What KeyDB does

KeyDB is an open-source, in-memory key-value database that originated in 2019 as a fork of Redis and is maintained by EQ Alpha Technology Ltd. with operational backing from Snap Inc., which assumed copyright in 2021. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with a stated headcount of 1-10 employees. Its core product is a multithreaded C-based database that is API- and protocol-compatible with Redis, enabling drop-in replacement of existing Redis deployments without application code changes.

The product portfolio centers on KeyDB Open Source as the primary in-memory database, supplemented by KeyDB Cluster for sharded horizontal scaling, KeyDB Active-Replica for bi-directional multi-master replication, a beta FLASH storage extension for flash-backed persistence, and ModJS, an open-source V8-based JavaScript module for custom commands. Technical differentiators include a multithreaded execution model benchmarked at over 1 million operations per second per node, MVCC-based non-blocking query architecture for concurrent SCAN/KEYS operations, asynchronous cross-region multi-master replication with timestamp-based conflict resolution, and TLS encryption capable of operating at 7x the throughput of Redis with TLS.

KeyDB's business model is fully open source under the BSD license with no commercial pricing tiers, paid editions, or disclosed revenue. The software is distributed free of charge via GitHub, Docker Hub, and PPA/DEB/RPM packages, with go-to-market executed through developer community channels (Stack Overflow, Slack, GitHub, forum, and social media) and technical content marketing (documentation, blog, news). The project is funded by Snap Inc. as an internal infrastructure cost center; the only disclosed external capital is a $1.33M seed round led by Y Combinator in April 2021, alongside participation in the Canadian Technology Accelerator program. The roadmap includes FLASH storage, JSON support, multi-tenant capabilities, and RAFT consensus, indicating planned expansion of the product surface.

Name

KeyDB

Legal name

KeyDB

Website

https://keydb.dev

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

KeyDB is an open-source, multithreaded in-memory database maintained by EQ Alpha Technology Ltd. and backed by Snap Inc., serving as a high-performance drop-in alternative to Redis for developers and engineering teams.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

In-Memory Database

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Key-Value Stores (HDAEAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

NoSQL Database Management Systems (HDAEAAAB), In-Memory Databases (HDAEAAAD)

Keywords

• In-memory database
• Redis alternative
• Key-value store
• Open source database
• Multithreaded database

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Open Source Software Distribution: KeyDB is distributed as fully open source software under the BSD license. The product is free to download and use. Revenue is not generated directly from the software; the development is backed by Snap Inc. which uses KeyDB internally for its own infrastructure needs.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

KeyDB is a fully open-source, high-performance, multithreaded in-memory database that serves as a drop-in replacement for Redis with full Redis API and protocol compatibility. The core product supports strings, hashes, lists, sets, sorted sets, bitmaps, hyperloglogs, geospatial indexes, and streams, with configurable RDB/AOF persistence, MVCC non-blocking queries, active-active multi-master replication, and TLS encryption. It benchmarks at over 1 million operations per second per node.

Product overview

KeyDB is a fully open-source, high-performance database backed by Snap Inc., serving as a faster drop-in alternative to Redis. The product portfolio centers on KeyDB Open Source as the core in-memory database with multithreaded architecture, supplemented by KeyDB Cluster for horizontal sharding, KeyDB Active-Replica for bidirectional replication and high availability, FLASH Storage (Beta) for flash-based persistence, and ModJS for custom JavaScript command extensions. KeyDB maintains full API and protocol compatibility with Redis, allowing users to leverage existing Redis clients and workflows while gaining KeyDB's performance advantages including over 1 million ops/sec throughput per node, submillisecond latency, and advanced features like MVCC non-blocking queries.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• KeyDB Open Source The core open-source in-memory database — a high-performance, multithreaded drop-in alternative to Redis that benchmarks at over 1 million ops/sec per node and supports Redis API and protocol compatibility. Targeted at developers, DevOps engineers, and engineering teams building high-throughput applications requiring fast in-memory data storage.
• KeyDB Cluster Sharded cluster-mode configuration for horizontal scaling that distributes data across multiple nodes with automatic failover support, enabling KeyDB to meet much larger workloads. Targeted at engineering teams operating large-scale database deployments.
• KeyDB Active-Replica Active replication feature that allows both master and replica nodes to accept reads and writes, simplifying failover scenarios without sentinel nodes. Supports bidirectional replication and handles split-brain scenarios with timestamp-based conflict resolution.
• ModJS Open-source JavaScript module for creating custom commands in KeyDB, built on the V8 JIT engine. Faster than Lua and supports many node.js modules for extensive library support for common tasks.

Quantifiable outcome

• Single node throughput exceeds 1 million operations per second, outperforming Redis on a per-node basis
• +2 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• EQ Alpha Technology Ltd.coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEQ Alpha Technology Ltd. is the entity that originally developed KeyDB and holds copyright (2020-2021). They appear to be the primary maintainers and developers of the open source project alongside Snap Inc.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Redis: Redis is the canonical in-memory key-value store that KeyDB directly targets as a drop-in, higher-performance alternative. KeyDB's full API/protocol compatibility is explicitly designed to make it interchangeable with Redis.
• DragonflyDB: DragonflyDB is a modern, multithreaded Redis-compatible in-memory datastore positioned as a faster drop-in replacement for Redis. It competes head-to-head with KeyDB for the same workload profile.
• Valkey: Valkey is the Linux Foundation-governed open source fork of Redis. As a permissively licensed Redis-compatible project, it competes directly with KeyDB for users seeking an open source Redis alternative.
• Memcached: Memcached is the classic in-memory key-value caching layer that KeyDB targets as an upgrade path for high-throughput caching and session storage use cases.

Emerging players

• Aerospike: Aerospike is a real-time NoSQL database with hybrid memory (RAM+flash) architecture targeting similar high-throughput, low-latency workloads. Its FLASH tier overlaps with KeyDB's roadmap FLASH storage feature.
• ScyllaDB: ScyllaDB is a high-performance, shard-per-core NoSQL database compatible with Cassandra and Redis APIs. It competes for the same latency-sensitive, throughput-intensive workloads as KeyDB.
• FoundationDB: FoundationDB is an open source distributed database originally developed by Apple that handles key-value and other data models with strong consistency. It is adjacent in the distributed, performant database space KeyDB targets.

Broad incumbents

• AWS ElastiCache for Redis: AWS ElastiCache is a managed Redis service from the largest cloud provider. It competes with KeyDB primarily by absorbing enterprise demand for Redis-compatible infrastructure into a managed offering.
• Google Cloud Memorystore: Google Cloud Memorystore offers managed Redis and Memcached instances on GCP. It competes with KeyDB as the default cloud-native Redis-compatible service within Google's ecosystem.
• Microsoft Azure Cache for Redis: Azure Cache for Redis (now Azure Managed Redis) is Microsoft's fully managed Redis service on Azure. It competes with KeyDB by providing enterprise SLAs and Azure-native integration for Redis workloads.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/realkeydb
• GitHubgithub.com/EQ-Alpha/KeyDB
• Facebookfacebook.com/realkeydb
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/eqalphatechnology
• Instagraminstagram.com/_keydb_

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about KeyDB