Redis Shifts to Dual Licensing: Implications, Community Reaction, and Alternative Solutions

Redis, the popular in‑memory database, has announced that beginning with Redis 7.4 it will adopt a dual‑license model: Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and Server Side Public License (SSPLv1).

Previously the source code was released under the permissive BSD 3‑clause license, allowing free commercial use.

Although Redis states that the community edition will remain freely available, the tightening of licensing terms has generated widespread dissatisfaction.

This is not the first licensing change; in 2018 Redis adjusted licenses for some modules, and other NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and Elasticsearch later adopted the SSPL, which was also controversial.

The contested SSPL is now one of the two licenses Redis will use, the other being RSALv2, which has been applied to certain modules since 2018.

Industry analysts expect several Linux distributions to remove Redis from their repositories, but alternatives already exist, including the BSD‑licensed fork KeyDB, Microsoft’s C#‑based Garnet, and Dragonfly, which follows the Business Source License (BSL).

Similar to the Terraform/OpenTF split, a fork of Redis could emerge as a dominant community version.

Redis officials acknowledge that most commercial sales go through major cloud providers and that, under the new licenses, these providers will no longer be able to use Redis source code for free without a separate agreement.

The FAQ emphasizes three "no changes" statements for end‑users, client‑library partners, and commercial customers, yet many in the community dispute these claims, noting that Redis would no longer meet the OSI definition of open source.

Commentators warn that the license shift may backfire, leading to forks that adopt more permissive licenses and potentially harming Redis Labs while benefiting startups and cloud providers that can host a forked version.

Reference links: The Register article , Redis blog post , Hacker News discussion .