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Amazon ElastiCache vs Redis Cloud

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Amazon ElastiCache and Redis Cloud built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 26 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • 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.
  • 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.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Amazon ElastiCache alternatives · Redis Cloud alternatives

17 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Amazon ElastiCache documentationVisit Redis Cloud documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAmazon ElastiCacheRedis Cloud
Pricing
Free tier
No
Yes
Kind of free offerIntroductory free tierFree tier
Entry paid planOn-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 modelThree 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.
Infrastructure
Regions
34 commercial AWS Regions plus 2 AWS GovCloud (US) Regions listed in the ElastiCache service endpoints table. Count of distinct regions in the endpoints table; China regions are not listed there.
76 regions for Redis Cloud Pro — 34 AWS and 42 Google Cloud — and 38 for Essentials (20 AWS, 16 Google Cloud, 2 Azure). Counted from the per-provider tables on Redis's supported-regions page, which publishes the regions and no total; Redis Cloud Pro on Azure is delivered as Azure Managed Redis rather than listed here, and the page notes AWS me-central-1 is temporarily unavailable.
Caching
Max dataset size, entry planUp to 310 TiB of data in a single ElastiCache for Valkey cluster, or 982 TiB with data tiering. Cluster maximum for the service, not an entry-plan allowance; ElastiCache is sold per node or per usage.30 MB on the free Redis Cloud Essentials plan; paid Essentials plans start at 250 MB and run to 12 GB, or to 100 GB on the Essentials plans with Redis Flex, per the plan tables on this page. Redis Cloud Pro is separate: the plan comparison lists 50 TB memory size.
Data persistenceDurable 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.AOF (every write on Redis Cloud Pro, every second on paid Essentials) or snapshots every 1, 6 or 12 hours; free Essentials plans support no persistence at all.
Multi-region replicationGlobal Datastore provides managed, secure cross-region replication. Outgoing traffic from the source Region is charged; AWS prices its own worked example at $0.02 per GiB.Active-active multi-region replication is a Pro feature, alongside auto-tiering and private connectivity; Essentials is active-passive.
Compliance
SOC 2Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.Annual SOC 2 Type II (SSAE 18) audit by an independent third-party firm; Redis provides the report on written request, under confidentiality. Measures document applies to the Redis Cloud Services; last updated March 20, 2025.
ISO 27001Covered under AWS's account-wide ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification — not scoped per-service the way SOC, HIPAA and PCI DSS are on AWS's own site.ISO 27001:2022 ISMS certification covering information assets at Redis; the certificate is downloadable from the Trust Center after requesting access. Trust Center names Coalfire as auditor; scope is stated for Redis, not Redis Cloud specifically.
HIPAAListed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.Redis offers a HIPAA-compliant business associate agreement (BAA) for its HIPAA-secure Redis Cloud services.
GDPR / data residencyAWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.DPA incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses; the customer controls which geographic region personal data resides in when configuring the service.
PCI DSSListed as PCI DSS-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.Assessed as a Level 1 Service Provider against PCI DSS 4.0.1; Redis Cloud Flexible/Annual subscriptions may process, store and transmit card data. Scope named as Redis Cloud Flexible/Annual subscriptions, not Essentials.
Encryption at restAlways enabled on serverless caches and on clusters with durability enabled; on other node-based clusters it can be enabled only at creation time.Redis Cloud deployments are always encrypted at rest — encrypted EBS volumes on AWS, and disk encryption by default on Google Cloud and Azure. Docs say always; the plan comparison table lists encryption at rest only under Redis Cloud Pro.
Role-based access controlRBAC user groups with per-user passwords and ACL access strings on Valkey 7.2+ and Redis OSS 6.0-7.2; the only way to control access to serverless caches.RBAC is configured in the Redis Cloud console: named Redis ACLs are grouped into roles spanning databases, and roles are assigned to database users. Some Redis ACL subcommands (ACL SETUSER, DELUSER, LOAD, SAVE, LOG, GENPASS) are not supported.
Private networking / VPCAll current-generation nodes launch only inside an Amazon VPC; cluster access is controlled with Amazon VPC security groups.AWS PrivateLink exposes the database as a VPC endpoint service inside your own VPC; available only with Redis Cloud Pro, not supported on Essentials. VPC peering, AWS Transit Gateway and Google Private Service Connect are the other options, also Pro only.
Dedicated infrastructure
ElastiCache clusters can be deployed on AWS Outposts, AWS-managed infrastructure on customer premises; only single-Outpost mode is supported.
Redis Cloud Pro is hosted in dedicated VPCs, with single- or multi-AZ high availability, Active-Active, clustering and configurable backups. The pricing page calls Essentials a shared deployment and Pro a dedicated cloud deployment.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Free tier

