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Google Cloud Spanner vs Redis comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud Spanner
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Database as a Service (DBaaS) (8th)
Redis
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (3rd), Managed NoSQL Databases (6th), In-Memory Data Store Services (1st), Vector Databases (3rd), AI Software Development (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Database Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Google Cloud Spanner is designed for Database as a Service (DBaaS) and holds a mindshare of 7.5%, up 4.7% compared to last year.
Redis, on the other hand, focuses on In-Memory Data Store Services, holds 22.0% mindshare, up 19.0% since last year.
Database as a Service (DBaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Google Cloud Spanner7.5%
MongoDB Atlas11.9%
Amazon RDS11.8%
Other68.8%
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
In-Memory Data Store Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Redis22.0%
Amazon ElastiCache16.0%
Google Cloud Memorystore12.4%
Other49.6%
In-Memory Data Store Services
 

Featured Reviews

LJ
System Architect at UST Global España
Offers good performance to users
The tool lacks to offer AI features. In the future, I would like the product to offer AI features to users. Nowadays, we are creating small acronyms for our SQL Server. We put some templates. If I just put your name and stop it, the entire cloud can be explored, but such features are not there in Google Cloud Spanner. As a layman rather than a developer, if I create a tool or a procedure. If I write a procedure and then when you describe a procedure, a dummy procedure will be written for you, and it will be available for you as a template in SQL Server, but such kind features are not there in Google Cloud Spanner.
Varuns Ug - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Developer at NIT
Caching has accelerated complex workflows and delivers low latency for high-traffic microservices
A few features of Redis that I use on a day-to-day basis and feel are among the best are extremely low latency and high throughput. Since Redis is in-memory, it makes it ideal for cases such as caching and rate limiting where response time is critical. TTL expiry support is very useful in Redis as it allows me to automatically evict stale data without manual cleanup, which is something I use heavily in my caching strategy. Another point I can mention is that the rich data structures such as strings, hashes, and even sorted sets are very powerful. I have used strings for caching responses and counters, whereas I have used hashes for storing structured objects. One more feature I can tell you about is atomic operations. Redis guarantees atomicity for operations such as incrementing a counter, which is very useful for rate limiting and avoiding race conditions in distributed systems. Finally, I want to emphasize that Redis is easy to scale and integrate, whether through clustering or using a distributed cache across microservices. Redis has impacted my organization positively by providing default support that is very useful. For metrics, in one of my core systems, introducing Redis as a distributed cache helped me achieve around an 80% cache hit rate, which reduced repeated downstream services. Real API latency also improved from around two seconds to approximately 450 milliseconds for P99. It also helped reduce the load on dependent services and databases, which improved overall system reliability.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Google Cloud Spanner is stable."
"The application deployment in the cloud is the best feature of the infrastructure."
"We can scale the solution if we need to."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its scalability. Scalability comes with two options, among which Google Cloud Spanner can scale horizontally, compared to other relational databases that scale vertically."
"It is a very scalable solution."
"Redis acts as an in-memory search tool that improves the speed of operations, allowing for quicker data retrieval and enhancing the performance of applications."
"Redis has multiple valuable features such as being a free and reliable open-source tool."
"I use Redis mostly to cache repeated data that is required."
"It is particularly efficient for cloud-based storage and operations."
"What I like best about Redis is its fast and easy use. It has interesting algorithms like HyperLogLog and provides useful features. It's also good for implementing scalable rate limiting."
"The performance of Redis is very fast."
"It makes operations more efficient. The information processing is very fast, and very responsive. It's all about the technology."
"The solution's technical support team is good...The solution's initial setup process was straightforward."
 

Cons

"Google came up with something called Cloud Spanner Emulator, which fails to work like the real product if I want to develop some code and run a database locally on my machine."
"I want to improve the deployment of cameras and surveillance infrastructure."
"The tool needs to improve horizontal scaling."
"The tool lacks to offer AI features."
"The cost can be a bit high."
"Sometimes, we use Redis as a cluster, and the clusters can sometimes suffer some issues and bring some downtime to your application."
"In future releases, I would like Redis to provide its users with an option like schema validation. Currently, the solution lacks to offer such functionality."
"The initial setup of Redis was difficult, with a rating of two or three out of ten."
"Redis could improve its efficiency in handling locally stored data, not just Amazon Cloud or Google Cloud."
"For the PubSub feature, we had to create our own tools to monitor the events."
"If we use a lot of data, it will eventually cost us a lot."
"Managing memory efficiently and troubleshooting issues can sometimes require additional tooling, so these areas can also be improved."
"One limitation is that Redis is memory-based, so scaling can become expensive compared to disk-based systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Google Cloud Spanner is an expensive solution."
"Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side."
"It is expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"The tool is open-source. There are no additional costs."
"Redis is an open-source product."
"We saw an ROI. It made the processing of our transactions faster."
"Redis is an open-source solution. There are not any hidden fees."
"Redis is not an overpriced solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud Spanner?
Google Cloud Spanner has all the features of a traditional relational database, including schemas, SQL queries, ACID transactions, and provides excellent integration and monitoring tools as well as...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Spanner?
Price-wise, I heard that Google Cloud Spanner is on the higher side. I am not sure if this is a rumor or if it's fake news, but I believe that having BigQuery and GCP together could be a little cos...
What needs improvement with Google Cloud Spanner?
The tool lacks to offer AI features. In the future, I would like the product to offer AI features to users. Nowadays, we are creating small acronyms for our SQL Server. We put some templates. If I ...
What needs improvement with Redis?
Overall, Redis is a powerful and reliable tool, but there are a few areas for improvement. One limitation is that Redis is memory-based, so scaling can become expensive compared to disk-based syste...
What is your primary use case for Redis?
My main use case for Redis is caching frequently accessed data to improve performance and reduce database load. For example, I cache API responses and user-related data so that repeated requests ca...
What advice do you have for others considering Redis?
My main advice for those looking into using Redis is to focus on the use case; Redis excels where low latency is critical, such as caching, session management, or real-time features, rather than us...
 

Also Known As

Google Spanner
Redis Enterprise
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Streak, Optiva, Mixpanel
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB and others in Database as a Service (DBaaS). Updated: June 2026.
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