Open Source Tools

3 Best Open Source Alternatives to Redis

3 open source alternatives100% OSI-approved licensesUpdated June 2026

Redis is the in-memory key-value store that became infrastructure: sub-millisecond reads, a rich set of data structures, and a reputation as the default cache and queue behind countless applications. The reason this page exists is licensing, not technology. In 2024 Redis moved its core off the permissive open source license it had carried for years to a source-available model, and the people who had built on it as genuinely open software did not follow - large parts of the community and several major sponsors forked the last open release and kept developing it under a permissive open source license instead.

The alternative below is that fork's lineage: a drop-in compatible server that speaks the same protocol and commands, so existing clients and tooling keep working, while the project stays under an open license that cannot be pulled out from under you. You get the same store you already depend on, with governance and code that remain open.

Dragonfly logo

1.Dragonfly

30.7kOtherC++ Self-host
Dragonfly screenshot

Dragonfly is an in-memory data store for modern application workloads. It is compatible with Redis and Memcached APIs, so applications can adopt it without code changes. It targets cache and key-value database use cases while preserving atomicity guarantees for operations and low, sub-millisecond latency over high throughput.

  • Compatible with Redis and Memcached APIs
  • Supports about 185 Redis commands and all Memcached commands except cas
  • Shared-nothing architecture partitions the keyspace between threads
  • Cache mode with adaptive eviction near the maxmemory limit
More about DragonflyVisit website
Valkey logo

2.Valkey

26.1kOtherC Self-host
Valkey screenshot

Valkey is a high-performance data structure server for key/value workloads, optimized for caching and other realtime workloads. It was forked from the open source Redis project right before Redis moved to new source available licenses, giving teams an open source path for Redis-style workloads.

  • Key/value workloads with native data structures
  • Plugin system for new data structures and access patterns
  • Server configuration by valkey.conf or command line options
  • Optional TLS support, built in or as a module
More about ValkeyVisit website
KeyDB logo

3.KeyDB

12.5kBSD-3-ClauseC++ Self-host
KeyDB screenshot

KeyDB is a high performance fork of Redis focused on multithreading, memory efficiency, and high throughput. It keeps full compatibility with the Redis protocol, modules, and scripts, including atomicity guarantees for scripts and transactions, so existing Redis deployments can use it as a drop-in replacement.

  • Multithreaded Redis-compatible server
  • Full Redis protocol, module, and script compatibility
  • Active Replication for hot-spare failover
  • MVCC architecture for non-blocking KEYS and SCAN
More about KeyDBVisit website

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