Amazon ElastiCache
No
Redis Cloud
Yes
Sources (2) →

Kind of free offer

Amazon ElastiCache
Introductory free tier
Redis Cloud
Free tier
Sources (2) →
  • AWS Free Tier ↗

    “The account closes on its own 6 months after you open it or when your credits run out, whichever comes first. You won't be charged unless you convert to a Paid plan.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Redis Cloud Pricing ↗

    “Free Always $0 Up to 30 MB Just go for it Shared cloud deployment 30 MB single DB Best-effort SLA, community support”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

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.
Redis Cloud
Essentials: from $0.007/hour, $5/month total. 250 MB-100 GB RAM and SSD, single DB.
Sources (2) →

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.
Redis Cloud
On-demand hourly billing. Data transfer is included in the price, with limits.
Sources (2) →

Regions

Amazon ElastiCache

34 commercial AWS Regions plus 2 AWS GovCloud (US) Regions listed in the ElastiCache service endpoints table. Count of distinct regions in the endpoints table; China regions are not listed there.

Redis Cloud

76 regions for Redis Cloud Pro — 34 AWS and 42 Google Cloud — and 38 for Essentials (20 AWS, 16 Google Cloud, 2 Azure). Counted from the per-provider tables on Redis's supported-regions page, which publishes the regions and no total; Redis Cloud Pro on Azure is delivered as Azure Managed Redis rather than listed here, and the page notes AWS me-central-1 is temporarily unavailable.

Sources (2) →

Max dataset size, entry plan

Amazon ElastiCache
Up to 310 TiB of data in a single ElastiCache for Valkey cluster, or 982 TiB with data tiering. Cluster maximum for the service, not an entry-plan allowance; ElastiCache is sold per node or per usage.
Redis Cloud
30 MB on the free Redis Cloud Essentials plan; paid Essentials plans start at 250 MB and run to 12 GB, or to 100 GB on the Essentials plans with Redis Flex, per the plan tables on this page. Redis Cloud Pro is separate: the plan comparison lists 50 TB memory size.
Sources (2) →

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.
Redis Cloud
AOF (every write on Redis Cloud Pro, every second on paid Essentials) or snapshots every 1, 6 or 12 hours; free Essentials plans support no persistence at all.
Sources (2) →
  • Amazon ElastiCache Pricing ↗

    “Durability is a feature available with Valkey 9.0, allowing you to use ElastiCache as a persistent data store with microsecond read latency. [...] ElastiCache offers two durability options: synchronous writes designed for zero data loss, and asynchronous writes for microsecond write latency. Pricing Beyond the standard node-hour pricing, there is no additional cost for asynchronous writes. Synchronous writes are priced at 18% on top of the standard node-hour price for node-based ElastiCache clusters.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Data persistence — Redis Cloud Docs ↗

    “Snapshots are copies of the in-memory database, taken at periodic intervals (one, six, or twelve hours). [...] Free Redis Cloud Essentials plans do not support data persistence; the setting is disabled entirely. [...] Paid Redis Cloud Essentials plans support AOF every second and all snapshot options.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Multi-region replication

