Valkey — Open Source Distributed Key-Value Database

What Valkey Does

• Full Redis compatibility — commands, protocol, data formats
• Data structures — strings, hashes, lists, sets, sorted sets, streams, bitmaps, HyperLogLog
• Persistence — RDB snapshots, AOF, hybrid
• Replication — primary-replica with automatic failover
• Cluster — hash-slot based sharding (16384 slots)
• Pub/Sub — channels and patterns
• Lua scripting — embedded Lua engine
• Streams — log-based data structure with consumer groups
• Modules — loadable module API (like Redis Modules)
• ACL — fine-grained access control

Architecture

Same as Redis: single-threaded event loop with io-threads for I/O (multi-threaded I/O available). Data stored in memory with optional disk persistence. Cluster mode splits keyspace across nodes using consistent hashing (16384 slots).

Self-Hosting

version: "3"
services:
  valkey:
    image: valkey/valkey:8
    ports: ["6379:6379"]
    volumes:
      - valkey-data:/data
    command: valkey-server --save 60 1000 --appendonly yes
volumes:
  valkey-data:

Key Features

• BSD 3-Clause (truly open source)
• Full Redis command compatibility
• Cluster and replication
• Persistence (RDB + AOF)
• Module API
• Streams with consumer groups
• ACL system
• Linux Foundation governance
• Active community development
• Drop-in Redis replacement

Comparison

FAQ

Q: What's the difference with Redis? A: Functionally largely identical (forked from Redis 7.2). Valkey stays BSD open source, while Redis switched to RSALv2+SSPL (restricting managed commercial use). Valkey 8 starts to add independent new features.

Q: Can it directly replace Redis? A: Yes. Valkey is compatible with the Redis protocol and data files. AWS ElastiCache/MemoryDB have defaulted to Valkey.

Q: Who backs it? A: A top-level Linux Foundation project. AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Snap, Ericsson, and others contribute code. Several former Redis core developers are involved.

Sources

• Docs: https://valkey.io/docs
• GitHub: https://github.com/valkey-io/valkey
• License: BSD 3-Clause