Best Redis Alternatives for High Throughput (2026)
Redis alternatives compared for throughput: KiviDB, Dragonfly, Valkey and KeyDB against Redis. Threading model, language, licence, search and vector support, measured throughput and managed options.
Redis runs commands on one thread, so a busy instance tops out at one core whatever the size of the machine. The alternatives below speak the same protocol, and most of them use more of the machine. Here is how they differ, with the numbers we measured and the ones we have not.
The Redis-compatible engines, side by side
| KiviDB | Dragonfly | Valkey | KeyDB | Redis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commands run on | Every core | Every core (shared-nothing threads) | One thread, with I/O threads | Several threads | One thread, with I/O threads |
| Written in | Rust | C++ | C | C and C++ | C |
| Licence | AGPLv3 (commercial licence available) | Business Source License 1.1 | BSD 3-Clause | BSD 3-Clause | AGPLv3, RSALv2 or SSPLv1 (from Redis 8) |
| Full-text and vector search | Built in | Built in | Separate modules | Not built in | Built in (Redis 8) |
| JSON documents | Built in | Built in | Separate module | Not built in | Built in (Redis 8) |
| Pipelined GET (our capture) | 21.2M ops/s | 9.1M ops/s | Not measured | Not measured | 2.4M ops/s |
| GET without pipelining (our capture) | 3.1M ops/s | 3.4M ops/s | Not measured | Not measured | 1.3M ops/s |
| Managed service | KiviDB Cloud (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or your own account) | Dragonfly Cloud | ElastiCache, Memorystore and others | Self-hosted | Redis Cloud |
memtier_benchmark, 10 million keys of 100 bytes, pipeline 16 with 300 connections. AWS Graviton3 bare metal: the server on a c7gn.metal confined to 32 cores, the load generator on a second c7gn.metal in the same placement group, one engine at a time. KiviDB 1.1.0, Dragonfly 2.0.2, Redis 8.10. The benchmarks page has every run, including the ones KiviDB does not lead, and the commands. Statements about other products reflect their public documentation as of October 2026. If one is out of date, tell us at support@kividb.io and we will correct it.
What each one is good at
- KiviDB Runs commands on every core, with full-text search, vector search, JSON and time series in one Rust binary. In our capture it led on pipelined traffic: 21.2M GETs a second against 9.1M for Dragonfly and 2.4M for a single Redis. Open source under the AGPLv3, and managed on three clouds.
- Dragonfly A multithreaded engine with a shared-nothing design. In the same capture it was a little ahead of KiviDB without pipelining and used less memory per key. Source-available under the Business Source License.
- Valkey The Linux Foundation's fork of Redis 7.2, under the BSD licence. It keeps the Redis design of one thread for commands, adds I/O threads, and is offered by managed services such as ElastiCache and Memorystore.
- KeyDB A multithreaded fork of Redis, under the BSD licence. It runs several threads over one shared dataset; search and JSON are not built in.
- Redis The original. From Redis 8, search, vectors and JSON are part of it. It runs commands on one thread, so one instance uses one core for them, and scaling past that means a cluster of shards.
What to check before you switch
- Your traffic, not ours Throughput depends on pipelining, value sizes, the mix of reads and writes, persistence and the number of cores. Run your own workload against the candidates; the benchmark scripts we use are public.
- The commands you use Every engine here speaks the Redis protocol, but each differs at the edges: modules, Sentinel, Lua, search syntax. Check the commands your application sends against each one's compatibility notes.
- Persistence and recovery How snapshots and the append-only file work, what a restart loses, and how a replica catches up. These matter more than peak throughput the day a node fails.
- Licence and operations Whether the licence fits how you ship, and who runs it: a managed service, an operator on Kubernetes, or your own machines.
One comparison at a time
- KiviDB vs Redis: Every core instead of one thread, measured on the same server.
- KiviDB vs Dragonfly: Two multithreaded engines, including the runs Dragonfly leads.
- KiviDB vs Valkey: The same protocol, an engine for every core, and managed prices.
- Migrate from Redis: Move your data and point your clients, step by step.
Questions
What is the fastest Redis alternative?
It depends on the workload. In our published capture on the same 32-core server, KiviDB served the most pipelined traffic (21.2M GETs a second, against 9.1M for Dragonfly and 2.4M for Redis), and Dragonfly was slightly ahead without pipelining. Measure your own traffic before you decide.
Which Redis alternatives are multithreaded?
KiviDB and Dragonfly run commands on every core, and KeyDB runs several threads over one dataset. Valkey and Redis run commands on one thread and use extra threads for network I/O.
Is KiviDB a drop-in replacement for Redis?
For most applications. KiviDB implements the Redis protocol (RESP2 and RESP3) and the Redis command set, so existing clients connect unchanged. It does not load Redis modules or implement Sentinel, and Lua runs in its Lua build; the compatibility page lists every difference.
Is KiviDB open source?
Yes. KiviDB is open source under the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3, with the source, binaries and container images on GitHub, Docker Hub and GHCR. A commercial licence is also available.
Can I move my data from Redis to KiviDB?
Yes. KiviDB 1.1.2 loads a Redis dump.rdb, accepts RESTORE and MIGRATE from a Redis server, and can replicate from a Redis primary. KiviDB Cloud imports an .rdb file as a snapshot to create a database from.
Try it on your own workload
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