Amazon ElastiCache
Global Datastore provides managed, secure cross-region replication. Outgoing traffic from the source Region is charged; AWS prices its own worked example at $0.02 per GiB.
Redis Cloud
Active-active multi-region replication is a Pro feature, alongside auto-tiering and private connectivity; Essentials is active-passive.
Sources (2) →
  • Amazon ElastiCache Pricing ↗

    “ElastiCache Global Datastore enables fully managed, reliable, and secure cross-Region replication. The following charges apply for outgoing traffic from the primary (or source) Region. [...] Global Datastore replication traffic OUT = 36 GiB /hr 36 GiB * $0.02 = $0.72 /hr”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Redis Cloud Pricing ↗

    “Everything in Essentials, plus active-active (multi-region), auto-tiering, private connectivity [...] Deployment Active-Passive global distribution Active-Active global distribution”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

SOC 2

Amazon ElastiCache
Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
Redis Cloud
Annual SOC 2 Type II (SSAE 18) audit by an independent third-party firm; Redis provides the report on written request, under confidentiality. Measures document applies to the Redis Cloud Services; last updated March 20, 2025.
Sources (2) →

ISO 27001

Amazon ElastiCache
Covered under AWS's account-wide ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification — not scoped per-service the way SOC, HIPAA and PCI DSS are on AWS's own site.
Redis Cloud
ISO 27001:2022 ISMS certification covering information assets at Redis; the certificate is downloadable from the Trust Center after requesting access. Trust Center names Coalfire as auditor; scope is stated for Redis, not Redis Cloud specifically.
Sources (2) →

HIPAA

Amazon ElastiCache
Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.
Redis Cloud
Redis offers a HIPAA-compliant business associate agreement (BAA) for its HIPAA-secure Redis Cloud services.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Amazon ElastiCache
AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.
Redis Cloud
DPA incorporates the EU Standard Contractual Clauses; the customer controls which geographic region personal data resides in when configuring the service.
Sources (2) →
  • GDPR — Amazon Web Services ↗

    “AWS customers can use all AWS services to process personal data [...] in compliance with the GDPR. [...] Customers have control of their customer data. With AWS, customers can: Determine where their customer data will be stored, including the type of storage and geographic region of that storage.”

    Read 2026-09-12 · official site · Report a correction

  • Data Processing Addendum — Redis Legal Hub ↗

    “standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914 of 4 June 2021 [...] Customer controls the geographic regions in which Personal Data resides when configuring the Services.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSS

Amazon ElastiCache
Listed as PCI DSS-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
Redis Cloud
Assessed as a Level 1 Service Provider against PCI DSS 4.0.1; Redis Cloud Flexible/Annual subscriptions may process, store and transmit card data. Scope named as Redis Cloud Flexible/Annual subscriptions, not Essentials.
Sources (2) →

Encryption at rest

Amazon ElastiCache
Always enabled on serverless caches and on clusters with durability enabled; on other node-based clusters it can be enabled only at creation time.
Redis Cloud
Redis Cloud deployments are always encrypted at rest — encrypted EBS volumes on AWS, and disk encryption by default on Google Cloud and Azure. Docs say always; the plan comparison table lists encryption at rest only under Redis Cloud Pro.
Sources (2) →
  • At-Rest Encryption in ElastiCache - Amazon ElastiCache ↗

    “ElastiCache at-rest encryption is a feature to increase data security by encrypting on-disk data. It is always enabled on a serverless cache and on clusters with durability enabled. [...] You can enable at-rest encryption on a replication group only when creating the replication group.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Encryption at rest — Redis Cloud Docs ↗

    “Redis Cloud deployments are always encrypted at rest. [...] Persistent data is written to encrypted EBS volumes. [...] All data written to disk on Google Cloud-based Redis Cloud deployments is encrypted by default.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Role-based access control

Amazon ElastiCache
RBAC user groups with per-user passwords and ACL access strings on Valkey 7.2+ and Redis OSS 6.0-7.2; the only way to control access to serverless caches.
Redis Cloud
RBAC is configured in the Redis Cloud console: named Redis ACLs are grouped into roles spanning databases, and roles are assigned to database users. Some Redis ACL subcommands (ACL SETUSER, DELUSER, LOAD, SAVE, LOG, GENPASS) are not supported.
Sources (2) →

