head to head · open source
node-redis vs ioredis
node-redis has 17,584 GitHub stars, 1,976 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ioredis has 15,339 stars, 1,251 forks, 202 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. node-redis leads on adoption by 15% (17,584 vs 15,339 stars). node-redis is written in TypeScript under MIT; ioredis is written in TypeScript under MIT. node-redis has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, ioredis 8%. node-redis was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (nodejs, redis, redis-client, redis-cluster), 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
| node-redis | ioredis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 15K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick node-redis if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ioredis if
- You want the ioredis feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and ioredis fits your workflow better
About node-redis
Node Redis is the official Redis client for Node.js, published by the Redis organization on GitHub under the redis npm package name. It is a modern, high performance client written in TypeScript and released under the MIT license, and it lives in the Node.js ecosystem, where it serves as the standard way for JavaScript and TypeScript applications to talk to a Redis server. The project has accumulated 17,581 stars and 1,974 forks over roughly sixteen years, and it remains actively maintained, with the most recent push dated 14 September 2026.
read the full node-redis overview →
About ioredis
ioredis is a robust, performance focused and full featured Redis client for Node.js, written entirely in TypeScript and released under the MIT licence, intended for Node.js developers and platform teams that need their applications to talk to Redis reliably.
read the full ioredis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is node-redis or ioredis more popular?
node-redis has 17,584 GitHub stars and ioredis has 15,339. node-redis has the larger community by that measure.
Are node-redis and ioredis free?
Both are open source. node-redis is licensed under MIT and ioredis under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between node-redis and ioredis?
node-redis is written in TypeScript and ioredis in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, node-redis or ioredis?
Choose node-redis if you want the larger community (17,584 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ioredis if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.