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Databases · head to head

Dragonfly vs Hookdeck

Dragonfly logo

Dragonfly

Databases

High-performance Redis-compatible in-memory datastore with 25x better throughput

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit DragonflyFull review
Hookdeck logo

Hookdeck

Developer Tools

Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit HookdeckFull review

The short version

  • Dragonfly is a modern in-memory data store.
  • Free plans on both; paid from $2000/mo and $39/mo.
  • Only Dragonfly lists redis API compatibility; only Hookdeck lists ingest and persist.
  • Where Dragonfly falls short: flex tier starting at $36/month may be underpriced, requiring careful usage monitoring.
  • Where Hookdeck falls short: pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dragonfly and Hookdeck actually diverge.

Attributes where Dragonfly and Hookdeck differ
AttributeDragonflyHookdeck
Pricing modelUsage-based cloud pricing with flexible tiersPer month by delivered event count
PlatformsWeb, AWS, GCP, AzureWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows
CategoryDatabasesDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Dragonfly

  • Redis API compatibility
  • Thread-per-core architecture
  • High-performance caching
  • Memory efficiency
  • Real-time leaderboards
  • Message queue support
  • ML feature serving
  • Cloud deployment

Only in Hookdeck

  • Ingest and persist
  • Automatic retries
  • Filters and fan-out
  • Transformations
  • Local development CLI
  • Rate limiting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Dragonfly

  • High-throughput caching for web applicationsnot Hookdeck
  • Real-time leaderboards and rankingsnot Hookdeck
  • Message queue and event processingnot Hookdeck
  • ML model feature serving at millisecond latenciesnot Hookdeck
  • Gaming session state and player data storagenot Hookdeck

Hookdeck

  • A payments integration where losing a Stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfillednot Dragonfly
  • Fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separatelynot Dragonfly
  • Debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fixnot Dragonfly
  • Receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnelnot Dragonfly

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Dragonfly

  • Flex tier starting at $36/month may be underpriced, requiring careful usage monitoring
  • Business tier $2,000/month represents significant jump in cost
  • Limited to in-memory storage, not suitable for cold data or archival
  • Bring-your-own-cloud requirement on Business tier adds operational complexity
  • Cloud availability dependent on AWS/GCP/Azure uptime

Hookdeck

  • Pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries
  • Free-tier retention is three days, which is shorter than the time it typically takes to notice a failing integration, so the payloads needed for a replay are often already gone
  • It becomes a single point of failure in front of every third-party integration, and an outage there means every provider webhook queues or fails at once
  • The transformation layer runs JavaScript in a constrained environment, so anything that needs a database lookup or an external call has to happen downstream instead
  • For a team already running Kafka or SQS the value is mostly the console and the replay UI, which is a hard cost to justify against infrastructure they already operate

Pricing, plan by plan

Dragonfly

Free
  • Free TierFree
    • 100 cloud credits for new signups
    • Equivalent to free trial
  • Business$2,000/mo
    • Starting price for enterprise offering
    • Bring-your-own-cloud deployment
    • Auto-scaling with custom SLAs
  • EnterpriseOn request
    • Custom pricing
    • Any-cloud deployment
    • Custom instances and sizing

Hookdeck

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to ten thousand events per month
    • Three-day retention
    • One user
  • Team$39/mo
    • Ten thousand events included
    • Unlimited users
    • Pay as you go metering above the included events
  • Growth$499/mo
    • Ten thousand events included plus metered usage
    • Thirty-day retention
    • Uptime and latency SLAs
  • EnterpriseOn request
    • Negotiated event volume
    • Custom retention
    • Dedicated support

Which should you pick?

Choose Dragonfly if

  • You need redis api compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, AWS, GCP, Azure.
  • You also want thread-per-core architecture.
Dragonfly review

Choose Hookdeck if

  • You need ingest and persist.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want automatic retries.
Hookdeck review

Questions people ask

Is Dragonfly or Hookdeck better?
Neither clearly leads. Dragonfly starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dragonfly or Hookdeck?
Dragonfly starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free.
Does Dragonfly or Hookdeck run on more platforms?
Dragonfly runs on Web, AWS, GCP, Azure. Hookdeck runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Dragonfly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Dragonfly best used for?
Dragonfly is most often used for high-throughput caching for web applications, real-time leaderboards and rankings, message queue and event processing, ml model feature serving at millisecond latencies. Of those, high-throughput caching for web applications and real-time leaderboards and rankings are not what Hookdeck is typically brought in for.
What can Dragonfly do that Hookdeck cannot?
Dragonfly covers Redis API compatibility, Thread-per-core architecture, High-performance caching, Memory efficiency. Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, Automatic retries, Filters and fan-out, Transformations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dragonfly: How much faster is Dragonfly than Redis?

Dragonfly achieves 3.97M queries per second compared to Redis's 718K QPS, representing a 25x improvement. Memory efficiency is also 30% better.

Source
Hookdeck: Is there a free plan?

Yes, ten thousand events a month with three-day retention and one user.

Dragonfly: Can I migrate from Redis to Dragonfly without code changes?

Yes. Dragonfly maintains full API compatibility with Redis and Memcached, allowing drop-in replacement with minimal to no code modifications.

Source
Hookdeck: How is usage counted?

By delivered events, so a single inbound webhook fanned out to three destinations counts as three.

Hookdeck: Can I replay a failed webhook?

Yes, individually or in bulk from the console, with the original payload.

Hookdeck: Does it work for outbound webhooks too?

Yes, the same queueing, retry and observability applies to webhooks you send.

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