Valkey
Valkey is an open-source (BSD 3-clause) high-performance key/value datastore forked from Redis in 2024 and governed by the Linux Foundation.
Publisher review
Valkey is an open-source (BSD 3-clause) high-performance key/value datastore forked from Redis in 2024 and governed by the Linux Foundation. It serves caching, message queuing, and primary-database workloads, targeting developers and enterprises that require a permissively licensed, community-driven alternative to Redis after Redis’s shift to source-available licensing (RSALv2/SSPLv1). Major cloud providers — AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson, and Snap — back the project, contributing engineering resources and ensuring long-term neutrality. Valkey is particularly suited for organizations that prioritize open-source compliance, multi-cloud portability, and freedom from vendor lock-in, as well as teams seeking the latest performance and security improvements without licensing complexity.
Valkey 8.0 introduced enhanced asynchronous I/O threading, enabling concurrent network reads/writes while keeping command execution single-threaded for atomicity. On an AWS c7g.4xlarge instance (Graviton3, 16 vCPUs), Valkey 8.0 achieved 1.19 million requests per second — a 230% increase over Valkey 7.2’s 360K RPS. Version 9.1 (released May 2026) adds AVX512 SIMD acceleration, MultiPath TCP replication for network resilience, TLS certificate-based automatic client authentication, a SAFE shutdown mode for operational safety, unified auto-failover configuration, and the DELIFEQ command for developer experience. Valkey Performance Dashboards provide consolidated throughput trends across versions to help teams validate improvements and detect regressions.
Valkey competes directly with Redis (now source-available under RSALv2/SSPLv1) and KeyDB (a multi-threaded fork). In benchmarks, Valkey shows 37% higher write throughput and significantly better latency compared to Redis. Valkey 8.1’s I/O threading model delivers up to 112% throughput improvement over Redis 8.0 when io-threads is set to 8 on a multi-core Intel CPU. While KeyDB offers multi-threaded command execution, Valkey’s Linux Foundation governance and broad cloud-provider backing give it a stronger ecosystem for enterprise adoption. Valkey maintains the BSD 3-clause license, ensuring it remains freely available for any use, including commercial and embedded applications.
Valkey’s primary trade-off is maturity: as a 2024 fork, it lacks the years of production hardening and third-party tool integrations that Redis has accumulated. Some features — such as Redis Stack modules (RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisGraph) — are not yet fully ported or require additional setup. The multi-threaded I/O model, while improving throughput, can introduce higher CPU utilization under certain workloads, and teams may need to tune io-threads settings for their specific hardware. Additionally, the community is smaller than Redis’s, which may mean slower response times for niche issues or less third-party documentation. Enterprises migrating from Redis should plan for testing and validation, especially if they rely on proprietary Redis modules or specific Redis Stack capabilities.
How it works
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Multi-threaded I/O threading
Valkey 8.0+ uses asynchronous I/O threads to handle network reads/writes concurrently, while keeping command execution single-threaded for atomicity.
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AVX512 SIMD acceleration
Valkey 9.1 leverages AVX512 SIMD instructions to accelerate data processing, improving throughput on compatible Intel/AMD CPUs.
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MultiPath TCP replication
Supports MultiPath TCP for replication links, enhancing network resilience and throughput by using multiple network paths simultaneously.
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TLS certificate-based authentication
Enterprise-grade security feature that automatically authenticates clients using TLS certificates, eliminating the need for shared secrets.
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SAFE shutdown mode
Improved operational safety by ensuring all in-flight operations complete before shutdown, preventing data loss during maintenance.
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Unified auto-failover configuration
Simplifies high-availability setup with a single configuration for automatic failover, reducing operational complexity for clustered deployments.
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DELIFEQ command
Developer experience improvement that deletes elements from a list by value equality, reducing the need for Lua scripts or multi-step operations.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Valkey 8.0 achieved 1.19 million requests per second on an AWS c7g.4xlarge instance, a 230% improvement over Valkey 7.2’s 360K RPS.
- Valkey shows 37% higher write throughput and significantly better latency compared to Redis in independent benchmarks.
- Governed by the Linux Foundation with backing from AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson, and Snap, ensuring long-term open-source neutrality.
- Maintains the BSD 3-clause license, allowing unrestricted use, modification, and redistribution for any purpose, including commercial products.
