head to head · open source
go-redis vs centrifugo
go-redis has 22,242 GitHub stars, 2,591 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. centrifugo has 10,771 stars, 734 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. go-redis leads on adoption by 106% (22,242 vs 10,771 stars). go-redis is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause; centrifugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0. go-redis has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, centrifugo 7%. go-redis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (redis), 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
| go-redis | centrifugo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 11K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 734 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick go-redis if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick centrifugo if
- You want the centrifugo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and centrifugo fits your workflow better
About go-redis
go redis is the official Redis client library for the Go programming language, published as github.com/redis/go redis/v9 under the BSD 2 Clause licence, and it is aimed at Go developers whose applications need to talk to Redis servers.
read the full go-redis overview →
About centrifugo
Centrifugo is an open source, language agnostic real time messaging server that delivers messages to online users over WebSocket, HTTP streaming, Server Sent Events, GRPC, and WebTransport, and it is built for teams that want user facing PUB/SUB without writing and operating the transport layer themselves.
read the full centrifugo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is go-redis or centrifugo more popular?
go-redis has 22,242 GitHub stars and centrifugo has 10,771. go-redis has the larger community by that measure.
Are go-redis and centrifugo free?
Both are open source. go-redis is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and centrifugo under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between go-redis and centrifugo?
go-redis is written in Go and centrifugo 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, go-redis or centrifugo?
Choose go-redis if you want the larger community (22,242 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose centrifugo if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.