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Valkey

Valkey is an open source fork of Redis under the Linux Foundation, compatible with the Redis protocol and licensed under BSD.

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What it is

Valkey appeared in March 2024, when Redis Ltd changed the Redis license. The fork was made from Redis 7.2.4 by engineers from AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson and others, and the Linux Foundation took the project in.

It stays drop-in compatible with Redis OSS: the same commands, clients and data formats. The BSD-3-Clause license did not change, which suits distributions and cloud providers.

Over time Valkey follows its own path: better I/O multithreading, new modules and memory optimizations. Cloud services such as AWS ElastiCache offer it as an alternative to Redis.

Use it when

  • You need a Redis-compatible cache or store under an open BSD license.
  • Company policy forbids SSPL or AGPL.
  • You use a cloud managed service that offers Valkey.

Avoid it when

  • You need commercial Redis modules (for example parts of Redis Stack) and support from Redis Ltd.
  • If a plain string cache is enough, Memcached is lighter.

Key concepts

Fork
A separate line of development that started from Redis 7.2.4 and goes its own way.
RESP protocol
The Redis protocol that Valkey supports, so the same client libraries work.
Open governance
Decisions are made by a technical committee from several companies, not by one owner company.
I/O threading
Separate threads handle network I/O, which raises throughput.

Example

Running in Docker and the same commands as in Redis through valkey-cli.

Interview questions

  1. 1. Why did Valkey appear?

    In 2024 Redis moved from BSD to RSALv2 / SSPLv1, which are not open source by the OSI definition. The community and cloud providers forked to keep a BSD version.

  2. 2. Can I replace Redis with Valkey without code changes?

    Mostly yes: the protocol and commands are compatible and clients work the same. Before migrating, check use of Redis Stack modules and commands added in newer Redis versions.

  3. 3. Who maintains Valkey?

    The Linux Foundation and a technical committee with people from several companies. The code is BSD-3-Clause licensed.

Comparisons with this technology

Related technologies

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