---
lang: en
title: AWS ElastiCache vs Upstash Serverless Redis
canonical: "https://saasspecs.com/elasti-cache-vs-upstash/"
hvce_version: 1
tenant: saasspecs
slug: elasti-cache-vs-upstash
record_kind: comparison
content_sha256: 2d15bf030dba660569b98adde0145cd03c23bfa4fa46fd051595017db990601c
indexed_at: "2026-06-15T06:32:32.875Z"
license: citation-free
entities:
  -
    role: a
    slug: elasti-cache
    name: AWS ElastiCache
    type: Thing
    profile_url: "https://saasspecs.com/item/elasti-cache/?format=md"
  -
    role: b
    slug: upstash
    name: Upstash Serverless Redis
    type: Thing
    profile_url: "https://saasspecs.com/item/upstash/?format=md"
---
# AWS ElastiCache vs Upstash Serverless Redis

## Pair

- **A**: AWS ElastiCache
- **B**: Upstash Serverless Redis

## Entity A

- **Title**: [AWS ElastiCache](https://saasspecs.com/item/elasti-cache/?format=md)
- **Schema type**: Corporation
- **Website**: https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/
- **Email**: aws-verification@amazon.com
- **Address**: 410 Terry Ave N, Seattle, Washington, 98109, United States
- **Coordinates**: 47.6225, -122.3362
- **Deployment Link**: [Deploy AWS ElastiCache Stack Layer](https://aws.amazon.com/elasticache/pricing/)

### Summary

Fully managed in-memory data store for Redis and Memcached on AWS with VPC isolation and Multi-AZ failover.

### Description

AWS ElastiCache runs Redis and Memcached clusters with automatic failover, backup snapshots, and in-transit encryption. Teams integrate caching layers directly into VPC-bound microservice architectures.

### Expert insight

Use reserved instances for steady-state workloads and enable cluster mode for horizontal shard scaling beyond single-node memory limits.

### Attributes

- **Free Tier Allowance**: 0 MB
- **Rate Limit Cap**: Instance Bound
- **Session Lifetime**: 24 Hours
- **Overage Fee per 1k MAU**: 0.02 USD/hour
- **MFA Support**: Enforced natively via AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) root layers
- **Enterprise SSO SAML**: Supported completely via AWS IAM Identity Center directory configurations
- **Custom Domain Support**: VPC-bound endpoints with AWS PrivateLink and custom security groups
- **Supported SDKs**: Redis protocol, Node.js ioredis, Python redis-py, Java Jedis, Go redigo, AWS SDK
- **Social Providers**: Not applicable; maps straight to infrastructure resource network controls
- **Compliance Standards**: SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001, HIPAA Eligible, PCI-DSS Compliant, FedRAMP High
- **Webhook Fallback Policy**: ElastiCache event notifications via Amazon SNS with configurable retry policies

## Entity B

- **Title**: [Upstash Serverless Redis](https://saasspecs.com/item/upstash/?format=md)
- **Schema type**: Corporation
- **Website**: https://upstash.com
- **Email**: support@upstash.com
- **Address**: 535 Market Street, San Francisco, California, 94105, United States
- **Coordinates**: 37.7899, -122.4014
- **Deployment Link**: [Deploy Upstash Serverless Redis Stack Layer](https://upstash.com/pricing/redis)

### Summary

HTTP and Redis-protocol serverless datastore with per-request pricing and global edge replication.

### Description

Upstash Redis delivers durable key-value storage without managing clusters or connection pools. Pay-per-request billing aligns with serverless functions, edge workers, and bursty caching workloads.

### Expert insight

Use REST API access from edge runtimes where persistent TCP connections to classic Redis are unavailable.

### Attributes

- **Free Tier Allowance**: 10,000 Commands/Day
- **Rate Limit Cap**: 1,000 RPS
- **Session Lifetime**: 24 Hours
- **Overage Fee per 1k MAU**: 0.2 USD/100k
- **MFA Support**: Enforced via Upstash console two-factor authentication
- **Enterprise SSO SAML**: Available on Enterprise plans with SAML and team access controls
- **Custom Domain Support**: Private endpoints and VPC peering on Enterprise tiers
- **Supported SDKs**: Node.js, Python, Go, Java, REST, @upstash/redis, Kafka REST
- **Social Providers**: GitHub and Google OAuth for console authentication
- **Compliance Standards**: SOC 2 Type II, GDPR; HIPAA BAA on Enterprise agreements
- **Webhook Fallback Policy**: QStash message delivery with automatic retry and dead-letter queues

## Facts (machine-readable)

| axis | unit | a_value | b_value | a_display | b_display |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free Tier Allowance | MB | 0 | 10000 | 0 MB | 10,000 Commands/Day |
| Rate Limit Cap | RPS |  | 1000 | Instance Bound | 1,000 RPS |
| Session Lifetime | Hours | 24 | 24 | 24 Hours | 24 Hours |
| Overage Fee per 1k MAU | USD/hour | 0.017 | 0.2 | 0.02 USD/hour | 0.2 USD/100k |

## Metrics

- **Free Tier Allowance**: 0 MB / 10,000 Commands/Day
- **Rate Limit Cap**: Instance Bound / 1,000 RPS
- **Session Lifetime**: 24 Hours / 24 Hours
- **Overage Fee per 1k MAU**: 0.02 USD/hour / 0.2 USD/100k

## Comparison context

This comparison covers the following catalog entities:

- [AWS ElastiCache](https://saasspecs.com/item/elasti-cache/?format=md) (a)
- [Upstash Serverless Redis](https://saasspecs.com/item/upstash/?format=md) (b)