head to head · open source
valkey vs redis-py
valkey has 27,258 GitHub stars, 1,318 forks, 894 open issues and last shipped today. redis-py has 13,647 stars, 2,748 forks, 84 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. valkey leads on adoption by 100% (27,258 vs 13,647 stars). valkey is written in C under BSD-3-Clause; redis-py is written in Python under MIT. valkey has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, redis-py 20%. valkey 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
| valkey | redis-py | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 27K | ★ 14K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 2.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick valkey if
- You weight community size — 27K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick redis-py if
- You want the redis-py feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and redis-py fits your workflow better
About valkey
Valkey is high performance data structure server. Serves key/value workloads first. Supports wide range of native structures plus extensible plugin system for new data structures and access patterns. Written in C, licensed BSD 3 Clause. Lives in key value store and NoSQL ecosystem, shares protocol lineage with Redis, and carries cache , database , key value store , redis , valkey client topics.
read the full valkey overview →
About redis-py
redis py is the Python interface to the Redis key value store, a client library that lets Python applications connect to a Redis server, issue commands, and read the responses back.
read the full redis-py overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is valkey or redis-py more popular?
valkey has 27,258 GitHub stars and redis-py has 13,647. valkey has the larger community by that measure.
Are valkey and redis-py free?
Both are open source. valkey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and redis-py under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between valkey and redis-py?
valkey is written in C and redis-py in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, valkey or redis-py?
Choose valkey if you want the larger community (27,258 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose redis-py if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.