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Dragonfly vs Valkey

Dragonfly: A multi-threaded, shared-nothing in-memory store that speaks Redis and Memcached on one big box. Valkey: The Linux Foundation's BSD-licensed fork of Redis, now the default engine on AWS and Google Cloud.

key differences

  • Licensing: Dragonfly is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Valkey is open source (permissive) (BSD 3-Clause).
  • Only Dragonfly has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, json.

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 valkey for

  • +Replacing Redis OSS without license concerns
  • +Application caching and session storage
  • +Rate limiting, counters and leaderboards
  • +Pub/sub fan-out and Streams-based queues

best at · Cache, Sessions, Queue

DragonflyA multi-threaded, shared-nothing in-memory store that speaks Redis and Memcached on one big box.
ValkeyThe Linux Foundation's BSD-licensed fork of Redis, now the default engine on AWS and Google Cloud.
overview
Primary model
Key-Value
Key-Value
Also supports
Document, Vector, Search Engine
–
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
DragonflyDB Ltd.
Valkey project (Linux Foundation)
First release
2022
2024
Latest version
2.0.2 (Oct 7, 2026)
9.1.3 (Oct 26, 2026)
License
Source-availableBusiness Source License 1.1
Open source (permissive)BSD 3-Clause
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
20.7
58.0
Rank
#150
#16
GitHub stars
31.8K
27.5K
Stack Overflow questions
–
29
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Schemaless
Architecture
In memory, Single node, Primary replica, Client server
In memory, Single node, Primary replica, Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Aiven, DigitalOcean, Akamai
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), Lua
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, Pub/Sub
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Dragonfly vs Valkey: FAQ

What is the difference between Dragonfly and Valkey?

Dragonfly: A multi-threaded, shared-nothing in-memory store that speaks Redis and Memcached on one big box. Valkey: The Linux Foundation's BSD-licensed fork of Redis, now the default engine on AWS and Google Cloud. Licensing: Dragonfly is source-available (Business Source License 1.1); Valkey is open source (permissive) (BSD 3-Clause). Only Dragonfly has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, json.

When should I choose Dragonfly over Valkey?

Choose Dragonfly for consolidating many Redis shards onto fewer large instances; high-throughput caching and session storage; and BullMQ / Sidekiq style queue backends. Choose Valkey for replacing Redis OSS without license concerns; application caching and session storage; and rate limiting, counters and leaderboards.

Is Dragonfly or Valkey more popular?

Valkey ranks #16 on the WhichDB Score (58.0/100) and Dragonfly ranks #150 (20.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Dragonfly and Valkey 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. Valkey is open source. License: BSD 3-Clause.