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Dragonfly vs Garnet(2026)

Dragonfly is better for teams that need dramatically faster than redis. Garnet is the stronger choice if microsoft research backing. Dragonfly is open-source (from $0) and Garnet is open-source (from $0).

Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.

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Dragonfly logo

Dragonfly

open-source

Dragonfly is a modern in-memory data store fully compatible with Redis and Memcached APIs, but up to 25x faster and more memory-efficient thanks to its multi-threaded, shared-nothing architecture.

Starting at $0

Visit Dragonfly
Garnet logo

Garnet

open-source

Garnet is Microsoft Research's open-source, Redis-compatible cache store built for cloud and edge workloads — with exceptional throughput, low latency, and strong consistency options.

Starting at $0

Visit Garnet

How Do Dragonfly and Garnet Compare on Features?

FeatureDragonflyGarnet
Pricing modelopen-sourceopen-source
Starting price$0$0
Redis API compatible
Multi-threaded
Up to 25x faster than Redis
Lower memory usage
Snapshots + replication
Managed cloud
Lua scripting
RESP3 protocol
Cluster mode
Strong/eventual consistency
Pub/sub
Scripting
C# native

Dragonfly Pros and Cons vs Garnet

D

Dragonfly

+Dramatically faster than Redis
+Drop-in Redis replacement
+Less memory usage
+Open source
Newer, less battle-tested
Smaller community
Some Redis features still in progress
G

Garnet

+Microsoft Research backing
+Excellent benchmark numbers
+Redis compatible
+Strong consistency options
Very new (2024)
C# codebase (unfamiliar for most)
Tiny community
No managed cloud yet

Should You Use Dragonfly or Garnet?

Choose Dragonfly if…

  • Dramatically faster than Redis
  • Drop-in Redis replacement
  • Less memory usage

Choose Garnet if…

  • Microsoft Research backing
  • Excellent benchmark numbers
  • Redis compatible

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