The Race to Replace Redis

Many Redis alternatives started appearing after Redis announced that they would change their license and not be open source anymore. The in-memory database was very popular in the open source world, and many developers are now looking for alternatives. Among existing alternatives like KeyDB or Garnet, new ones emerged as a direct result of the license change. Valkey is the most popular new fork and is backed by The Linux Foundation as well as by AWS, Google, Snap, Ericsson and Oracle.
===
If you want to support me, check out solidtime, an open-source time-tracker i'm building: www.solidtime.io/
===
Sources:
lwn.net/SubscriberLink/966631...
codeberg.org/redict/redict
github.com/Snapchat/KeyDB/iss...
techcrunch.com/2024/03/31/why...
redis.com/blog/redis-architec...
www.fuseweb.io/en/2023/02/22/...
github.com/centminmod/redis-c...
www.thestack.technology/micro...
microsoft.github.io/garnet/do...
techcrunch.com/2022/05/12/sna...
redis.com/blog/redis-architec...
=====
Software architects and web developers loved to use Redis as a fast caching solution in their infrastructure. But with the license change many developers search for open source alternatives to Redis. Some alternatives are simple forks of the old redis, some implement a fast key-value store solution while others provide a full-blown database experience based on SQL. One of the open source maintainers of Redis, made a fork that was quickly supported by the linux foundation. After the initial announcement, many companies started to support the project financially.

[@jan_the_man]

I like how this shows how software being open source ensures the continuous availability of such software, even after the original version is no longer open sourced

[@felixjohnson3874]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; open source's primary purpose is the developer waiving the right to fuck over their users. (Beyond that of a mild inconveniencing)
The security, accountability, and crowdsourcing of improvements are all secondary to that.

[@olhoTron]

I switched to a map[string]string, but I have to call it a "local keyval storage" otherwise the change wouldn't pass code review

[@da40au40]

"Everyone is using rust" and then you dropped a tweet of prime nice one 😂

[@zo1dberg]

1:58 placeholderkv is a great name, and I hope it sticks!

[@TheKennyWorld]

Wedis, I love it!

[@littleharry7977]

I always misread redis to Reddit lol

[@emmanuelgenga7421]

Redis lawyer here, we're filing a defamation suit against you sir. See you in court.

[@littleharry7977]

@@emmanuelgenga7421no sorry I will never misread it again 😭

[@bufferhead_]

when I edited the video I did go back quite a few times because I thought I said Reddit instead of Redis so yeah i feel you...

[@christianremboldt1557]

Redis Reddit
Yeah kinda similar

[@DavisonIncorp]

honestly still grieving over this. :(
valkey is my new best friend

[@thezealousfool]

Redict seems like a project of Drew DeVault (creator of Hare Programming Language) and now Andrew Kelly (creator of Zig)

[@abc_cba]

Do you know when is Stackoverflow conducting the Developer's Survey for 2024?

[@deiminator2]

The interesting part are the Redis modules which already had the new license on them like Search and Json, I'm surprised you didn't cover this topic since it's also a huge selling point for Dragonfly compared to the rest of the clones.
Regarding performance, they are all the same, sure, you can say that you handle x amount of ops/s but in the end they are a primary memory key value store that is put in front of network, that will always be their bottleneck

[@kjeldschouten-lebbing6260]

"since it's also a huge selling point for Dragonfly compared to the rest of the clones."
Just because dragonfly uses the BSL, doesn't mean its all-of-a-sudden more or less compatible with other BSL licensed software.
Actually depending on additional license grants it can be compelely uncompatible with other BSL licensed code.
ValKey (BSL, MIT etc) and such are completely compatible however.
Although the modules would need to only be used/included in compliance with the BSL

[@deiminator2]

@@kjeldschouten-lebbing6260 Dragonfly has their own implementation of the FT and JSON modules, my apologies if my comment wasn't clear enough that I wasn't talking about the interoperability of their licenses

[@admin1187]

nice

[@snowe..]

Very unlikely for snap to switch to valkey. They invested in keydb rather than contributing to redis, there’s zero reason they would suddenly push those changes to valkey. Much more likely that valkey is putting their name on the site because someone from snap messaged the valkey team, rather than snap actually supporting the project.

[@matthiasschuster9505]

why would they include the snap icon, just because they call them?
do you think the Valkey team would be so disingenuous
and Snapchat so desperate to begin with?

[@matthiasschuster9505]

I also think its unlikely, they change from KeyDB to Valkey, btw
And probably purely because of a simple "not invented here" point of view
the Valkey people could theoretically just merge it themselves obviously
although i dont even know, if they happen to be interested
the license at least is the same

[@snowe..]

@@matthiasschuster9505 I mean, that’s literally how it works. They included the snap icon because snap “supports” the project. Note that the Linux foundation article gives no mention of any of those companies stating intent to use. In fact even the Google person they’re quoting doesn’t state that Google is supporting the project, just that “I am pleased to see the Valkey project come together to continue true open source development. The community's resilience and commitment to the project means we can continue the same innovative work that users have come to admire and depend upon.”
Many companies put resources into open source with no intent to use the projects. They’re marketing tools. And Linux foundation can easily state that they’re “supported” because contributors to redis have commented on valkey being a good idea. It’s not disingenuous, but it sure doesn’t indicate any intent on the actions of those companies.

