Redis moves away from open source and shifts to a more restrictive dual-license model

Redis, the renowned in-memory data store solutions provider, has revealed a shift in its open-source licensing approach. The company is transitioning from the BSD 3-Clause License to a dual-license model. Developers will now have the option to choose between the Redis Source Available License version 2 (RSALv2) or the Server-Side Public License version 1 (SSPLv1). The changes will be implemented starting with Redis 7.4.

This strategic move is designed to deter large cloud providers from offering free alternatives to Redis’ own hosted service. As per the new license, cloud service providers hosting Redis offerings will be prohibited from using the Redis source code free of charge. To provide Redis 7.4, these providers will have to agree to licensing terms with Redis. Microsoft is the first company to enter into such a commercial agreement with Redis.

Redis has stated that the new source-available licenses will allow them to sustainably provide permissive use of their source code. The company reassures that the Redis source code will remain freely available to developers, customers, and partners through the Redis Community Edition. Future source-available releases will combine core Redis with Redis Stack, featuring search, JSON, vector, probabilistic, and time-series data models in one free, downloadable software package.

In response to these changes, alternatives and forks have emerged, such as the BSD-licensed fork KeyDB and the newly created fork Redict, relicensed under the LGPL-3.0. These developments mirror the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community's increasing struggle to monetize open source.