Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial (Pros and Cons)
Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial (Pros and Cons). Well having the right database management system is imperative. Therefore seamless data flow and high performance applications take place. Whether you are running web applications or intense workloads such as live streaming, having a reliable database tool is essential. So, Redis server is an in-memory data structure store. Mainly used as a database and cache tool for high availability workloads. Additionally, it provides a means to store key-value pairs in different data types such as Hashes, Lists, Sets, Strings, etc. All in all, it keeps the data in memory to respond in real time when requested.
Also, Redis has many benefits, such as low latency, real time data analytics, and more. However, it has some downsides, such as the high cost of the Redis Enterprise edition. Having said that, let’s look at some of the best Redis alternatives for database and caching.
Shall we start this article blog about Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial (Pros and Cons). Please Read on!
Best Redis Alternatives
1. MySQL
First on this list of Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial (Pros and Cons) is MySQL. A relational database management system based on the Standard Query Language (SQL). An excellent alternative to Redis if you are looking for schema based database management. Ideally, it creates and manages databases in a relational model, where multiple data tables point to each other. Hence, this tool is suitable for running web applications and data storage.
MySQL data tables contain rows and columns defined during creation. You can organize and manage this data according to your needs. Besides, MySQL relational model allows you to configure relationships between data tables. As a result, you can then enforce the database rules to maintain consistency in your applications.
Secondly, MySQL is part of the LAMP stack that also consists of Linux OS, Apache Web Server, and PHP for processing. The LAMP stack stores and retrieves data in applications and websites. Besides, it has both open source and premium licensed versions for high end commercial applications.
Pros of MySQL
- Scales seamlessly to meet the demands of the accessed applications.
- Has an Access Privilege System and User Account Management for optimal security.
- It has a client server architecture where multiple applications can query data simultaneously.
- Has stored procedures, views, and triggers that increase developer productivity.
- Runs on all major operating systems.
- Has a free and open source edition suitable for small and medium sized companies.
Cons of MySQL
- It does not have a great debugging tool.
- Delivers low performance in extremely high traffic environments.
2. Memcached
Memcached is in memory key value data store with enhanced caching capabilities. With almost similar features to Redis, it’s an excellent choice for a lighter database management system. Certainly, ideal for caching database data to increase application performance. This database management system delivers responses in sub milliseconds. As noted, the high speeds enable it to power real time applications such as eCommerce, Mobile and Web Apps, and Gaming.
Well, with Memcached, it keeps its data in-memory, unlike popular databases that store data in SSDs or disks. In essence, it eliminates the need for disk access, making it possible to deliver responses in microseconds. Besides, Memcached is distributed and can scale easily by adding nodes. Basically, a distributed database stores data in different physical locations, either through replication or fragmentation. The data can be in multiple computers in a single physical location or at various interconnected storage locations.
Pros of Memcached
- Sub millisecond response times.
- Supports multiple languages such as JavaScript, Node.js, Go, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Java.
- Multithreaded that supports multiple cores on a single node.
- Compensates inadequate ACID properties.
Cons of Memcached
- Loses the temporarily stored data when a Memcached instance fails.
- Lacks a built in authentication feature.
3. PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL is an excellent Redis alternative if you want to work with both structured and unstructured data. As can be seen, it is an object relational database management system that supports both SQL and JSON querying. Use PostgreSQL as a primary data store or data warehouse for mobile, web, and analytics applications. Concurrently, it runs on all major operating systems, such as Windows, UNIX, and Linux. Besides, it supports different data types such as text, video, audio, and images.
PostgreSQL is written in C, but it allows developers to use the operating system of choice, i.e, Java, C++, ODBC, Ruby, Perl, and Python, among others, to add custom functions. This database has robust management features such as asynchronous replication, point-in-time recovery, and Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC). These features make it a suitable data warehouse for multiple applications.
Pros of PostgreSQL
- Open source code that allows developers to modify and implement it according to their needs.
