# DragonflyDB vs Memcached

| Attribute | DragonflyDB | Memcached |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 57.5 (67% (medium)) | 54.2 (37% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 47 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 0 | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | 31,043 | 14,259 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | An in-memory data store delivering significantly higher throughput and memory efficiency than Redis through multi-threaded architecture, enabling cost-effective scaling with fewer infrastructure resources. | 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. |
| features.capabilities | `{"clustering":"sharded","deployment":"self_hosted","consistency":"strong","persistence":"snapshot","eviction_ttl":true,"storage_tier":"in_memory","transactions":"multi_exec","licence_class":"source_available","wire_protocol":"resp","multi_threaded":true,"pubsub_streams":true,"data_structures":"rich_types","redis_api_compat":"full"}` | `{"clustering":"sharded","deployment":"self_hosted","consistency":"strong","persistence":"none","eviction_ttl":true,"storage_tier":"in_memory","transactions":"none","licence_class":"permissive","wire_protocol":"memcached","multi_threaded":true,"pubsub_streams":false,"data_structures":"kv_only","redis_api_compat":"none"}` |
| integrations.count | 6 | - |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"GCP Marketplace"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"Google Cloud Platform"},{"name":"Feast"},{"name":"Airbyte"},{"name":"PostgreSQL"}]` | - |
| language.primary | C++ | C |
| license.spdx | - | BSD-3-Clause |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"subscription","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Flex","summary":"$8/GB/month, starting at $36/month","features":["Fully-managed on AWS, GCP, or Azure","One-click provisioning","Horizontal + vertical scaling","Monitoring dashboard","Dragonfly team support"],"components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"GB","amount":8,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Fully-managed Dragonfly service for teams that prefer a simple, self-serve solution","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Business","summary":"Starting at $2,000/month","features":["Bring your own cloud","Auto-scaling","SSO & MFA","Custom SLA","Dedicated support"],"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":2000,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Fully-managed Dragonfly service for teams that require advanced security, compliance, and support","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Contact for pricing","features":["Run anywhere","Custom instance types","White-glove migrations and tuning","Advanced security & compliance","Enterprise SLA & premium support"],"description":"Fully-managed Dragonfly service for large organizations that require air-gapped infrastructure and white-glove support","contactSales":true}],"summary":"From $8/GB/month (Flex), $2,000+/month (Business). Free trial with $100 credits.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.dragonflydb.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-01T15:16:24.351Z","startingPrice":{"amount":8,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source and free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://memcached.org","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T16:43:06.339Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 21 | - |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.40.1","date":"2026-08-06T06:54:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.40.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.40.0","date":"2026-08-04T04:46:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.40.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.39.0","date":"2026-06-09T10:38:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.39.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.38.1","date":"2026-04-28T08:01:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.38.0","date":"2026-04-14T07:04:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.37.2","date":"2026-03-26T07:49:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.37.0","date":"2026-02-23T10:50:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.36.0","date":"2026-01-07T11:23:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.36.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.35.1","date":"2025-11-25T16:20:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.35.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.34.2","date":"2025-10-14T16:04:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.34.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.34.1","date":"2025-09-18T19:50:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.34.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.34.0","date":"2025-09-17T23:33:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.34.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.33.1","date":"2025-08-21T10:21:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.33.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.33.0","date":"2025-08-19T07:10:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.33.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.32.0","date":"2025-08-04T03:27:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.32.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.31.2","date":"2025-07-16T06:16:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.31.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.31.1","date":"2025-07-14T12:57:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.31.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.31.0","date":"2025-06-19T10:15:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.31.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.30.3","date":"2025-05-28T16:26:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.30.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/dragonflydb/dragonfly/releases/tag/v1.30.2","date":"2025-05-25T12:48:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.30.2"}]` | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 5.3 | 4.5 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=helm&package_name=softonic%2Fdragonfly&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=helm&package_name=cloudpirates-memcached%2Fmemcached&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Key-Value Stores)

| Capability | DragonflyDB | Memcached |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Storage tier | In-memory | In-memory |
| Persistence | Snapshot (RDB) | None (pure cache) |
| Data structures | Rich types | KV-only |
| **Protocol** |  |  |
| Wire protocol | RESP (Redis) | Memcached |
| **Distribution** |  |  |
| Clustering | Sharded | Sharded |
| Consistency | Strong | Strong |
| **Ops** |  |  |
| Eviction / TTL policies | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-threaded | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pub/Sub / streams | ✓ | ✗ |
| Transactions / atomic ops | MULTI-EXEC | None |
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Source-available | Permissive OSS |
| **Compatibility** |  |  |
| Redis API compatibility | Full | None |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:33:00.752Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*