Redis switched to BSL? Compare free alternatives: Upstash, Valkey, DragonflyDB, KeyDB, Momento, Garnet, Memcached, Aiven. Protocol-compatible options with verified 2026 free tier limits.
Redis changed everything in March 2024 when it switched from BSD to the Business Source License (BSL). The move restricts cloud providers from offering Redis-as-a-service without a commercial agreement — and triggered the Linux Foundation to fork Redis as Valkey, backed by AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, and Ericsson.
For developers, the practical impact depends on your use case. If you're using Redis Cloud's free tier, you get just 30 MB of memory on a single shared database — barely enough for a cache layer. Self-hosting Redis is still free under BSL for non-competitive use, but the license uncertainty has pushed many teams toward truly open-source alternatives.
The 2026 landscape offers strong options: Upstash provides serverless Redis-compatible caching with 500K commands/month free. Valkey is a drop-in BSD-3 fork maintained by the Linux Foundation. DragonflyDB claims 25x better throughput. Momento offers zero-infrastructure serverless caching. And established options like Memcached and KeyDB remain fully open-source.
Serverless Redis — 500K commands/month (256MB data). Vector: 10K vectors free. QStash: 1,000 messages/day free
Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Valkey (Redis-compatible) — 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB disk per service. No time limit
Managed Valkey cache, cluster and pub/sub, formerly a serverless cache with a free tier. No free tier. gomomento.com/pricing, read 2026-09-05, prices every plan: Momento Cache Flex from $13 per GB-month, Momento Cache Cluster from $0.0105 per instance-hour, Pub/sub Topics from $1 per 1M operations, Valkey Router $0.01 per GB of data transfer. The only $0 on the page is the Starter Basic Support plan, which is a support level and not a product allowance.
What you actually get for free on each caching/key-value platform. Redis Cloud gives you 30 MB on a shared instance — most alternatives offer dramatically more.
| Platform | Free Tier | Redis Compatible | Self-Hosted | License | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redis Cloud | 30 MB | Yes (is Redis) | BSL restrictions | BSL 1.1 | Existing Redis workloads |
| Upstash | 500K cmds/mo | Yes | No | Managed | Serverless apps — pay-per-request pricing |
| Valkey | Free OSS | Yes (fork) | Yes | BSD-3 | Drop-in Redis replacement — Linux Foundation backed |
| Aiven | 1 CPU / 1 GB RAM | Yes (Valkey) | No | Managed | Managed Valkey with monitoring + backups |
| Momento | 5 GB transfer/mo | No | No | Managed | Zero-config serverless caching + pub/sub |
| DragonflyDB | Free OSS | Yes | Yes | BSL 1.1 | High-throughput — claims 25x Redis performance |
| KeyDB | Free OSS | Yes | Yes | BSD-3 | Multithreaded Redis fork — better multi-core use |
| Garnet | Free OSS | Yes (RESP) | Yes | MIT | Microsoft's .NET cache — extreme low latency |
| Memcached | Free OSS | No | Yes | BSD | Simple key-value caching — battle-tested at scale |
*Upstash is the only managed option with a meaningful free tier (500K commands/month). Aiven offers managed Valkey with 1 GB RAM free. Valkey, KeyDB, Garnet, and Memcached are fully free self-hosted. DragonflyDB is free self-hosted under BSL (non-competitive use).
More free tools in the same category that may fit your needs.
Key-value store at the edge — 100K reads/day, 1K writes/day, 1 GB storage. Eventually consistent with global replication
| Tool | Free Tier | Details | Stability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upstash | Free | Serverless Redis — 500K commands/month (256MB data). Vector: 10K vectors free. QStash: 1,000 messages/day free | stable |
| Aiven | Free | Managed PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Valkey (Redis-compatible) — 1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 1 GB disk per service. No time limit | stable |
| Momento | Retired | Managed Valkey cache, cluster and pub/sub, formerly a serverless cache with a free tier. No free tier. gomomento.com/pri... | — |
| Cloudflare KV | Free | Key-value store at the edge — 100K reads/day, 1K writes/day, 1 GB storage. Eventually consistent with global replication | stable |
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