Redis Ltd announced on 20 March 2024 that from Redis 7.4 onward the software is dual-licensed under RSALv2 and SSPLv1 instead of the BSD licence. Neither is an OSI-approved open source licence. Redis 7.2 and earlier stay BSD.
On 28 March 2024 the Linux Foundation announced Valkey, a fork of Redis 7.2.4 with backing from AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle and others.
What it means in practice:
| Situation | Impact |
|---|---|
| Using Redis 7.2 or older | No licence change |
| Self-hosting 7.4 or later for your own application | Generally allowed, but read the licence |
| Selling a managed Redis service | Restricted by the new terms |
| Using Amazon ElastiCache or similar | The provider handles licensing |
Valkey is protocol-compatible, so clients and commands such as redis-cli work unchanged. For new self-managed deployments, evaluate both, pin the version you choose, and check your distribution’s packages. This will keep evolving, so follow the project announcements before standardising.