The short answer
Redis 7.4 moved from the BSD 3-clause license to dual RSALv2 and SSPLv1 (announced 20 March 2024); internal use is unaffected, but competitive offerings need commercial terms. The Linux Foundation launched Valkey on 28 March 2024, continuing from Redis 7.2.4 under BSD 3-clause. Redis 8 added the OSI-approved AGPLv3 as an option on 1 May 2025.
Hiring for this?
Conntal places Redis engineers on contract, contract-to-hire or direct hire, each screened by a practitioner before you see a CV.
Most teams running Redis did not choose a license; they inherited one. Between 2024 and 2025 that inheritance changed twice, and a fork appeared in between. The facts fit in three dates.
20 March 2024: Redis leaves BSD
Starting with Redis 7.4, Redis is dual-licensed under the Redis Source Available License (RSALv2) and the Server Side Public License (SSPLv1), and is no longer distributed under the three-clause BSD license [1]. Redis states plainly that neither license is OSI-approved [1]. The change is not retroactive: releases before it remain under BSD [1].
For internal users, Redis said nothing changes — hosting Redis for your own organisation's use is permitted [1]. The restriction targets competitive offerings, such as a cloud provider hosting Redis as a service [1].
28 March 2024: Valkey forks from 7.2.4
Eight days later the Linux Foundation launched Valkey, an open source key-value store that continues development on Redis 7.2.4 under the BSD 3-clause license [2]. Its launch backers included AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson and Snap Inc. [2].
1 May 2025: Redis adds AGPLv3
Redis then added the OSI-approved AGPLv3 as an additional licensing option, starting with Redis 8 [3]. The same release folded Redis Stack technologies — JSON, Time Series, probabilistic data types and the Redis Query Engine — into core Redis under AGPL, and introduced vector sets as a new data type [3].
What it changes for a team
- Skills mostly transfer. Valkey started from Redis 7.2.4 [2], so persistence, replication and clustering knowledge from that era applies to both. The divergence is in what each line added after the fork.
- Feature choice now implies a line. Workloads built on what Redis 8 moved into core — JSON, the Query Engine, vector sets [3] — are choosing Redis, not just a key-value store.
- Managed services decide for many teams. If you consume Redis through a cloud provider, confirm which engine and version sits behind the endpoint before you plan an upgrade.
Hiring for this?
Conntal places Redis engineers on contract, contract-to-hire or direct hire, each screened by a practitioner before you see a CV.
Sources
- [1] Redis, Redis Adopts Dual Source-Available Licensing. 20 March 2024.Primary source
- [2] Linux Foundation, Linux Foundation Launches Open Source Valkey Community. 28 March 2024.Primary source
- [3] Redis, Redis is now available under the AGPLv3 open source license. 1 May 2025.Primary source
Go deeper with the engineers who run it
Conntal is the staffing arm of AceMQ. When you need the platform supported rather than a person placed, these are the pages to read.
- AceMQ Redis consulting and support
- OSSEVA Valkey vs Redis compared
- AceMQ Valkey support
- OSSEVA Migrating from Redis to Valkey
Related questions
Which Redis version did Valkey fork from?
Valkey continues development from Redis 7.2.4, under the BSD 3-clause license.
Is Redis open source again?
Starting with Redis 8, Redis added the OSI-approved AGPLv3 as an additional licensing option, alongside the RSALv2 and SSPLv1 licenses it adopted from Redis 7.4.