vs

Dragonfly vs Pika

Dragonfly: A multi-threaded, shared-nothing in-memory store that speaks Redis and Memcached on one big box. Pika: Qihoo 360's Redis-compatible, RocksDB-backed store for datasets too big for memory.

key differences

  • Licensing: Dragonfly is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Pika is open source (permissive) (BSD 3-Clause).
  • Horizontal scaling is native in Dragonfly and addon in Pika.
  • Only Dragonfly has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, json, stored procedures.
  • Only Pika has compression.

choose dragonfly for

  • +Consolidating many Redis shards onto fewer large instances
  • +High-throughput caching and session storage
  • +BullMQ / Sidekiq style queue backends
  • +Replacing Memcached and Redis with one engine

best at · Cache, Sessions, Queue

choose pika for

  • +Large persistent key-value data behind a Redis API
  • +Cutting memory cost of oversized Redis deployments

best at · Cache, Sessions, Queue

overview
Primary model
Key-Value
Key-Value
Also supports
Document, Vector, Search Engine
–
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
DragonflyDB Ltd.
OpenAtom Foundation (originally Qihoo 360)
First release
2022
2015
Latest version
2.0.2 (Oct 7, 2026)
4.0.4 (Oct 16, 2026)
License
Source-availableBusiness Source License 1.1
Open source (permissive)BSD 3-Clause
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
20.7
5.8
Rank
#150
#375
GitHub stars
31.8K
6.1K
Stack Overflow questions
–
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Addon
Multi-region
Read replicas
None
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Schemaless
Architecture
In memory, Single node, Primary replica, Client server
Primary replica, Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
–
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
—
—
Secondary indexes
✓
—
Full-text search
✓
—
Vector search
✓
—
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
✓
—
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
✓
—
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
✓
✓
Pub/Sub
✓
✓
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
✓
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
—
✓
Encryption at rest
—
—
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
✓
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
Redis commands (RESP), Memcached protocol, Lua
Redis commands (RESP)
Client languages
Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, C#, Rust, Ruby, PHP
Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, C#, Rust, Ruby, PHP
Best for
Cache, Sessions, Queue, Pub/Sub
Cache, Sessions, Queue

Dragonfly vs Pika: FAQ

What is the difference between Dragonfly and Pika?

Dragonfly: A multi-threaded, shared-nothing in-memory store that speaks Redis and Memcached on one big box. Pika: Qihoo 360's Redis-compatible, RocksDB-backed store for datasets too big for memory. Licensing: Dragonfly is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Pika is open source (permissive) (BSD 3-Clause). Horizontal scaling is native in Dragonfly and addon in Pika. Only Dragonfly has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, json, stored procedures.

When should I choose Dragonfly over Pika?

Choose Dragonfly for consolidating many Redis shards onto fewer large instances; high-throughput caching and session storage; and BullMQ / Sidekiq style queue backends. Choose Pika for large persistent key-value data behind a Redis API and cutting memory cost of oversized Redis deployments.

Is Dragonfly or Pika more popular?

Dragonfly ranks #150 on the WhichDB Score (20.7/100) and Pika ranks #375 (5.8/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Dragonfly and Pika open source?

Not in the OSI sense. Dragonfly is source-available: you can read the code, but the license restricts some uses, typically offering it as a competing managed service. License: Business Source License 1.1. Yes. Pika is open source. License: BSD 3-Clause.