head to head · open source
node-redis vs miniredis
node-redis has 17,584 GitHub stars, 1,979 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. miniredis has 3,620 stars, 258 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. node-redis leads on adoption by 386% (17,584 vs 3,620 stars). node-redis is written in TypeScript under MIT; miniredis is written in Go under MIT. node-redis has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, miniredis 7%. miniredis 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
| node-redis | miniredis | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 258 |
| 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 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 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 miniredis
miniredis is a pure Go in memory implementation of parts of the Redis server that speaks a real TCP interface inside a Go unittest process, built for Go developers who need to exercise Redis backed code without running an external Redis instance.
read the full miniredis overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is node-redis or miniredis more popular?
node-redis has 17,584 GitHub stars and miniredis has 3,620. node-redis has the larger community by that measure.
Are node-redis and miniredis free?
Both are open source. node-redis is licensed under MIT and miniredis under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between node-redis and miniredis?
node-redis is written in TypeScript 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, node-redis or miniredis?
Choose node-redis if you want the larger community (17,584 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose miniredis if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.