Comparison

Memcached vs Valkey

No clear leader: Valkey (56.2) and Memcached (54.2) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Memcached54
Valkey56
Score
Vioscale score
Memcached54 / 100low · 37%updating
Valkey56 / 100low · 43%updating
Pricing
Free tier
Memcached
Valkey
Model
Memcachedcommercial
Price level
Memcachedfree
Valkeyfree
Transparent
Memcached
Valkey
Integrations
Count
Memcached
Valkey1
Adoption
Dependent repos
Memcached0
Valkey0
Github stars
Memcached14,259
Valkey26,989
Activity
Commits last 30d
Memcached47
Valkey91
Release
History
Memcached
Valkey20 items
License
Spdx
Language
Primary
MemcachedC
ValkeyC

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for key-value stores. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Storage
Storage tier
MemcachedIn-memory
ValkeyPersistent
Persistence
MemcachedNone (pure cache)
ValkeySnapshot (RDB)
Data structures
MemcachedKV-only
ValkeyRich types
Protocol
Wire protocol
MemcachedMemcached
Valkey-
Distribution
Clustering
MemcachedSharded
ValkeySharded
Consistency
MemcachedStrong
Valkey-
Ops
Eviction / TTL policies
Memcached
Valkey
Multi-threaded
Memcached
Valkey
Pub/Sub / streams
Memcached
Valkey
Transactions / atomic ops
MemcachedNone
Valkey-
Deployment
Deployment
MemcachedSelf-hosted
ValkeySelf-hosted
Licensing
Licence class
MemcachedPermissive OSS
ValkeyPermissive OSS
Compatibility
Redis API compatibility
MemcachedNone
ValkeyFull

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Memcached

A free, in-memory key-value cache designed to reduce database load and improve application performance by storing temporary copies of frequently accessed data from databases, APIs, or rendered pages. It distributes cache across multiple servers in a cluster, with each piece of data stored in a single consistent location for reliable retrieval.

Independently observed

Valkey

A Linux Foundation-backed open-source database server for storing and managing key-value data. Supports multiple data types and deployment modes ranging from single-node setups to distributed clusters, serving caching, message queue, and primary database use cases.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Memcached

Open sourceFree tier

Open source and free

as of verify ↗

Valkey

Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
macOS
Memcached
Valkey
Linux
Memcached
Valkey
CLI
Memcached
Valkey
Deployment
Self-hosted
Memcached
Valkey

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Memcached

Not documented yet.

Valkey

1 total
  • Harbor
Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.