Valkey is the safe continuation for self-hosters and anyone on AWS or GCP managed caches: same engine lineage, BSD license, foundation governance. Redis is the right pick if you lean on the former Stack features — JSON, the query engine, vector sets — or you are paying Redis Ltd. for cloud or support anyway. The core protocol is still compatible; the projects are slowly growing apart.
Redis
The original in-memory data structure server.
Since
2009
By
Redis Ltd. (created by Salvatore Sanfilippo)
License
AGPLv3 / RSALv2 / SSPLv1 (tri-license since Redis 8)
This is one codebase that split in March 2024. Redis Ltd. moved Redis off the BSD license; within a week, former core maintainers regrouped under the Linux Foundation and continued development from Redis 7.2.4 as Valkey. Two years on, the Valkey vs Redis question is less about features — both descend from the same engine and speak the same protocol — and more about licensing, governance, and which side your cloud provider builds on.
Quick takes
If you're…
You self-host and your legal team flags AGPL or source-available terms→ValkeyValkey is plain BSD-3-Clause under foundation governance. Nothing to review twice.
You use JSON documents, the query engine, or vector sets→RedisRedis 8 folded the former Stack modules into core. Valkey’s equivalents are younger, separate modules.
You run on AWS ElastiCache or MemoryDB→ValkeyAWS ships Valkey engines at lower prices and points new investment there.
You embed the server in a product you redistribute→ValkeyBSD-3 redistributes cleanly. AGPL and RSALv2 both need legal attention in that scenario.
You pay for Redis Cloud or Redis Software and it works→RedisThe commercial relationship is the product. Switching engines buys you nothing.
You want maximum throughput from one big multi-core box→ValkeyValkey 8’s I/O threading rework targets exactly this; AWS measured up to 3x the throughput of 7.2.
You have a stable Redis 7.x estate and no licensing pressure→EitherBoth upgrade paths work from 7.2. Decide when something forces the question.
You want the team that includes the original author→RedisSalvatore Sanfilippo rejoined Redis Ltd. in late 2024 and drove vector sets into Redis 8.
Tri-licensed since Redis 8: AGPLv3, RSALv2, or SSPLv1, your choice. The March 2024 move off BSD made Redis source-available only; the AGPL option (May 2025) restored an OSI-approved path. AGPL is real open source, but it carries copyleft obligations BSD never did.
Valkey
BSD-3-Clause, the license Redis itself carried for fifteen years. Held by the Linux Foundation, which exists precisely so no single company can change it later. For permissive-license shops this is the entire argument.
ecosystem
Governance
edge: Valkey
Redis
Single vendor. Redis Ltd. owns the trademark, the repo, and the roadmap. That brings coherence and commercial backing — and it is also how the 2024 license change happened without community sign-off.
Valkey
Linux Foundation project with a technical steering committee of former Redis core maintainers, backed by AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson, and Snap. Slower to decide, structurally unable to relicense.
core
Drop-in compatibility
tie
Redis
Speaks RESP; data files and replication remained compatible through the 7.x line both projects share. Redis 8 keeps the protocol but adds new commands (vector sets) Valkey does not have.
Valkey
Forked from Redis 7.2.4, so anything that worked against Redis 7.2 works against Valkey unchanged — same commands, same RDB/AOF formats at the fork point. You can replicate from a Redis 7.2 primary to a Valkey replica and cut over. Post-8.0 features on each side no longer track the other.
core
Performance work since the fork
depends
Redis
Redis 8 shipped over 30 performance improvements — up to 87% faster on specific commands and roughly 2x throughput in Redis Ltd.’s own numbers — while keeping the mostly single-threaded command model.
Valkey
Valkey 8.0 rebuilt I/O threading so socket work runs genuinely parallel to command execution; AWS measured up to 230% more throughput than 7.2 on multi-core machines, plus a memory-overhead reduction. The fork bet harder on multi-threading.
features
Beyond core data types
edge: Redis
Redis
Redis 8 folded the former Stack modules into core under the new licenses: JSON, time series, probabilistic types, the query engine, and vector sets. One install gets all of it.