- Has a dedicated community of developers who fix bugs and contribute to its security.
- Supports both relational (SQL) and non relational (JSON) querying.
- Highly fault tolerant.
- Supports geographic objects and is hence suitable for geospatial data storage and systems.
Cons of PostgreSQL
- Relatively low loading speeds.
- Not supported by many open source applications that support MySQL.
4. MongoDB
Another key alternative for Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial is MongoDB. As well as, it is an open source NoSQL document database. Unlike SQL based databases, it does not store data in relational tables. So, MongoDB is suitable for large sets of distributed data and document oriented information management.
Moreover, MongoDB has documents as the basic data unit. Well, it uses records made up of documents that contain data structures composed of value and field pairs. These records resemble JSON but use the Binary JSON (BSON) variant to accommodate more data types. Conversely, its fields resemble columns in SQL databases. Whilst the values can be documents, arrays, or arrays of documents.
Pros of MongoDB
- Does not require predefined schemas as it’s not relational.
- Users can create an unlimited number of fields in a document.
- Automatic sharding enables horizontal scalability and distribution.
- Provides scalable APIs that enable users to develop their own storage engines for MongoDB.
Cons of MongoDB
- Supports a single master node in a cluster that can fail.
- The automatic failover strategy and node-to-master node conversion are not instantaneous.
- The single master node in a cluster limits data writing speeds.
- No default user authentication, which increases the chances of an attack.
5. Amazon Redshift
Amazon Redshift is an excellent top 12 Best Redis alternatives. Primarily, if you run your workloads on Amazon AWS. This is a cloud based data warehouse based on PostgreSQL. Additionally, fully managed service designed for analytics. Also processes both structured and unstructured data and generates new business insights. Equally, with redshift it is based on Massive Parallel Processing (MPP) technology. Therefore, it enables it to process huge volumes of data faster than other popular databases. In this technology, a large number of processors spread across multiple servers work in tandem to deliver the required analytics.
Thanks to Amazon Redshift, it contains a collection of nodes (computing resources) organized in clusters. Each cluster contains at least one database and runs its own Redshift engine. These clusters scale easily when you enable concurrency scaling to process concurrent read queries. Upon reduction in concurrent query demand, the clusters scale down appropriately.
If your company operates in a real time data analytics environment, Amazon Redshift is an excellent choice of database. In addition, its high processing power and availability allows it to deliver business insights for decision making. Besides, it allows you to combine multiple data sources and process data simultaneously. Ideally, it extends its capabilities beyond data to business intelligence. Especially, with highly functional dashboards, it automatically generate reports so business leaders can analyse them easily.
Pros of Amazon Redshift
- Seamless integration with other Amazon AWS tools.
- Collects data from multiple sources (desktop, mobile, Excel) and aggregates and analyses it to gain insights.
- Provides data encryption for extra security.
- Enables user to automate repetitive tasks.
- High query volume without compromising performance.
- Robust API with extensive documentation.
- Uses machine learning to analyse and predict future trends in your data.
Cons of Amazon Redshift
- Huge data migration costs.
- Complex AWS pricing model.
- Requires knowledge of sort keys used for data storage.
6. MariaDB
As well as, next on the list of Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives, we have MariaDB. Another relational database designed as a software fork of MySQL to remain free and open source. This database provides data processing capabilities for all organizations regardless of their size. Evidently, there are many built in features that make it function an improved version of MySQL. So, in MariaDB you have more security, performance, and usability features than MySQL.
At the same time, MariaDB has four versions: MariaDB Enterprise Server, MariaDB Distributed SQL, MariaDB Analytics, and MariaDB Cloud. The MariaDB Enterprise server is an enterprise grade database solution for analytical and transactional workloads. Especially, it provides highly available and scalable databases and warehouses suitable for data analytics and operational transactions.
Evidently, Maria Distributed SQL (MariaDB XPAND) is a distributed SQL solution. Those are for large, mission critical workloads that require ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) level consistency and high reliability.
