Redis 8: back to open source with the AGPLv3 licence

2025-05-01 · Publisher : Redis · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

On 1 May 2025, Redis adds the OSI-approved AGPLv3 licence to Redis 8, a year after moving to SSPL. The return of Salvatore Sanfilippo and the Valkey fork weighed on the reversal.

### Background On 1 May 2025, Redis CEO Rowan Trollope announces that Redis 8 is available under the OSI-approved AGPLv3 licence, in addition to RSALv2 and SSPLv1. Redis acknowledges that the March 2024 move to SSPL achieved its aim with the hyperscalers, which now maintain their own fork, but damaged the relationship with the community. ### Key facts - Redis 8 brings the whole Redis Stack technology set (JSON, time series, probabilistic types, query engine) into the core, under AGPL. - New data type: "vector sets", created by Salvatore Sanfilippo (antirez), back at Redis since November 2024 as a developer evangelist. - Redis claims more than 30 performance improvements, up to 87% faster commands and doubled throughput. - The post admits SSPL is not an open source licence by the OSI definition. ### Why it matters Redis's three successive licences in thirteen months (BSD, source-available, AGPL) show that power relations between vendors and hosts shift fast, and that an infrastructure dependency must be tracked legally as much as technically. The AGPL is more demanding than BSD for anyone who modifies the code and offers it as a service, but it restores a recognized open source framework. Valkey remains the neutral-governance route. The post attributes part of the decisions (AGPL, vector sets) to the advice of Salvatore Sanfilippo, back at the company. ### Takeaway Redis returns to open source, without erasing the rift with Valkey or the cost of the source-available period.

Tags : Licence, Open Source, Données, Cloud