Redis Changed Its License. Here's How I Future-Proofed My Rate Limiter with Valkey and DragonflyDB.

If you're running a Node.js or Bun API in production, there's a good chance Redis is somewhere in your stack. And if you've been paying attention to the open source world over the past two years, you know that "just use Redis" isn't as simple as it used to be. I maintain hitlimit , a rate limiting library for Node.js and Bun. This week I shipped v1.3.0 with first-class Valkey and DragonflyDB support. Here's why, and what the numbers look like. The Redis Licensing Timeline For 15 years, Redis was BSD-licensed. Use it however you want, no restrictions. Then things changed fast: March 2024 — Redis switches from BSD to dual SSPL/RSAL. The goal: stop cloud providers (AWS, Google) from offering managed Redis without paying. The community reaction is immediate and hostile. March 2024 — The Linux Foundation announces Valkey , a fork of Redis 7.2.4 under the BSD license. AWS, Google, Oracle, Ericsson, and Snap back it on day one. April 2025 — One year later, DevClass reports that Redis has lost