The MariaDB Analytics version extends the Enterprise Server capabilities with massive parallel processing (MPP) and distributed columnar storage. It functions as a standalone data warehouse for ad hoc analytics without the need for creating indexes. At the time, MariaDB Cloud version combines the power of the MariaDB database and cloud ease of use for multi cloud deployments.
Pros of MariaDB
- Operates under BSD, GPL, and LGPL licenses.
- Supports multiple storage engines compared to MySQL.
- Fast data cache and indexing.
- Fast data replication.
- Supports data masking.
Cons of MariaDB
- Poor CLI cluster performance.
- Low performance on large databases.
7. Hazelcast
Hazelcast is an in memory computing platform for stateful, data intensive workloads. On balance, it uses sharding. Hence enables seamless distributed processing, distributed messaging, and caching. These features make Hazelcast a popular choice for big data processing workloads. Also, it’s highly scalable, available, and has multiple graphical interfaces.
Use Hazelcast for database caching to scale mission critical workloads. In addition, it helps to scale applications to meet service level agreements (SLAs) with clients and provide availability guarantees. By all means, Hazelcast has seamless in memory stream processing capabilities. Those enable real time streaming analytics. In-memory stream processing allows you to run applications that process data at guaranteed speeds.
Following, with Hazelcast it is also suitable for fast batch processing, when working with large datasets from multiple sources. You can use Hazelcast for ETL (Extract, Load, and Transform) processes. By and large, it helps you to join, filter, group, and aggregate data before analytics.
Pros of Hazelcast
- Written in Java and has no external dependencies.
- Real time recovery of instances in the clusters to maintain uptime.
- Cross language, object based API.
- Has enhanced security such as end-to-end TLS encryption, authentication certificates, and role based authorizations.
- Full recovery of cluster data and state of configurations.
Cons of Hazelcast
- Difficult to set on distributed systems.
- Relatively expensive compared to other relational databases.
8. DynamoDB
DynamoDB is an AWS fully managed key value, NoSQL database. Also, an excellent alternative to Redis. Gives you fast and predictable performance, enables you to run applications consistently. Further, with DynamoDB it is fully managed, so you don’t have to worry about provisioning the underlying infrastructure. More to add, with DynamoDB, you don’t have to perform software patching, setup, configurations, replication, or cluster scaling.
Henceforth, DynamoDB enables you to create a database that can store and retrieve queried data of any amount. Also, it serves any amount of traffic without performance lags. Besides, it allows you to back up your database tables for long term retention and compliance needs. Also, you can create on demand backups to recover tables lost in unintended write or delete operations easily.
Equally important, DynamoDB is a secure database management system. Even more, it offers encryption for data at rest, identity and access management, and monitoring to secure your data.
Pros of DynamoDB
- Spreads data over numerous servers to maintain fast performance.
- Simple API for key value access.
- Seamless integration within the AWS ecosystem.
- Automatic provisioning on the backend.
- Replicates data across multiple Availability Zones in an AWS region to maintain high availability.
Cons of DynamoDB
- Limited querying options.
- The complex AWS ecosystem makes it difficult to predict costs.
9. Couchbase
Next on the list of Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial is Couchbase. Even though, it is a NoSQL, distributed document database. But has built-in cache and in-memory architecture. Indeed, it provides enterprise grade databases with robust features and capabilities for running business critical workloads. Even more, Couchbase combines both NoSQL features with the power of SQL to form a robust database system. Essentially, it stores JSON data without a fixed schema while also leveraging SQL standards for queries. Then, it delivers high performance and versatility, along with huge cost savings.
Indeed, Couchbase is ideal for modern application development needs. Most developers prefer using it as the JSON format allows them to build prototypes quickly. This design enables data replication, elastic scaling, disaster recovery, and workload isolation.
Pros of Couchbase
- No single point of failure.
- Built in memory-first architecture provides microsecond latency.
