On 20 March 2024 Redis Ltd. announced that, starting with Redis 7.4, the project would no longer be released under the BSD licence. It moved to a dual choice of the Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) or the Server Side Public License (SSPLv1). On 28 March 2024 the Linux Foundation announced Valkey, a community fork of Redis 7.2.4 under the BSD 3-clause licence, backed by contributors and companies including AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson and Snap.
As of this date (1 April 2024), Redis 7.4 has not been released yet, and Valkey has no stable release of its own: it is the 7.2.4 codebase with a new name and governance. Everything below describes the announcements and their likely consequences; check the licence text for any version you deploy, and take legal advice where it matters. This post is not legal advice.
What actually changes
- Redis 7.2.x and earlier remain under BSD and stay usable and redistributable as before.
- Redis 7.4 and later are source-available. Running them inside your own application is generally permitted. The restrictions target offering Redis, or a service built substantially on it, to third parties as a competing commercial product (the managed-service case).
- Redis client libraries and most tooling keep their own licences; the change is about the server.
For a company that simply runs Redis for its own application, the practical effect is small. It matters for cloud vendors, for Linux distributions that only ship OSI-approved open source, and for organisations whose policy forbids source-available software.
Decision map
flowchart TB
S[Start - you run or plan to run Redis] --> Q1{Offering Redis or a Redis-based service to others?}
Q1 -->|Yes| R1[Licence review needed<br/>Valkey or a licensed offering]
Q1 -->|No| Q2{Policy requires OSI-approved open source?}
Q2 -->|Yes| V[Plan on Valkey or stay on Redis 7.2.x]
Q2 -->|No| Q3{Need Redis Ltd. modules or support?}
Q3 -->|Yes| RS[Redis 7.4 or later under RSAL or SSPL]
Q3 -->|No| WAIT[Pin 7.2.x now and watch Valkey releases]
Practical steps now
- Inventory where Redis runs: Docker images, Helm charts, OS packages, managed services, and who owns each.
- Pin versions. Use an exact image tag such as
redis:7.2.4, notredis:latest, so an upgrade to a differently licensed version never happens by accident. - Check your package source. Ubuntu 22.04 ships Redis 6.0.x in its repository; the official
packages.redis.iorepository tracks the newest release, so pin it to 7.2 until you decide. - Check managed services. Cloud providers will state their plans; ask your provider what engine and version your cache runs.
- Test compatibility. Valkey starts from Redis 7.2.4, so existing clients, RDB/AOF files and
redis-cliworkflows should keep working. Test your own workload instead of assuming.
What to watch
Valkey’s first releases and roadmap, distribution packaging decisions, managed-service announcements, and the finalised licence text of Redis 7.4. Features that differ after the split (for example modules or future commands) are where migration cost will appear, so avoid depending on features outside the core command set where you can.
Recommendation
For a team running Redis only internally, do not rush. Stay on 7.2.x, keep deployments pinned and reproducible, and decide on Redis 7.4+ or Valkey once releases exist and your own licence review is done. The next post shows a hardened Redis 7.2 install that works the same whichever you choose.