When should I use Redis?

Answer

Redis is an in-memory key-value data store known for very low latency, making it ideal as a cache in front of a slower primary database. Beyond caching, it is widely used for session storage, rate limiting, leaderboards, real-time counters, pub/sub messaging, and simple queues, thanks to rich data structures like sorted sets and hashes. Because data lives in memory, it is fast but capacity is bounded by RAM and durability requires configuring persistence or replication. Use it to offload read-heavy or latency-sensitive workloads, not as the system of record for critical data unless durability is carefully configured.