Valkey: The Redis Fork You Should Self-Host on a VPS in 2026
Valkey is an open-source, high-performance key-value store. It forked from Redis 7.2 in March 2024 after Redis Ltd changed Redis from BSD to dual SSPL/RSALv2 license. The Linux Foundation now backs Valkey with contributors from AWS, Google, Oracle, and Ericsson.
Why Valkey Exists
Redis was BSD-licensed for 15 years. In 2024, Redis Ltd changed the license to restrict cloud providers from offering Redis as a managed service. The community forked. Valkey keeps the BSD 3-clause license, free to use anywhere without licensing restrictions.
If you used Redis before, Valkey requires zero code changes. It is wire-compatible. Your existing Redis clients, libraries, and applications work with Valkey without modification.
Valkey vs Redis
| Feature | Valkey | Redis | |---|---|---| | License | BSD 3-Clause (free) | SSPL / RSALv2 (restrictive) | | Wire compatibility | Full Redis protocol | N/A | | Performance | Equal or better | Baseline | | Backed by | Linux Foundation, AWS, Google | Redis Ltd | | Self-hosting | No restrictions | License restricts some use cases |
Install Valkey on a VPS
Requirements: Linux VPS with 1+ GB RAM (Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12), root access.
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y build-essential tcl
git clone https://github.com/valkey-io/valkey.git
cd valkey && git checkout 8.0
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
Config file (/etc/valkey/valkey.conf):
bind 127.0.0.1
port 6379
maxmemory 256mb
maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru
appendonly yes
requirepass your-strong-password-here
Systemd service:
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/valkey.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description=Valkey
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/valkey-server /etc/valkey/valkey.conf
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
sudo systemctl enable valkey && sudo systemctl start valkey
Test: valkey-cli -a your-strong-password-here ping returns PONG.
Use Cases
- Caching: Store DB query results and API responses. A 256 MB instance handles millions of cached objects.
- Session storage: Faster than database-backed sessions. Supports TTL for automatic expiration.
- Rate limiting: Track API request counts with INCR and EXPIRE commands.
- Discord bot state: Store command cooldowns and temporary data faster than SQLite on high-frequency reads.
- Real-time leaderboards: Sorted sets give ranked leaderboards with O(log n) inserts.
Performance Tips
- Set maxmemory to 75% of your VPS RAM
- Use allkeys-lru eviction for caching workloads
- Enable io-threads for high throughput:
io-threads 4 - Disable AOF (
appendonly no) if you only use Valkey as a cache
Self-Host on Space-Node
A Valkey instance runs well on a 1-2 GB VPS. Space-Node plans start at 3.50 EUR/month with NVMe SSD storage and full root access. No managed service fees.
