They all give you a managed Redis-compatible key-value store; the difference is whether you pay when nobody's using it.
| Free tier | Paid entry | Scales to zero? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upstash | 500k commands/mo, 256 MB | Fixed $10/mo (250 MB, unlimited commands); or $0.20 per 100k commands | yes — pay-per-request |
| Redis Cloud | 30 MB free | Essentials from ~$5/mo per memory tier | no — flat monthly even at zero traffic |
| Aiven | 1 GB single node, free indefinitely | Hobbyist $19/mo; Startup $60/mo | no |
Upstash is the serverless choice — it bills per request ($0.20 per 100,000 commands) with no charge when idle, or a $10/month fixed plan with unlimited commands under a rate ceiling. For a project with spiky or low traffic — an edge cache, a rate limiter, a side project — this is by far the cheapest because you're not paying for a always-on instance. It also has no bandwidth charges and works well from edge runtimes.
Redis Cloud is the official managed offering from Redis itself. Essentials plans are a fixed monthly price per memory tier starting around $5 — but it's not serverless: you pay that $5 even at zero traffic. Where it wins is sustained high throughput, where a fixed-price instance beats per-command billing, plus you get the newest Redis features and modules first.
Aiven is the pick if you want a real free tier you can leave running forever (1 GB, no card) and a straightforward path to a managed cluster on any major cloud. It runs Valkey (the open-source Redis fork) and its strength is being one console for Postgres, Kafka, [ClickHouse](/entry/clickhouse-cloud-vs-tinybird-vs-motherduck-analytical-database-pricing-and-the-e) and caching together.
Spiky or low traffic: Upstash. Steady high throughput: Redis Cloud. Want a permanent free tier or a multi-service data platform: Aiven.