Redis vs. ElastiCache: Key Differences and How to Choose [2025]

What Are Redis and ElastiCache?

The Redis project is an open-source, self-managed in-memory data store known for its flexibility and advanced features, while ElastiCache is a fully managed service within the AWS ecosystem, offering ease of use, scalability, and integration with other AWS services.

ElastiCache supports Redis, Valkey, and Memcached. Valkey is an open-source fork of Redis. Due to licensing changes, ElastiCache will only support legacy versions of Redis up to version 7.2. Users who want similar capabilities to newer versions of Redis will need to transition to ElastiCache for Valkey.

Benefits of Redis

• Open source: Redis is open-source and free to use, offering maximum control and flexibility.
• Self-managed: Requires more hands-on management when used independently.
• Scalability: Provides manual scaling options, allowing for more control over the deployment.
• Performance: Redis can be extremely fast for certain use cases, offering sub-millisecond latency for read and write operations.
• Data persistence: Offers persistence options, including RDB snapshots and AOF logs.
• Data structures: Provides a wide array of data structures out-of-the-box.
• Cost: Open-source and free to use, but requires more operational investment for self-managed deployments.

Benefits of ElastiCache

• Fully managed: ElastiCache handles infrastructure, patching, backups, and failover, reducing operational overhead.
• Scalability: ElastiCache offers automatic scaling based on predefined metrics and provides horizontal scaling with cluster mode.
• Performance: ElastiCache is optimized for AWS infrastructure and provides consistent performance across different instance types.
• Data persistence: ElastiCache supports snapshot and backup features for both Redis and Valkey engines.
• Ease of use: Integrates seamlessly with other AWS services and requires minimal operational overhead.
• Cost: Pricing based on instance type and usage, with additional costs for features like backup and snapshot storage.

Key Differences and Considerations

• Management: ElastiCache is fully managed, while Redis requires self-management. 
• Redis versions: Due to license changes, ElastiCache will only support legacy versions of Redis up to version 7.2.
• AWS integration: ElastiCache is tightly integrated with AWS services, while Redis can be used in various environments.
• Scalability: Both offer scalability, but ElastiCache provides automated scaling, while Redis requires manual scaling.
• Cost: Redis is free to use, but ElastiCache has costs associated with instance types and features.
• Flexibility and ease of use: Redis provides greater flexibility and control, while ElastiCache offers ease of use and scalability as a managed service.
• Data persistence: Redis allows fine-grained control over persistence mechanisms, while ElastiCache provides managed snapshotting and backup capabilities for Redis.
• Security: ElastiCache offers built-in encryption and AWS IAM integration, whereas Redis requires manual setup for authentication and encryption.

This is part of a series of articles about Redis alternatives.

In this article:

• Redis vs. ElastiCache: The Key Differences
• • 1. Management and Deployment
  • 2. Licensing and Version Support
  • 3. AWS Integration
  • 4. Scalability and High Availability
  • 5. Performance
  • 6. Cost
  • 7. Flexibility and Ease of Use
  • 8. Data Persistence
  • 9. Security
• ElastiCache vs. Redis: Key Considerations for Choosing

Redis vs. ElastiCache: The Key Differences

1. Management and Deployment

When using Redis, the deployment and management are the responsibility of the user. This means you must handle infrastructure provisioning (e.g., server setup, memory configuration), configure and manage Redis itself, and implement features like replication, backups, and scaling. Redis gives you full control over the system, allowing for customization based on specific needs.

ElastiCache abstracts away most of the operational overhead. As a fully managed service, it takes care of provisioning hardware resources, applying patches, handling backups, and managing software updates. AWS automates these tasks, which reduces manual intervention and improves consistency and reliability. With ElastiCache, you do not have to worry about the underlying infrastructure, making it easier to focus on building and scaling your application.

2. Licensing and Version Support 

Starting with Redis 7.4 in March 2024, a new dual-license model restricted cloud providers from offering newer versions as a managed service. Consequently, AWS ElastiCache remains limited to Redis 7.2, preventing access to future features and enhancements.

Despite the fact that in May 2025, Redis added the AGPL license, which makes it open source again, the cloud providers have rallied behind Valkey, an open-source fork of Redis that is free from these licensing constraints. For customers seeking a managed service with the latest capabilities, AWS now supports Valkey in ElastiCache.

