# Amazon ElastiCache vs Redis Cloud

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/amazon-elasticache-vs-redis-cloud/

Every value below is read from Amazon ElastiCache's and Redis Cloud's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Amazon ElastiCache | Redis Cloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | On-demand example: cache.r7g.large at $0.1752/hour. Actual entry price depends on node size and engine chosen. | Essentials: from $0.007/hour, $5/month total. 250 MB-100 GB RAM and SSD, single DB. |
| Pricing model | Three models: on-demand (hourly per node), serverless (billed on GB-hours of data storage plus ECPUs consumed), or Database Savings Plans for committed use. | On-demand hourly billing. Data transfer is included in the price, with limits. |
| Multi-region replication | Global Datastore provides managed, secure cross-region replication, with outbound cross-region traffic billed at $0.02/GiB. | Not available on Free or Essentials. The Pro plan adds active-active (multi-region) replication and private connectivity. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Amazon ElastiCache: On-demand example: cache.r7g.large at $0.1752/hour. Actual entry price depends on node size and engine chosen. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/pricing/))
- Redis Cloud: Essentials: from $0.007/hour, $5/month total. 250 MB-100 GB RAM and SSD, single DB. ([source](https://redis.io/pricing/))

### Pricing model

- Amazon ElastiCache: Three models: on-demand (hourly per node), serverless (billed on GB-hours of data storage plus ECPUs consumed), or Database Savings Plans for committed use. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/pricing/))
- Redis Cloud: On-demand hourly billing. Data transfer is included in the price, with limits. ([source](https://redis.io/pricing/))

### Multi-region replication

- Amazon ElastiCache: Global Datastore provides managed, secure cross-region replication, with outbound cross-region traffic billed at $0.02/GiB. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/pricing/))
- Redis Cloud: Not available on Free or Essentials. The Pro plan adds active-active (multi-region) replication and private connectivity. ([source](https://redis.io/pricing/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Amazon ElastiCache if Teams already on AWS that want engine choice (Valkey, Memcached or Redis OSS) under one billing model, or that specifically need Valkey's newer durable-persistence option.

Pick Redis Cloud if Teams that want Redis from the company that maintains it, with an on-demand hourly Essentials tier cheap enough to run a small production workload without committing to a fixed plan.

Consider something else: Amazon ElastiCache — AWS isn't the target cloud, or the free-tier eligibility window matters — it's restricted to accounts that signed up for AWS Free Tier before July 15, 2025.

Consider something else: Redis Cloud — Multi-region active-active replication is needed on a small budget — that's a Pro-tier feature here, where a serverless competitor may price per-region replication into a lower-cost plan.

## Documented by only one

- Data persistence: Amazon ElastiCache: Durable on Valkey 9.0+: data is stored persistently. Synchronous writes cost an 18% premium; asynchronous writes carry no additional cost. Redis OSS and Memcached engines are not documented as persistent here.
- Similarity metrics supported: Redis Cloud: Cosine similarity is documented as a supported distance metric in Redis's vector field schema (DISTANCE_METRIC: COSINE in example code); other metrics were not confirmed in what is sourced here.
- Metadata filtering: Redis Cloud: Supported — a vector KNN query can be combined with a pre-filter on other indexed fields in the same query.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Amazon ElastiCache or Redis Cloud?**

Amazon ElastiCache: On-demand example: cache.r7g.large at $0.1752/hour. Actual entry price depends on node size and engine chosen.
Redis Cloud: Essentials: from $0.007/hour, $5/month total. 250 MB-100 GB RAM and SSD, single DB.

**Should I choose Amazon ElastiCache or Redis Cloud?**

Pick Amazon ElastiCache if Teams already on AWS that want engine choice (Valkey, Memcached or Redis OSS) under one billing model, or that specifically need Valkey's newer durable-persistence option.
Pick Redis Cloud if Teams that want Redis from the company that maintains it, with an on-demand hourly Essentials tier cheap enough to run a small production workload without committing to a fixed plan.