Valkey vs Redis
A comparison of Valkey, the Linux Foundation-backed BSD-licensed fork of Redis, against Redis itself following its 2024 license change and subsequent return to AGPLv3 open source with Redis 8.
Quick Answer
Valkey kept the original permissive BSD license and has become the default on major clouds and Linux distributions; Redis 8 returned to open source under AGPLv3 and folded its former Stack modules (JSON, vector search, time series) directly into the core engine, giving it a more integrated feature set.
Reviewed by TechLogHub Engineering Team. Last updated October 6, 2026. Updated for Redis 8's AGPLv3 licensing and integrated module features, and Valkey 9.1's May 2026 performance figures.
| Feature |  Valkey |  Redis |
|---|---|---|
| License | BSD 3-Clause (permissive) | AGPLv3 (copyleft, OSI-approved, since Redis 8) |
| Governance | Linux Foundation | Redis Inc. |
| Forked From / Major Version | Redis 7.2.4 (March 2024) | — |
| Current Version | Valkey 9.1 | — |
| Key Differentiating Feature | I/O multithreading for higher throughput on multi-core hardware | Natively integrated vector search, JSON, time series in core |
| Default on Cloud Providers | AWS ElastiCache, Google Cloud Memorystore, Akamai | Increasingly less common on major managed cloud services |
Valkey
An open-source, in-memory data store forked from Redis 7.2.4 in March 2024 following Redis Inc.'s license change, governed by the Linux Foundation with contributions from AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Snap, and Ericsson.
Pros
- Permissive BSD 3-Clause license — no restrictions on commercial use, redistribution, or offering it as a managed service
- Now the default in-memory cache on Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, and Arch, and AWS has migrated millions of ElastiCache nodes onto it
- I/O multithreading (8.x line) delivers up to 270% throughput gains and 70% latency improvements over single-threaded Redis in AWS benchmarks
- Valkey 9.1 (May 2026) reports around 2.1 million requests per second with reduced memory use
- Linux Foundation governance model removes the risk of a future surprise license change
Cons
- Trails Redis 8 specifically on integrated vector search and some newer query engine features, which Redis bundles natively
- Distributes JSON, search, and other advanced capabilities as separate bundled modules rather than fully unified into the core the way Redis 8 does
- Smaller commercial support ecosystem than Redis Inc.'s offering, relying more on community and cloud-provider support (AWS, GCP managed services)
- As the newer project, has a shorter independent track record, though it inherited Redis's mature codebase at the fork point
Best For
New projects wanting a drop-in Redis-compatible store with no licensing ambiguity, teams already on AWS ElastiCache or Google Cloud Memorystore (both default to Valkey), and anyone prioritizing long-term license stability.
Redis
The original in-memory data store, now at version 8 and open source again under AGPLv3 after a 2024 detour through source-available licenses, with the former Redis Stack modules (JSON, vector search, time series) folded directly into the core engine.
Pros
- Redis 8 added AGPLv3 as an OSI-approved open source licensing option, resolving the licensing controversy that triggered the Valkey fork
- Natively integrated JSON, vector search, time series, and probabilistic data types built into the core engine, no separate modules required
- Redis Query Engine (evolved from RediSearch) gives it a more integrated story for combining caching with vector similarity search
- More mature commercial support ecosystem through Redis Inc. for enterprises wanting a paid support relationship
- Largest overall ecosystem and historical production track record of any in-memory data store
Cons
- AGPLv3 is a copyleft license, meaningfully more restrictive than Valkey's permissive BSD license for certain commercial use cases
- The 2024 licensing controversy damaged trust with parts of the community that has only partially been repaired by the return to open source
- No longer the default choice on major cloud providers' managed services, which largely migrated to Valkey
- Single-threaded core command processing historically capped per-node throughput, though this has been an active area of improvement
Best For
Teams self-hosting with heavy use of Redis Stack modules (RedisSearch, RedisJSON) where Valkey's module ecosystem doesn't yet have mature equivalents, and organizations wanting Redis Inc.'s commercial support relationship.
How the License Fork Happened
In March 2024, Redis Inc. changed Redis's license from the permissive BSD license to a dual source-available model (SSPLv1 and RSALv2), primarily to prevent cloud providers from offering Redis as a competing managed service without a commercial agreement. The Linux Foundation immediately forked the last BSD-licensed release, Redis 7.2.4, as Valkey, with backing from AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Snap, and other major infrastructure companies. In May 2025, Redis Inc. added AGPLv3 as a third licensing option, making Redis 8 open source again, though under a more restrictive copyleft license than the original BSD terms.
Where the Two Projects Have Diverged Technically
Despite sharing a common origin, Redis and Valkey have genuinely diverged by 2026, though they remain roughly 90% compatible at the command level. Redis 8 folded its former Redis Stack modules — JSON, vector search, time series, and probabilistic data types — directly into the core engine, giving it a more unified feature story, particularly for applications combining caching with vector similarity search. Valkey's headline technical bet has instead been I/O multithreading, spreading network I/O across CPU cores in a way Redis's traditionally single-threaded command processing didn't, delivering meaningful throughput and latency improvements on multi-core hardware.
Cloud Provider Migration Reshaped the Default Choice
AWS quietly switched ElastiCache to default to Valkey for new clusters starting in 2024, and Google Cloud Memorystore followed a similar path, along with Akamai and the major Linux distributions (Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Arch) all shipping Valkey rather than Redis by default. This cloud-provider and distribution-level shift is arguably a more significant signal of where the ecosystem has settled than any single benchmark, since it changes what 'the default choice' actually means for most new deployments.
Migration Considerations
Because Valkey is wire-protocol compatible with Redis, existing Redis clients (ioredis, node-redis, and others) generally work without code changes when switching between the two. The practical risk area is specifically for teams with heavy dependence on Redis Stack modules like RedisSearch or RedisJSON, where Valkey's equivalent module ecosystem, while improving, doesn't yet have fully mature parity — this is the area worth testing carefully before migrating a production workload.
Verdict
Choose Valkey as the default for new projects — it has the more permissive license, no risk of future surprise licensing changes given its Linux Foundation governance, and it's already the default on major cloud providers' managed services. Choose Redis specifically if you rely heavily on Redis Stack modules (RedisSearch, RedisJSON) where Valkey's module ecosystem hasn't fully matured yet, or if you want Redis Inc.'s native commercial support relationship. Both are approximately 90% compatible at the command level and speak the same RESP protocol, so migration between them is generally a configuration change rather than a rewrite.