- Provides high throughput consistently.
- Easy scalability with a cluster of servers and between clusters located in different data centers.
- Flexible data modelling enables agile development.
Cons of Couchbase
- Poor user interface.
- It takes a long period to build an index.
10. Azure Cosmos DB
Azure Cosmos DB is a NoSQL database by Microsoft. Even more, it’s a fully managed and distributed database. In nutshell, it enables developers to create high performance applications. This database supports open source Apache Cassandra, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL.
For example, Azure Cosmos DB has multi master support. By writing data into different distributed locations, it spreads out globally. Thanks to that, it enables people from all corners to retrieve data faster without latency issues. Basically, the data is replicated onto each user’s nearest region for easy access. With Azure Cosmos DB, you can scale any workload without limits. Even, it provides a wide range of scalability options. In turn, it helps to meet your application needs. Also, auto scales or scales up nodes and storage to match the scale and size of workloads.
Pros of Azure Cosmos DB
- No upfront costs. You only pay for the resources used for each database operation.
- Real time analytics.
- Robust security features to control access to your data.
- Performs automatic data backup without affecting performance.
- Automatic data indexing without index management or schema.
- Globally available for low latency.
- Seamless integration within the Azure ecosystem.
Cons of Azure Cosmos DB
- Complex migration when coming from SQL servers.
- Requires proper understanding of Microsoft Azure cloud costs.
11. FoundationDB
FoundationDB is a suitable alternative to Redis. That means, if you want to handle large volumes of data. Well, it organizes data as an ordered key value store and leverages ACID transactions for all operations. While it’s ideal for read/write workloads, it delivers excellent performance for write-intensive workloads.
Indeed, with FoundationDB it has decoupled architecture that enables easy scaling. This architecture contains a Master, Storage Servers, Proxies, Cluster Controller and Coordinators. These tools interact seamlessly to provide high availability and scalability. Besides, it replicates data into multiple domains. That achieves fault tolerance and ensures data remains available at all times.
Pros of FoundationDB
- High performance with minimal costs.
- Distributed architecture makes it easy to scale and fault tolerant.
- It has an API layer that provides developers with more flexibility.
- Serializable transaction isolation.
Cons of FoundationDB
- It does not provide a SQL compatible relational layer.
- Difficult data modelling.
12. Apache Cassandra
Last on this list of Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial is Apache Cassandra. Lastly, it is an open source, distributed database management system. Lest, it provides fast read-write performance. Another NoSQL database with a means to store and retrieve data. That is unlike relational databases that use tabular formats. Apache Cassandra manages large amounts of data across multiple servers without a single point of failure.
For instance, Apache Cassandra’s primary architecture comprises a cluster of nodes that stores data. Likewise, a group of related nodes makes up a cluster. You can scale up Cassandra by adding more nodes without overwhelming it. Alternatively, you can reduce the number of nodes to scale down the database. Also, this database has a partitioning system that determines the storage location of your primary data copy.
Markedly, Apache Cassandra replicates data across nodes to maintain reliability. In turn, data replication gives it high availability and fault tolerance. The failure of a single node cannot lead to failure across the system. Due to it’s data replication and storing of it in other nodes.
Pros of Apache Cassandra
- Schema optional data model with no query language.
- Easy to scale up and down.
- Open source availability and a large community.
- Fast data writes with high efficiency.
- Supports ACID properties.
Cons of Apache Cassandra
- Steep learning curve.
- Difficult ad hoc query
Thank you for reading Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial (Pros and Cons). We shall summarize this article now.
Top 12 Best Redis Alternatives Tutorial (Pros and Cons) Conclusion
Summing up, Redis is one of the best database management systems out there. However, as seen above, there are lots of alternative systems with varying features and functionalities. If you are looking for a great Redis alternative, you can choose any of the above and enjoy seamless data delivery and querying. Ideally, it would help if you look for a database that provides seamless scalability, availability, and ease of use.
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