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Discussion on: Making Redis Optional: Why I’m pivoting to a 'Postgres-First' Architecture and why chose Valkey as alternative

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xwero profile image
david duymelinck

From the Redis readme

Version 7.2.x and prior releases are subject to BSDv3. These contributions to the original Redis core project are owned by their contributors and licensed under the 3BSDv3 license as referenced in the REDISCONTRIBUTIONS.txt file. Any copy of that license in this repository applies only to those contributions;

Versions 7.4.x to 7.8.x are subject to your choice of RSALv2 or SSPLv1; and

Version 8.0.x and subsequent releases are subject to the tri-license RSALv2/SSPLv1/AGPLv3 at your option as referenced in the LICENSE.txt file.

In a nutshell the Redis team was tired of being exploited by cloud operators, and that is why they changed their license. After their point was made they added an OSI approved license, AGPLv3, so people can use it almost as before.

The question you should ask yourself is, do you trust the team that maintains the forked version, or the team that build the solution from the start the most?

Basing your choice on old information can cause problems in the long run.

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polliog profile image
Polliog

Thanks for the correction.

Redis changed licensing to prevent cloud providers from profiting without contributing back. Then they added AGPLv3 to address community concerns.

So the choice is:

  • Redis 8.0+: RSALv2/SSPL/AGPLv3 (your choice) - maintained by the original team
  • Valkey: BSD-3 - Linux Foundation fork with AWS/Google backing

Your question about trust is fair. The Redis team built it. Valkey has corporate backing but less history.

For Logtide, I'm supporting both because:

  1. Different users have different trust models
  2. The pluggable architecture makes it trivial to swap
  3. Performance is identical (same codebase origin)

Honestly, for self-hosted users, both are fine. The bigger decision is "do you need Redis/Valkey at all vs PostgreSQL-only?"

Thanks for pushing back with accurate info. Licensing details matter.