| intro | Redis (REmote DIctionary Server) is an open source, in-memory, NoSQL key/value store that is used primarily as an application cache or quick-response database. | SQLite is a C-language library that implements a small, fast, self-contained, high-reliability, full-featured, SQL database engine. | in their own words - but I reserved the rights to remove some bold claims like "the best", unless it is widely recognized. |
| vendor | Redis | SQLite Team | |
| initial release | 2009 | 2000 | |
| latested version | 8 | 3.5 | We don't put a release date here as the software is patching frequently. So tracking it is not much useful. |
| supported platforms | RHEL, Ubuntu, Amazon Linux Here is the Redis Enterprise version. The open source one shall be runnable on *BSD, Linux, MacOS. | Android, *BSD, iOS, Linux, Mac, Solaris, VxWorks, and Windows | supported OS/CPU platforms |
| db-engines ranking | 7 | 10 | ranks from https://db-engines.com/en/ranking (06/25) |
| relational? | no | yes | Is it a relational database? (1) Most database are actually with some extensions, for example, nested data types, graph support, etc, which we usually called "multi-model". (2) Some of them are product family, meaning they have more than one database. Here we focus on the main one but explain others when needed. |
| open source? | yes/no | yes | mainly the engine code |
| license | Tri-licensing model Starting with Redis 8, Redis Open Source is moving to a tri-licensing model with all new Redis code
contributions governed by the updated Redis Software Grant and Contributor License Agreement.
After this release, contributions are subject to your choice of: (a) the Redis Source Available License v2
(RSALv2);or (b) the Server Side Public License v1 (SSPLv1); or (c) the GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3).
Redis Open Source 7.2 and prior releases remain subject to the BSDv3 clause license. | no license is needed The core SQLite database software is in the public domain. No license is necessary to use SQLite or to build SQLite into your products. | |
| on-premise offering | yes | yes | if no means you can't buy "box" software from them |
| cloud offering | Redis Cloud | None It is mainly in embedded usage. | |
| technical doc | https://redis.io/docs/latest/ | https://www.sqlite.org/docs.html | |
| price: box software | | 0 free download | |
Comparison: Redis vs SQLite