In March 2024 Redis changed its license from BSD to a dual source-available license (RSALv2/SSPLv1). Within weeks the Linux Foundation launched Valkey, a fork of Redis 7.2.4 backed by AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson and others. Redis later added AGPLv3 as a third option with Redis 8.
If you run Redis today, you've probably been asked: should we move to Valkey? How much work is it?
What Valkey is
- A drop-in fork of Redis 7.2: the same RESP protocol, commands, data structures, persistence (RDB/AOF), replication, Sentinel and Cluster.
- BSD 3-Clause licensed, developed under the Linux Foundation.
- Actively developed on its own path. Valkey 8 reworked I/O threading for much higher throughput per node, and later releases add features of their own.
- Offered as a managed service by major clouds (for example Amazon ElastiCache and MemoryDB for Valkey, and Google Cloud Memorystore for Valkey), often priced below their Redis OSS equivalents.
Will my application notice?
Usually not. Existing clients (redis-py, ioredis, node-redis, Jedis, Lettuce, StackExchange.Redis, go-redis) speak the same protocol and work unchanged. Valkey also publishes its own client family, Valkey GLIDE.
Check compatibility where the projects have diverged since 7.2:
- Features added in Redis 7.4 and 8.x (for example Redis 8's built-in JSON, time series and query engine, previously Redis Stack modules) aren't part of Valkey core. Valkey has its own modules (
valkey-json,valkey-bloom,valkey-search) with overlapping but not identical features. - RediSearch, RedisJSON and other Redis Stack modules are licensed separately and don't ship with Valkey. If you use
FT.SEARCHorJSON.*, test the Valkey module equivalents carefully. - RDB format: Valkey loads RDB files from Redis ≤ 7.2. Files written by newer Redis versions may use a newer RDB format that Valkey can't read.
- Binary and config names:
valkey-server,valkey-cliandvalkey.conf. Most directives are accepted as-is.