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Technology · head to head

Redis vs Soketi

Redis logo

Redis

Technology

The real-time data platform

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Redis licensing changed from BSD to AGPL in 2025, impacting open-source usage; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Redis covers In-memory data store, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Redis and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Redis and Soketi differ
AttributeRedisSoketi
Pricing modelUnknownOpen source, no licence fee
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools
Founded2009Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows), 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 Redis

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

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

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

Redis

  • Cachingnot Soketi
  • Session managementnot Soketi
  • Real-time analyticsnot Soketi
  • Message queuingnot Soketi
  • Leaderboardsnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Redis
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Redis
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Redis
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Redis

Where each one falls short

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

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

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

Redis

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Redis review.

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Redis or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Redis starts at Free and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Redis or Soketi?
Redis starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Redis or Soketi run on more platforms?
Both run on Linux, macOS, Windows, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Redis for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Redis best used for?
Redis is most often used for caching, session management, real-time analytics, message queuing. Of those, caching and session management are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Redis do that Soketi cannot?
Redis covers In-memory data store, Data structures, Pub/Sub messaging, Lua scripting. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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
Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

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
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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