ElastiCache compared to other supported engines. Reserved nodes bought for Redis OSS can be converted to Valkey for 20% more value. For a single small cache that is pocket change; across a fleet it is the entire business case, and it comes from the vendor doing the discounting rather than from a fork's marketing.
Where Redis still wins
The modules. RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries and RedisBloom are an integral part of Redis from version 8 onward and fall under the same tri-licence. If you built search or JSON document handling on them, Valkey does not hand you an equivalent, and rebuilding that layer is a real project rather than a connection-string change. This single fact keeps more teams on Redis than any pricing argument keeps them from leaving.
The other honest case is contractual. Redis Ltd. employs the people who wrote the engine and sells support with the product; Redis Cloud is free up to 30 MB and $5 per month on Essentials for a single database between 250 MB and 100 GB. If your usage sits inside that, the pricing complaints aimed at the $200 per month Pro minimum are not aimed at you, and a migration buys you nothing you can measure.
Migrating Redis to Valkey
The path most teams take:
1. Inventory first. List every command, client library and module in use. Anything from the Redis 8 module set has no equivalent on the other side, so it decides the plan before anything else does.
2. Repoint, do not rewrite. Valkey is wire-compatible, so the change is usually the connection string, the managed engine selection and any client library pinned to a Redis version.
3. Run both for one cycle. Keep the old instance warm behind a flag and compare hit rates and latency on your own traffic; the overlap costs double for a week, which is cheaper than a rollback under load.
4. What does not move. Vendor support contracts, anything built on the Redis 8 modules, and any operational tooling tied to Redis Cloud specifics. Say that out loud before the migration, not during it.
Common questions
FAQ: Redis vs Valkey
Is Valkey a drop-in replacement for Redis?
For most workloads, yes. Valkey forked the Redis codebase and is wire-compatible, so existing Redis clients connect without code changes and the commands you already use behave the same way. Two things are worth checking before you commit: the modules that became an integral part of Redis 8, namely RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisTimeSeries and RedisBloom, are not part of Valkey, and the two projects have been diverging since the fork, with Valkey now at release 9.1 as of 19 May 2026. Inventory your command and module usage first, then repoint.
Is Valkey cheaper than Redis on AWS?
On Amazon ElastiCache, yes, and AWS says so on its own pricing page. Amazon ElastiCache for Valkey starts at $6 per month, carries 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. This compares two managed offerings, not the engines themselves: self-hosted Redis and self-hosted Valkey both cost whatever your own hardware costs.
Who controls Valkey?
Valkey is a Linux Foundation project, held by LF Projects, LLC, with the Redis code carried forward under the 3-Clause BSD licence. That is the substantive difference from Redis itself, which is developed by Redis Ltd. and licensed on the company's terms. A foundation cannot relicense the project the way a single vendor can, which is the reason cloud providers and licence-sensitive teams moved. The project reports over eighty contributors, so it is not one company's fork under a neutral logo.