If you run Redis yourself as part of your application backend (and not as a hosted service), these licensing changes do not affect you. You are free to use any version of Redis.

3. AWS Integration

Redis, by itself, doesn’t provide deep integrations with AWS services, meaning that additional configuration is required to link Redis to other services in the AWS ecosystem. Setting up monitoring, alerts, or logging often requires third-party tools or custom solutions to integrate with AWS CloudWatch, for instance. Redis on AWS EC2 instances can be integrated with other services manually, but it is more cumbersome than a managed solution.

ElastiCache, as a managed AWS service, integrates with many AWS offerings. It supports integration with Amazon CloudWatch for enhanced monitoring, IAM for access control, and Amazon CloudFormation for infrastructure automation. Additionally, ElastiCache integrates with services like AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, and DynamoDB.

4. Scalability and High Availability

With Redis, scalability is achievable through features such as clustering and sharding. Redis supports clustering, which allows you to partition data across multiple nodes. However, this setup requires manual configuration, and scaling Redis clusters involves adding nodes or reconfiguring your existing infrastructure.

ElastiCache simplifies scalability with its auto-scaling feature. It allows you to dynamically add or remove nodes based on your application’s demand, helping you manage resources efficiently. ElastiCache also offers a serverless option, which is fully elastic and highly scalable but presents higher costs for large or steady workloads.

ElastiCache offers high availability with automatic failover across multiple availability zones (AZs). If a node or an AZ fails, ElastiCache can automatically promote a replica node to become the primary node, minimizing service disruption.

5. Performance

Redis is known for its high performance, with sub-millisecond response times. Because it stores data in memory, it can handle millions of operations per second. However, as the data set grows or if you need complex data types, managing Redis performance becomes more challenging. You must optimize your Redis configuration, set up clustering, monitor server health, and tune memory usage. ElastiCache is optimized for performance through AWS’s infrastructure. It benefits from network optimizations and low-latency connections within the AWS ecosystem. Overall, both properly self-managed Redis and ElastiCache should provide similar performance.

6. Cost

Redis itself is open-source and free to use, but operating Redis comes with costs beyond the software itself, including infrastructure costs (e.g., cloud instances or dedicated servers), as well as costs for administrative labor. Redis is often used in smaller environments where cost-conscious teams have the technical expertise to manage it themselves. However, large-scale Redis deployments require careful resource planning.

ElastiCache pricing is based on several models, depending on how you provision resources:

• With on-demand pricing, you pay hourly rates for the chosen instance type, which provides flexibility but is the most expensive option over time.
• With reserved instances, you commit to using ElastiCache for a fixed term (one or three years) and pay a partial or full upfront fee in exchange for lower hourly rates, reducing overall costs.
• With ElastiCache Serverless, you pay only for the memory and compute resources consumed, with no need to manage instances. Serverless is cost-efficient for unpredictable or spiky workloads but may be more expensive for large, steady workloads.

7. Flexibility and Ease of Use

Redis requires considerable setup, including configuring servers, tuning memory and persistence options, and establishing high availability or clustering. For small projects or experienced users, this is manageable, but scaling Redis or managing large clusters is complex, requiring specialized knowledge of Redis internals and infrastructure management.

ElastiCache simplifies some of these tasks, providing a console that allows you to deploy and scale Redis or Valkey clusters with minimal configuration. It abstracts much of the complexity of Redis, allowing teams to quickly spin up a cache layer without the need for deep technical expertise. ElastiCache also offers automated backups, software patching, and security configuration, which reduces the operational burden.

8. Data Persistence

Redis supports persistence options that allow you to store data to disk for durability. Redis has two primary methods for persistence: snapshots (RDB files) and append-only files (AOF). The snapshot mechanism periodically saves the point-in-time dataset to disk, while the append-only file logs write operations to disk. Both options have trade-offs in terms of performance and durability.

ElastiCache mainly supports snapshotting for data persistence. As its primary focus is on caching and high availability, persistent storage is less of a priority. Users can also export ElastiCache snapshots to an S3 bucket in the same region.

9. Security

Redis has built-in security features such as TLS, password authentication and access control lists (ACLs), but these need to be manually configured to meet enterprise-grade security standards. ElastiCache takes a more robust approach to security by providing several features that are built into the service. It integrates with AWS IAM, allowing fine-grained access control over who can manage or interact with your Redis or Valkey instances. Additionally, ElastiCache can be deployed within a VPC, offering network isolation.

