Valkey vs Garnet
Both are alternatives to Redis. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Garnet vs Valkey — same comparison, one verdict.
Valkey and Garnet are closely matched on ownership (96 vs 92) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Valkey
TOP PICKThe Linux Foundation fork — same Redis, governance that cannot be revoked.
Valkey is the community fork of Redis taken from the last BSD-licensed release, now under Linux Foundation stewardship with AWS, Google and Oracle contributing. It is the same codebase, so the protocol, commands and clients are identical and migration is a hostname change. BSD-3-Clause, around 27k stars. The argument for it is not technical — it is that no single company can relicense it, which is precisely the event that created it. Performance has since moved ahead of Redis in several published benchmarks through multi-threaded I/O work the fork prioritised.
Garnet
Microsoft Research's cache — MIT, and unusually fast under contention.
Garnet is a Redis-protocol cache store out of Microsoft Research, written in C#, and its published throughput under high client concurrency is striking — the workload where Redis's single-threaded design shows most. MIT licensed, around 12k stars, used inside Microsoft before release. It is the most permissively licensed serious option here. The caution is ecosystem: a .NET server is an unusual dependency for teams that are not already there, and it is the newest of these by some distance.
Side by side
10 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Valkey | Garnet | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 96 | 92 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Pricing | Free and open source. Managed offerings from AWS, Google and others. | Free and open source. |
| RAM to run it wellThe figure that actually matters, not the vendor's minimum. | Your working set + 30% | — |
| Realistic running costWhat the box costs each month if you run it yourself. | $12–30/mo depending on dataset size, against managed Redis pricing that climbs steeply with memory | — |
| Setup timeHonest first-install estimate, not the marketing quickstart. | 30 minutes | — |
| Ongoing maintenanceThe part nobody budgets for. | Low. Watch memory and set an eviction policy. | — |
Valkey is Macrostack's recommended Redis alternative, so it's our pick here.
Weighing both against staying on Redis? Is Redis free? What it actually costs →
Valkey
Strengths
- +Drop-in for Redis — same protocol, same clients, hostname change
- +BSD-3-Clause under Linux Foundation governance; no vendor can relicense it
- +Backed by AWS, Google and Oracle with real engineering behind it
- +Faster than Redis on several published benchmarks after multi-threading work
Trade-offs
- −Does not include Redis Ltd's proprietary modules — no RedisJSON or RediSearch
- −Younger brand, so some managed providers still list only Redis
- −Documentation still catching up with Redis's two decades
- −Divergence from upstream Redis will grow over time
Garnet
Strengths
- +MIT — the most permissive licence in this comparison
- +Exceptional throughput under high concurrency
- +Microsoft Research behind it, with real production use
- +Redis protocol compatible, so clients work unchanged
Trade-offs
- −Newest option here with the shortest track record
- −A .NET runtime dependency many teams will not want
- −Smaller community than Valkey or DragonflyDB
- −Not all Redis commands and data types are implemented
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Valkey
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and drop-in for Redis — same protocol, same clients, hostname change.
Choose Garnet
if mIT — the most permissive licence in this comparison.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — does not include Redis Ltd's proprietary modules — no RedisJSON or RediSearch, and newest option here with the shortest track record. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
What it takes to run these yourself
Real requirements and honest running costs, not the vendor quickstart.
Valkey vs Garnet — common questions
Is Valkey a better fit than Garnet for in-memory data stores & caching?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Valkey scores 96 to Garnet's 92 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Garnet earns its place on a different axis — mIT — the most permissive licence in this comparison. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Valkey keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. Garnet is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host Valkey or Garnet?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are Valkey and Garnet both alternatives to Redis?
Yes — both appear in our Redis comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Redis and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-08-05. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.