head to head · open source
etcd vs go-redis
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. go-redis has 22,284 stars, 2,629 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 135% (52,441 vs 22,284 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; go-redis is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, go-redis 12%. etcd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| etcd | go-redis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 22K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick etcd if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick go-redis if
- You want the go-redis feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and go-redis fits your workflow better
About etcd
etcd Note : The main branch may be in an unstable or even broken state during development. For stable versions, see [releases][github release]. etcd is a distributed reliable key value store for the most critical data of a distributed system, with a focus on being: Simple : well defined, user facing API (gRPC) Secure : automatic TLS with optional client cert authentication Fast : benchmarked 10,000 writes/sec Reliable : properly distributed using Raft etcd is written in Go and uses the [Raft][] consensus algorithm to manage a highly available replicated log. etcd is used in production by many companies, and the…
About go-redis
Redis client for Go go redis is the official Redis client library for the Go programming language. It offers a straightforward interface for interacting with Redis servers. Supported versions In go redis we are aiming to support the last three releases of Redis. Currently, this means we do support: Redis 8.0 using Redis CE 8.0 Redis 8.2 using Redis CE 8.2 Redis 8.4 using Redis CE 8.4 Redis 8.8 using Redis CE 8.8 Redis 8.10 using Redis CE 8.10 Although the go.mod states it requires at minimum go 1.24 , our CI is configured to run the tests against all supported versions of Redis and multiple versions of Go (1.24…
read the full go-redis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or go-redis more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and go-redis has 22,284. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and go-redis free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and go-redis under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and go-redis?
etcd is written in Go and go-redis in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, etcd or go-redis?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose go-redis if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.