Valkey
Core types match Redis 7.2, and the project ships its own modules (JSON, Bloom filters, search is in progress) under the same BSD terms. Younger and thinner than the Redis 8 bundle — check the specific feature before assuming parity.
ecosystem
Managed services
edge: Valkey
Redis
Redis Cloud from Redis Ltd. is the first-party option and the only place the commercial feature set is fully managed. The hyperscalers still run legacy Redis OSS 7.x engines but are not building on Redis 8.
Valkey
AWS ElastiCache and MemoryDB added Valkey engines in October 2024 and priced them below the Redis OSS equivalents — about a third cheaper serverless, about a fifth cheaper node-based. Google Memorystore and most independent providers (Aiven, Instaclustr, Upstash) sided with Valkey too.
ecosystem
Client libraries
tie
Redis
Owns the major clients: redis-py, Jedis, node-redis, go-redis all live under the Redis GitHub org now. They work fine against Valkey today, but the maintenance incentive belongs to Redis Ltd.
Valkey
Everything that speaks RESP works. The project also backs Valkey GLIDE, a multi-language client originally built by AWS that targets both engines. Long-term, expect each side’s clients to chase their own server’s new commands first.
ops
Switching cost
edge: Valkey
Redis
Staying put costs nothing today. The bill arrives only if AGPL/RSAL terms bite your use case, or if your managed provider deprecates its Redis OSS engine underneath you.
Valkey
From any Redis up to 7.2: replicate over, promote, done — config files and persistence formats carry across. On ElastiCache it is a blue/green engine swap. From Redis 8 specifically, features without Valkey equivalents (vector sets, integrated query engine) block the path.
History
How one cache became two projects.
The whole Redis vs Valkey decision traces back to about ten days in March 2024.
On March 20, 2024, Redis Ltd. announced that future Redis releases would ship under dual source-available licenses — RSALv2 and SSPLv1 — ending fifteen years of BSD. The stated reason was the standard one: hyperscalers selling managed Redis without contributing back. On March 28, the Linux Foundation announced Valkey, a continuation of the BSD codebase from Redis 7.2.4, with former Redis core maintainers from AWS, Google, and Ericsson among its leadership and AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, and Snap as backers.
The sequel complicated the story. In May 2025, Redis 8 added AGPLv3 as a third licensing option — an OSI-approved open source license — alongside the integration of the former Stack modules into core and the return of creator Salvatore Sanfilippo. So the blunt 2024 framing ("Redis is no longer open source") is now outdated: Redis 8 is open source under AGPL. What the AGPL option does not undo is the governance precedent. A single company changed the license once and could change terms again; Valkey’s foundation structure exists so that cannot happen there. That, more than any feature, is what each side is actually selling.
For most workloads the honest summary is: if you were happy with Redis 7.2, Valkey is that project continued under the old license with new contributors and a head start on I/O threading. If what you want is the Redis 8 feature set or a commercial relationship, Redis Ltd. is the only place to get either.
Vertical scale on one huge box; RESP-compatible, BSL-licensed
Garnet
Microsoft’s RESP-compatible store; MIT license, .NET shops
KeyDB
The earlier multi-threaded fork; largely superseded by Valkey
Upstash / serverless caches
Pay-per-request caching without managing instances
Situational picks
For specific cases.
Self-hosted cache fleet at a permissive-license company
Valkey
BSD-3 under the Linux Foundation removes the license review and the relicensing risk in one move. The engine is the one you already know.
JSON documents, full-text query, or vector search in the cache layer
Redis
Redis 8 ships all of it in core. Valkey’s module equivalents are younger and search is still maturing — verify before betting on parity.
ElastiCache or MemoryDB user deciding on the next engine version
Valkey
AWS prices Valkey engines lower and contributes to the project directly. The migration is a managed engine swap, not a rewrite.
Enterprise with a Redis Ltd. contract and Stack features in production
Redis
You are buying support, managed service, and the commercial feature set. The license debate is someone else’s problem.
Greenfield project, no constraints yet
Valkey
Start on the permissive default with hyperscaler backing. If you later need Redis-only features, the protocol compatibility makes the early-stage switch cheap.
One enormous box that must serve millions of ops/sec
Dragonfly (or shard Valkey)
Dragonfly was built multi-threaded from scratch for exactly this shape. Mind its BSL license; otherwise, a small Valkey cluster does the same job with more moving parts.