How to Install and Benchmark Valkey 7.2.5 – A Redis Alternative

Background

Redis Labs changed the license of Redis 7.4 from the BSD‑style license to RSALv2 and SSPLv1, which removed its OSI‑approved open‑source status. In response, the Linux Foundation created Valkey 7.2.5 , a fork of Redis 7.2.4 that remains source‑available under a permissive license.

Installation

Download and extract

wget https://github.com/valkey-io/valkey/archive/refs/tags/7.2.5.tar.gz

tar -zxvf 7.2.5.tar.gz

Compile and install

cd valkey-7.2.5
make
sudo make install

Successful installation creates the binaries valkey-server , valkey-cli , valkey-benchmark and symlinks that replace the traditional Redis names.

Start the server

/usr/local/bin/valkey-server /etc/valkey/valkey.conf

If port 6379 is already occupied, use an alternative port (e.g., 6378 ) by editing /etc/valkey/valkey.conf or passing --port 6378 on the command line.

Running as a systemd service

Create the unit file /etc/systemd/system/valkey.service with the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Valkey – community‑driven Redis alternative
After=network.target

[Service]
User=redis
Group=redis
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/valkey-server /etc/valkey/valkey.conf
ExecStop=/usr/local/bin/valkey-cli shutdown
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable valkey.service
sudo systemctl start valkey.service
sudo systemctl status valkey.service

When the status shows active (running) , Valkey is ready to accept connections.

Client usage

Valkey provides a CLI that is compatible with redis-cli. Example session on port 6378:

$ valkey-cli -p 6378
127.0.0.1:6378> set name "Tinywan"
OK
127.0.0.1:6378> get name
"Tinywan"

The same commands work with the original redis-cli when pointed at the Valkey port.

Performance testing

Valkey ships with valkey-benchmark, a drop‑in replacement for redis-benchmark. A typical benchmark command is:

valkey-benchmark -h 127.0.0.1 -p 6378 -n 10000 -c 20 -q

Sample output (requests per second) for a subset of commands is shown below. Values are comparable to Redis; Valkey is slightly faster on PING and SPOP, while Redis is faster on SET and GET.

PING_INLINE : Valkey 45248.87 rps, Redis 42735.04 rps

SET : Valkey 28409.09 rps, Redis 34843.21 rps

GET : Valkey 31645.57 rps, Redis 49019.61 rps

SPOP : Valkey 42918.46 rps, Redis 26954.18 rps

ZPOPMIN : Valkey 48076.92 rps, Redis 23696.68 rps

XADD : Valkey 23752.97 rps, Redis 24449.88 rps

Both tools accept the same options, so existing Redis benchmark scripts can be reused against Valkey without modification.