About Valkey
Valkey is an open source in-memory key-value store that began as a fork of Redis. It can be used for caching, message queues and, in some setups, as a primary database.
What it does
Valkey keeps data in memory, so reads and writes are very fast. It supports a range of data types, including strings, hashes and lists, and it can run scripts on the server. Many teams put it in front of a slower database as a cache, or use it as a lightweight queue between services. The project is backed by the Linux Foundation and licensed under the BSD 3-Clause license, which keeps the code open for everyone.
Key features
- Key-value storage with several data types
- Caching and message queue workloads
- Per-database access control for users
- JSON server logs for easier parsing
- Benchmarked at over two million requests per second on one server
Who it's for
Backend engineers who need a fast cache or queue, teams that want to move off Redis to an open license, and platform teams that run key-value stores at scale.
Pricing and good to know
Valkey is free and open source under the BSD 3-Clause license. Your costs come from the servers or cloud services you run it on. The project publishes release notes and blog posts, and it has a set of supported older releases, so you can plan upgrades over time.
Highlights
- Store strings, hashes and lists in memory
- Cache results in front of a slower database
- Set per-database permissions for users
- Write server logs in JSON format
- Run Lua scripts on the server