ElastiCache vs. Redis: Key Considerations for Choosing 

When deciding between Redis and ElastiCache, several factors can influence your choice depending on your project’s requirements. Here are the key considerations to help guide your decision-making process:

• Redis compatibility and versions: If you want to be able to use newer versions of Redis (7.4 and beyond) and cannot use Redis-compatible alternatives like Valkey, opt for the open-source Redis. ElastiCache will not support newer versions of Redis, from 7.4 onwards.
• Customization needs: Redis provides more flexibility and control over configuration. If your application requires fine-tuning and customized setups (e.g., specific memory management or persistence configurations), Redis allows you to configure and optimize based on your needs.
• Operational expertise: Redis requires more in-depth knowledge of system administration, infrastructure management, and Redis-specific features. If your team lacks experience managing complex setups, ElastiCache offers an easier, fully managed alternative.
• Scalability requirements: ElastiCache simplifies horizontal scaling and high availability with automatic failover and scaling within the AWS ecosystem. If you need an automated scaling solution with minimal intervention, ElastiCache is a better choice.
• Integration with AWS: ElastiCache naturally integrates with other AWS services like EC2, Lambda, CloudWatch, and IAM, simplifying operations in AWS-centric architectures. If your infrastructure is heavily built on AWS, ElastiCache will provide more native support and easier integration.
• Data persistence requirements: If your use case demands persistent storage, both Redis and ElastiCache offer persistence options. However, Redis gives more control over persistence settings and is suited for setups where durability is critical. ElastiCache focuses more on in-memory caching with snapshotting.
• Cost efficiency: If budget is a major concern and you have the technical capability to manage your infrastructure, Redis might be more cost-effective for smaller environments. However, for larger-scale applications with fluctuating demand, the operational efficiencies of ElastiCache may justify the higher upfront cost.
• Security needs: ElastiCache provides stronger out-of-the-box security and integration with AWS IAM, making it a safer choice for compliance-driven applications. Redis, while secure, requires more manual effort to achieve similar security standards.

Dragonfly Cloud: The Ultimate ElastiCache and Managed Redis Alternative

Dragonfly is a modern, source-available, multi-threaded, Redis-compatible in-memory data store that stands out by delivering unmatched performance and efficiency. Designed from the ground up to disrupt legacy technologies, Dragonfly redefines what an in-memory data store can achieve.

Dragonfly Cloud is a fully managed service from the creators of Dragonfly, handling all operations and delivering effortless scaling so you can focus on what matters without worrying about in-memory data infrastructure anymore. By leveraging Dragonfly’s architecture, users often experience much higher throughput and more than 30% total cost of ownership.

Dragonfly Scales Both Vertically and Horizontally

Dragonfly’s architecture allows a single instance to fully utilize a modern multi-core server, handling up to millions of requests per second (RPS) and 1TB of in-memory data. This high vertical scalability often eliminates the need for clustering—unlike Redis, which typically requires a cluster even on a powerful single server (premature horizontal scaling). As a result, Dragonfly significantly reduces operational overhead while delivering superior performance.

For workloads that exceed even these limits, Dragonfly offers a horizontal scaling solution: Dragonfly Swarm. Swarm seamlessly extends Dragonfly’s capabilities to handle 100 million+ RPS and 100 TB+ of memory capacity, providing a path for massive growth.

Key Advancements of Dragonfly & Dragonfly Cloud

• Multi-Threaded Architecture: Efficiently leverages modern multi-core processors to maximize throughput and minimize latency.
• Unmatched Performance: Achieves 25x better performance than Redis, ensuring your applications run with extremely high throughput and consistent latency.
• Cost Efficiency: Reduces hardware and operational costs without sacrificing performance, making it an ideal choice for budget-conscious enterprises.
• Redis API Compatibility: Offers seamless integration with existing applications and frameworks running on Redis while overcoming its limitations.
• Innovative Design: Built to scale vertically and horizontally, providing a robust solution for rapidly growing data needs.
• Cloud-Native: Dragonfly Cloud is a fully managed offering, providing easy provisioning, unlimited scaling, VPC peering, and everything you need to seamlessly integrate with your application running in the cloud environment.