Redis vs. Valkey: The Split Is Still Unresolved
Redis 8.8 shipped with a new array data structure, a native rate limiter, and performance improvements, and the HN thread immediately surfaced the still-unresolved question of whether anyone has a reason to use Redis after the license change. The Valkey fork, backed by AWS and others, remains the practical default for teams that want to avoid the SSPL license, but Redis is continuing to ship meaningful features.
The pattern is that the license split created two viable products and the market has not fully decided. Redis is betting that feature velocity and commercial support will pull enterprise users back. Valkey is betting that inertia and open-source legitimacy will hold the cloud-native majority. Neither has obviously won.
A separate feature request in the thread, embedding Redis similarly to SQLite, hints at a use case that neither Redis nor Valkey has fully addressed. That gap could be an opening for a third option.
So what?
Do not default to Redis in new projects without a deliberate licensing audit. Valkey is the safer choice for open-source compatibility and cloud provider support. If you are already on Redis, the switching cost is low enough that you should make the decision intentionally rather than by inertia.