Trade-offs
- As a 2024 fork, Valkey has a shorter production track record and less third-party tool integration than Redis.
- Redis Stack modules (RediSearch, RedisJSON, RedisGraph) are not yet fully ported, requiring additional setup or alternative solutions.
- Multi-threaded I/O can increase CPU utilization under certain workloads, requiring tuning of io-threads settings per hardware configuration.
- Smaller community and documentation base compared to Redis may result in slower resolution of niche issues or fewer online resources.
Pricing context
Open source under BSD 3-clause license — no cost for any use including commercial, embedded, or managed services.
Getting started with Valkey
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Install Valkey
Download the latest Valkey release from the official GitHub repository or use a package manager like apt or yum for Linux systems. Follow the installation instructions specific to your operating system.
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Start Valkey server
Launch the Valkey server by running the valkey-server command in your terminal. Verify the server is running by checking the startup logs for successful initialization.
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Connect client
Use a Valkey client library in your preferred programming language (e.g., Python, Java) to establish a connection to the server. Provide the server's host and port details in the connection configuration.
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Set first key
Execute a SET command via your client to store a test key-value pair. Confirm the operation was successful by retrieving the value with a GET command.
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Configure threading
Adjust the io-threads setting in Valkey's configuration file to optimize performance for your hardware. Monitor CPU usage and throughput to find the optimal thread count.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Valkey and how is it different from Redis?
Valkey is an open-source key/value datastore forked from Redis in 2024 and governed by the Linux Foundation. It uses a permissive BSD 3-clause license, unlike Redis which switched to source-available licensing (RSALv2/SSPLv1). This makes Valkey free for any use.
What performance improvements does Valkey 8.0 offer?
Valkey 8.0 introduced enhanced asynchronous I/O threading, achieving 1.19 million requests per second on an AWS c7g.4xlarge instance. That is a 230% increase over Valkey 7.2's 360K RPS. It handles concurrent network reads and writes while keeping command execution single-threaded.
How does Valkey compare to Redis in benchmarks?
Valkey shows 37% higher write throughput and significantly better latency compared to Redis in independent benchmarks. Valkey 8.1's I/O threading delivers up to 112% throughput improvement over Redis 8.0 when io-threads is set to 8 on a multi-core Intel CPU.
What new features does Valkey 9.1 include?
Valkey 9.1 adds AVX512 SIMD acceleration, MultiPath TCP replication for network resilience, TLS certificate-based automatic client authentication, a SAFE shutdown mode, unified auto-failover configuration, and the DELIFEQ command for developer experience.
Who backs Valkey and what is its governance model?
Valkey is governed by the Linux Foundation and backed by major cloud providers including AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson, and Snap. This ensures long-term open-source neutrality and community-driven development, with engineering resources contributed by these organizations.
What are the trade-offs of migrating from Redis to Valkey?
Valkey is a 2024 fork with a shorter production track record and less third-party tool integration than Redis. Redis Stack modules like RediSearch and RedisJSON are not fully ported. The community is smaller, which may slow responses for niche issues. Testing is recommended before migration.
Alternatives
How Valkey compares
Direct head-to-head against 2 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Valkey
- Pricing
- Open source under BSD 3-clause license — no cost for any use including commercial, embedded, or managed services.
- Target
- Valkey is an open-source (BSD 3-clause) high-performance key/value datastore forked from Redis in 2024 and governed by the Linux Foundation.
- Strength
- Valkey 8.0 achieved 1.19 million requests per second on an AWS c7g.4xlarge instance, a 230% improvement over Valkey 7.2’s 360K RPS.
- Watch for
- As a 2024 fork, Valkey has a shorter production track record and less third-party tool integration than Redis.
Redis
- Pricing
- Open source free; Redis Enterprise from $15/node/month
- Target
- Caching, session management, real-time analytics
- Deployment
- Self-hosted, cloud, managed
- Strength
- Largest community and ecosystem of tools and libraries
- Watch for
- License changed to source-available RSALv2/SSPLv1 in 2024
KeyDB
- Pricing
- Open source free; no commercial tier listed
- Target
- High-throughput caching and real-time workloads
- Deployment
- Self-hosted on Linux
- Strength
- Multi-threaded performance optimizations over Redis
- Watch for
- Main maintainer left project January 2025; stability concerns
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Sources
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