[@SmarterMMO]

We switched to NATS

[@jsward17]

If I’m using libSQL does redis not enter the equation at all?

[@batuhanaydn4592]

I'd use Garnet. As i see it is a product of years of academic research, therefore have a better thought architecture.

[@Vavagutt]

Garnet for me.

[@matthiasschuster9505]

Why?

[@Vavagutt]

@@matthiasschuster9505 I prefer the Azure ecosystem. And want to stay far away from Google.

[@akhil_sarikonda]

Is this video an inspiration of "Theo's - Everyone's Racing To Replace Redis - Who Will Win?"

[@bufferhead_]

Its more that both of the video titles are inspired by this article from the sources lwn.net/SubscriberLink/966631/6bf2063136effa1e/

[@bufferhead_]

I saw that Theo also made a video about it, I haven’t seen the video tho so I’m not sure how similar they are.

[@akhil_sarikonda]

@@bufferhead_ ah, gotcha!

[@TheIcecoldorange]

I already have a whole laundry list of tech that I need to stay up to date with. Like really?

[@Pentross]

Getting to say it’s written in Rust is a pretty big deal if you want to ever bid for a government contract, now

[@lukealadeen7836]

That's insane

[@Pentross]

@@lukealadeen7836 a month or so ago, the White House recommended using memory-safe programming language;
which naturally implies that if you’re bidding for a contract and you use it when your competitors don’t, you’re heavily favoured to win

[@Pentross]

Of course there are others, but if you’re focused entirely on memory safety, Rust is the most well known for doing it, along with doing it the best

[@AnIdiotAboard_]

I remember when redis launched, oh its better tham Memcached blah blah blah.
Im probably one of a few people to never once have used redis, just never bothered with it, plenty of other packages that just work, and whilst redis offers some cool features vs others thats all they are cool features, most of which you can do yourself with a few lines of code.
And im still not using redis, i think this a storm in a teacup really do, the only people shouting are the handfull who are affected.

[@AlexeiDimitri]

I cant uderstand yet people use so much redis... all 3 big funcionalities already have large use softwares...

[@ralffig3297]

He switched to she.

[@thehen101]

let redis cost money for cloud providers to use. microsoft, amazon and others have been raking in billions for years off the backs of projects like this. one small licensing switch and they're scrambling to abandon ship as fast as possible to avoid paying a licensing fee, it's embarrassing really.

[@raremc1620]

You do know that many large contributors to the project are from said companies right? And not like ones that fix minor issues and refactor things, but people who have worked on major changes and features within redis, so I wouldn't say that they were using it for free, they were quite literally working on said project with everyone else.
Plus, the new licensing doesn't just ruin it for the big guys, it also hinders using/contributing to the project for everyone else too. It especially fucks over anyone who had contributed to the project before in the name of open source, just to see the license change, even though Redis had said that they won't change the license. Majority of people that are jumping ship are actually developers, and not the companies themselves, albeit the new projects are sponsored by the big companies.

[@deiminator2]

Bro, companies are made with the sole purpose of making money, to expect anything else would be stupid

[@Serizon_]

@@raremc1620 Ikr , definitely feels like a rugpull , the problem was , nobody knew this was coming , no discussions were done , what if they extend this license even further , they have set the precedent. Also SSPL is definitely harsh , I guess companies could've even allowed GPL I suppose

[@advanceringnewholder]

the original creator of redis committed to not changing the license, when he left, redis the company changed the license. hmmmmmmm

[@o_glethorpe]

What I find embarrassing is seeing comments like yours. When was your last contribution to an open-source project that you used in a project you sold to a client? And I mean a financial contribution. 99.9% of the 'open source' community just like the free stuff.

[@SheeceGardazi]

only FANG fan bois have an issue with the license change

[@steveoc64]

Redis is deprecated in favour of HTMX

[@wolfeygamedev1688]

As if anyone wants to use microtrash I mean soft
the entire "windows server" itself is a joke as windows was made for personal computers... not servers.

[@-bunda]

Are you dumb

[@sheanmassey]

I used to have similar feelings, and still do for the most part, but credit where credit's due: MS SQL server is amazing. vs code came in and rightfully dominated the IDE market. C# is reasonably good, typescript is great, and F# is truly gorgeous.
I feel Microsoft builds great developer focused products but absolutely horrendous lambda user / sysadmin products.

[@wolfeygamedev1688]

@@sheanmassey mssql is dogtrash
Select Top 10 * (columns) syntax is so garbage compared to just LIMIT 10
Also lets not even mention no good async db drivers in most programming languages.

[@cialk]

@@sheanmassey that's how they pull devs on their side (especially after a time where their reputation was very bad), it doesn't mean there is no ill will

[@da40au40]

If you want free stuffs then make yours 😶