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Developer Tools · head to head

JetBrains Rider vs Redis

JetBrains Rider logo

JetBrains Rider

Developer Tools

Cross-platform .NET IDE from JetBrains for C#, F#, VB.NET and Unity

From
$18.25/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Redis logo

Redis

Technology

The real-time data platform

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Redis has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: JetBrains Rider requires a paid subscription with no permanently free commercial tier.; Redis licensing changed from BSD to AGPL in 2025, impacting open-source usage
  • They diverge on capability: JetBrains Rider covers Cross-platform .NET Development, Redis covers In-memory data store.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which JetBrains Rider and Redis actually diverge.

Attributes where JetBrains Rider and Redis differ
AttributeJetBrains RiderRedis
Starting price$18.25/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
Free tierNoYes
Platformswindows, mac, linuxLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryDeveloper ToolsTechnology
Founded20002009

Identical on both: 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 JetBrains Rider

  • Cross-platform .NET Development
  • ReSharper-powered Code Analysis
  • Integrated Debugger and Profiler
  • Version Control Integration
  • Unity Support

Only in Redis

  • In-memory data store
  • Data structures
  • Pub/Sub messaging
  • Lua scripting
  • Transactions
  • Persistence options
  • Replication
  • Clustering

What people use each for

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

JetBrains Rider

  • Cross-platform .NET and ASP.NET Core developmentnot Redis
  • Unity game development and debuggingnot Redis
  • Large-scale C# refactoring with ReSharper-grade analysisnot Redis
  • Teams standardizing on JetBrains tooling across languagesnot Redis

Redis

  • Cachingnot JetBrains Rider
  • Session managementnot JetBrains Rider
  • Real-time analyticsnot JetBrains Rider
  • Message queuingnot JetBrains Rider
  • Leaderboardsnot JetBrains Rider

Where each one falls short

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

JetBrains Rider

  • Requires a paid subscription with no permanently free commercial tier.
  • Heavier resource usage than lightweight editors like VS Code for small projects.
  • Some advanced features overlap with a separate ReSharper Visual Studio plugin, causing licensing confusion.
  • First-year pricing increased in late 2025, raising the cost of entry versus prior years.

Redis

  • Licensing changed from BSD to AGPL in 2025, impacting open-source usage
  • All data must fit in memory, limiting scalability to available RAM
  • No built-in support for multi-tenancy
  • Limited transaction support compared to traditional databases

Pricing, plan by plan

JetBrains Rider

$18.25/month
  • Individual - Year 1$219/year
    • Full Rider IDE license
    • Free minor and major updates during subscription
  • Individual - Year 2$175/year
    • Continuity discount after first year
  • Individual - Year 3+$131/year
    • Further continuity discount from third year onward

Redis

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Redis review.

Which should you pick?

Choose JetBrains Rider if

  • You need cross-platform .net development.
  • You work on windows, mac, linux.
  • You also want resharper-powered code analysis.
JetBrains Rider review

Choose Redis if

  • You need in-memory data store.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want data structures.
Redis review

Questions people ask

Is JetBrains Rider or Redis better?
Neither clearly leads. JetBrains Rider starts at $18.25/month and Redis at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, JetBrains Rider or Redis?
Redis has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $18.25/month for JetBrains Rider and Free for Redis.
Does JetBrains Rider or Redis run on more platforms?
JetBrains Rider runs on windows, mac, linux. Redis runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Redis for free?
Yes. Redis has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. JetBrains Rider starts at $18.25/month.
What is JetBrains Rider best used for?
JetBrains Rider is most often used for cross-platform .net and asp.net core development, unity game development and debugging, large-scale c# refactoring with resharper-grade analysis, teams standardizing on jetbrains tooling across languages. Of those, cross-platform .net and asp.net core development and unity game development and debugging are not what Redis is typically brought in for.
What can JetBrains Rider do that Redis cannot?
JetBrains Rider covers Cross-platform .NET Development, ReSharper-powered Code Analysis, Integrated Debugger and Profiler, Version Control Integration. Redis covers In-memory data store, Data structures, Pub/Sub messaging, Lua scripting.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

JetBrains Rider: Does Rider have a free version?

JetBrains offers a free non-commercial license for Rider for personal, non-commercial use, alongside paid commercial subscriptions with continuity discounts after the first year.

Source
Redis: Is Redis open source?

Redis was open source under the BSD license since its inception in 2009 and has remained open source. However, in 2024-2025, Redis Labs changed licensing to source-available and AGPL, prompting the creation of Valkey, a BSD-licensed open-source fork.

Source
JetBrains Rider: What counts as non-commercial use under the free license?

Learning, open-source contributions without commercial benefit, content creation like monetized tutorials, and hobby projects qualify; any paid work or commercial release does not.

Source
Redis: What is Redis used for?

Redis is an in-memory data structure store used primarily as a cache, database, and message broker. It provides high-speed data access for real-time applications, sessions, leaderboards, real-time analytics, and other use cases requiring fast data retrieval.

Source
JetBrains Rider: Does the free non-commercial license include all Rider features?

Yes, it is a full-featured IDE identical to the paid version, with one exception: Code With Me is limited to the Community tier instead of the premium tier.

Source
JetBrains Rider: How often does the non-commercial license renew?

It issues a one-year license that renews automatically each year, provided Rider was opened at least once during the preceding six months.

Source
JetBrains Rider: What support do non-commercial license holders get?

Non-commercial users get community forums and public bug trackers rather than private support tickets, which are reserved for paid subscribers.

Source
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