Private networking / VPC

Amazon ElastiCache
All current-generation nodes launch only inside an Amazon VPC; cluster access is controlled with Amazon VPC security groups.
Redis Cloud
AWS PrivateLink exposes the database as a VPC endpoint service inside your own VPC; available only with Redis Cloud Pro, not supported on Essentials. VPC peering, AWS Transit Gateway and Google Private Service Connect are the other options, also Pro only.
Sources (2) →

Dedicated infrastructure

Amazon ElastiCache
ElastiCache clusters can be deployed on AWS Outposts, AWS-managed infrastructure on customer premises; only single-Outpost mode is supported.
Redis Cloud
Redis Cloud Pro is hosted in dedicated VPCs, with single- or multi-AZ high availability, Active-Active, clustering and configurable backups. The pricing page calls Essentials a shared deployment and Pro a dedicated cloud deployment.
Sources (2) →
  • Using Outposts with ElastiCache - Amazon ElastiCache ↗

    “You can use AWS Outposts with ElastiCache. Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to customer premises. [...] At this time, only single-outpost mode is supported.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Manage subscriptions — Redis Cloud Docs ↗

    “Redis Cloud Pro supports more databases, larger databases, greater throughput, and no fixed database-level connection limit compared to Redis Cloud Essentials. [...] Hosted in dedicated VPCs, they feature high-availability in a single or multi-AZ, Active-Active, clustering, data persistence, and configurable backups.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

What the free plan includesAmazon ElastiCache: Accounts created after 15 July 2025 get AWS Free Tier credits rather than an ElastiCache allowance, and must upgrade once they are spent. Accounts created before that date kept 750 hours of a cache.t3.micro node for 12 months.
When the free offer endsAmazon ElastiCache: 6 months after the account is opened, or when the credits run out — whichever comes first.
Uptime SLAAmazon ElastiCache: 99.99% for Serverless and Multi-AZ configurations; 99.9% for cross-AZ Memcached and previous-generation Multi-AZ Redis OSS. A single node is not covered by any of them.
Operations included per monthAmazon ElastiCache: Serverless bills every request in ECPUs (1 ECPU per KB); no free request allowance - the 750-hour Free Tier excludes Serverless, and later signups get $100 in credits instead. Scope: ElastiCache Serverless; node-based clusters are priced per node-hour instead.
Max vector dimensionsAmazon ElastiCache: Up to 32768 dimensions per vector for ElastiCache for Valkey search, on both Valkey 9.0+ and 8.2. Valkey search (FT.*) parametric limit; the two table columns are 9.0+ and 8.2.
Similarity metrics supportedRedis Cloud: Cosine appears as the distance metric in Redis's own vector-field schema example. The page shows it in use and does not enumerate the other metrics, so this is not a list of what is supported.
Metadata filteringRedis Cloud: Supported — a vector KNN query can be combined with a pre-filter on other indexed fields in the same query.
Support on entry paid planRedis Cloud: Best-effort SLA, community support
Customer-managed keysAmazon ElastiCache: Supports symmetric customer managed AWS KMS keys for encryption at rest, alongside default service-managed encryption.
04.

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.

Free tier: Amazon ElastiCache or Redis Cloud?

Amazon ElastiCache: No

Redis Cloud: Yes

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.

Provider pages

Amazon ElastiCacheAWS-managed Redis OSS, Valkey and Memcached, billed on-demand per node or serverless per GB-hour and ECPU.Redis CloudManaged Redis from Redis Inc., with a permanent free tier and active-active multi-region replication on the Pro plan.

Related comparisons

Amazon ElastiCache vs MemCachierAmazon ElastiCache vs Upstash RedisMemCachier vs Redis CloudRedis Cloud vs PineconeRedis Cloud vs QdrantRedis Cloud vs TurbopufferRedis Cloud vs WeaviateUpstash Redis vs Redis Cloud

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.