Valkey

Valkey is an open-source, BSD-licensed fork of Redis created in 2024 after Redis Ltd relicensed the Redis source from BSD to a dual SSPL/RSALv2 model that the Linux Foundation, AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, and others judged unsuitable for open distribution. Valkey is now governed by the Linux Foundation and is API-compatible with Redis 7.2.

Why the fork happened

Redis was permissively licensed (BSD) for most of its life. In 2024 the project switched to SSPL and RSALv2, which restrict cloud providers from offering Redis as a managed service without commercial agreements with Redis Ltd. Within days, the Linux Foundation announced Valkey as a BSD-licensed continuation, with leading cloud providers committing engineering resources.

Current state

• API compatibility. Drop-in replacement for Redis 7.2; later versions diverge.
• Active development. Significant performance improvements, multi-threaded I/O, RDMA support.
• Managed offerings. AWS ElastiCache for Valkey, Google Memorystore for Valkey, and others now exist.
• Client compatibility. Existing Redis clients work without changes.

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Related Terms Redis, In-memory Database, Caching, Memcached

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Further Reading Redis as Infrastructure: Caching, Coordination, and Scale