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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Valkey

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Valkey logo

Valkey

Databases

Open-source in-memory data store forked from Redis

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; Valkey younger project, so its track record is short even though the codebase is not
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Valkey covers Redis-compatible.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Valkey actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Valkey differ
AttributeFormanceValkey
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeOpen source, no licence fee; managed cloud billed separately
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APILinux, macOS, Docker, Self-hosted
CategoryAPIsDatabases

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Valkey

  • Redis-compatible
  • BSD licensed
  • Rich data structures
  • Replication and persistence

What people use each for

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

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Valkey
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Valkey
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Valkey
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Valkey

Valkey

  • Continuing on a permissively licensed in-memory store after the Redis licence changenot Formance
  • Caching and session storage where a foundation-governed project is a procurement requirementnot Formance
  • Migrating from Redis without rewriting application codenot Formance

Where each one falls short

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

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

Valkey

  • Younger project, so its track record is short even though the codebase is not
  • Divergence from Redis grows over time, so compatibility is strongest near the fork point and weakens as both evolve
  • Ecosystem tooling and documentation still frequently assume Redis, leaving translation work

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

Valkey

Free
  • ValkeyFree
    • Full functionality
    • Self-hosted
    • No usage limits

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose Valkey if

  • You need redis-compatible.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Self-hosted.
  • You also want bsd licensed.
Valkey review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Valkey better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Valkey at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Valkey?
Formance starts at Free and Valkey at Free.
Does Formance or Valkey run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Valkey runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Self-hosted.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Valkey is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Valkey cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Valkey covers Redis-compatible, BSD licensed, Rich data structures, Replication and persistence.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

Valkey: Is Valkey free?

Yes, BSD-licensed open source under the Linux Foundation.

Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

Valkey: Why does Valkey exist?

Redis changed its licence away from BSD in 2024. Valkey is the community fork continuing under permissive terms, backed by AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle among others.

Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

Valkey: Can I switch from Redis to Valkey?

At the fork point it is drop-in compatible with existing clients and data. The further both projects move from that point, the more you should verify the specific features you use.

Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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