Updated October 25, 2026
· ~2 min read
Redis changed its licence in March 2024, away from the BSD licence it had always used; the Linux Foundation's Valkey fork followed within weeks, with AWS, Google and others behind it. In May 2025 Redis 8 added the AGPLv3 as an option, so Redis is open source again under a copyleft licence. For a team on AWS the practical result is that ElastiCache and MemoryDB now offer Valkey alongside Redis OSS, and price Valkey lower: 20% lower for node-based clusters and 33% lower for ElastiCache Serverless, whose minimum storage for Valkey is also 90% lower, at 100 MB.
This compares the managed options with running Valkey or Redis yourself on Kubernetes.
ElastiCache supports upgrading an existing Redis OSS cluster to Valkey in place, and the clients do not change because Valkey speaks the same protocol. Check two things first: any commands or modules your code uses that are Redis-specific, and any tooling that reads the engine name. Older Redis OSS versions on ElastiCache also have their own lifecycle — versions 4 and 5 moved into paid Extended Support — so a cluster on an old version is a reason to move now rather than later.
For a small, non-critical cache that sits next to the service using it — a few hundred megabytes, losing it means a slow minute rather than an outage — a Valkey container in the same cluster is cheaper than a managed node and perfectly adequate. The moment the cache matters to availability, the managed service's failover, patching and snapshots are worth its price; failover done badly is how a cache outage becomes a database outage.
Question 1 of 2
Is it a cache, or the system of record?
On AWS, use ElastiCache for Valkey: it is wire-compatible with the Redis clients you already use, it is the cheapest managed option, and Serverless removes capacity planning for spiky workloads. Use MemoryDB when the data must survive a node failure without loss — it is a durable primary database rather than a cache. Run Valkey yourself on Kubernetes only for small caches where a managed node is overkill, or where you need modules or configuration the managed service does not allow. Choose Redis Software or Redis Cloud if you depend on Redis-only features such as its newer query and vector capabilities.
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As of October 25, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.