head to head · open source
go-redis vs miniredis
go-redis has 22,285 GitHub stars, 2,631 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. miniredis has 3,635 stars, 268 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. go-redis leads on adoption by 513% (22,285 vs 3,635 stars). go-redis is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause; miniredis is written in Go under MIT. go-redis has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, miniredis 7%. go-redis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (go, 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 | miniredis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 268 |
| 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 miniredis if
- You want the miniredis feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and miniredis fits your workflow better
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 →
About miniredis
Miniredis Pure Go Redis test server, used in Go unittests. Sometimes you want to test code which uses Redis, without making it a full blown integration test. Miniredis implements (parts of) the Redis server, to be used in unittests. It enables a simple, cheap, in memory, Redis replacement, with a real TCP interface. Think of it as the Redis version of net/http/httptest . It saves you from using mock code, and since the redis server lives in the test process you can query for values directly, without going through the server stack. There are no dependencies on external binaries, so you can easily integrate it in…
read the full miniredis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is go-redis or miniredis more popular?
go-redis has 22,285 GitHub stars and miniredis has 3,635. go-redis has the larger community by that measure.
Are go-redis and miniredis free?
Both are open source. go-redis is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and miniredis under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between go-redis and miniredis?
go-redis is written in Go and miniredis 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 miniredis?
Choose go-redis if you want the larger community (22,285 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose miniredis if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.