Feature Comparison: Redis vs Apache Ignite
Redis and Apache Ignite are two popular and highly similar technologies - but what's the best way to do a comparison between Redis and Apache Ignite?
Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store used to implement a NoSQL key-value database. The Redis project includes support for many different abstract data structures and is compatible with many programming languages, including Java.
Apache Ignite, meanwhile, is an open-source, in-memory computing platform and distributed database that is optimized for large volumes of data. As a product of the Apache Software Foundation, Apache Ignite offers a native SQL API for the Java programming language.
They're both open-source database projects that work well with Java - so what's the difference between Redis and Apache Ignite? By installing a third-party Redis Java client such as Redisson, you can significantly enhance the features that Redis has to offer. Below, we'll do a point-by-point feature comparison of Redis and Apache Ignite.
Distributed collections
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Map | ||
| Multimap | ||
| Set | ||
| List | ||
| Queue | ||
| Deque | ||
| SortedSet | ||
| ScoredSortedSet | ||
| PriorityQueue | ||
| PriorityDeque | ||
| DelayedQueue | ||
| TransferQueue | ||
| RingBuffer | ||
| TimeSeries |
Both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite have implementations of various Java collections in order to smooth the learning curve for Java developers.
Apache Ignite has most of the data structures from the java.util.concurrent framework, including:
- Map
- Set
- List
- Queue
Redis+Redisson has all of the above distributed Java collections and more, including:
- Multimap
- Deque
- SortedSet
- ScoredSortedSet
- PriorityQueue
- PriorityDeque
- DelayedQueue
- TransferQueue
- RingBuffer
Distributed locks and synchronizers
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Lock | ||
| Semaphore | ||
| CountDownLatch | ||
| FairLock | ||
| MultiLock | ||
| ReadWriteLock | ||
| PermitExpirableSemaphore |
Both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite also include multiple distributed locks and synchronizers in Java - yet Redis again comes out on top in this category.
Apache Ignite has implementations of:
- Lock
- Semaphore
- CountDownLatch
Redis+Redisson includes the above classes, as well as:
- FairLock
- MultiLock
- ReadWriteLock
- PermitExpirableSemaphore
Distributed objects
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Object holder | ||
| AtomicLong | ||
| Publish/Subscribe | ||
| Reliable Publish/Subscribe | ||
| Id Generator | ||
| AtomicDouble | ||
| Geospatial | ||
| BitSet | ||
| BloomFilter | ||
| BinaryStream | ||
| HyperLogLog | ||
| RateLimiter |
Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite also offer a grab bag of various Java distributed objects. Apache Ignite includes:
- Object holder
- AtomicLong
- Publish/Subscribe
Redis+Redisson includes all of these objects and more:
- AtomicDouble
- Geospatial
- BitSet
- BloomFilter
- BinaryStream
- HyperLogLog
- RateLimiter
Advanced cache support
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| JCache API | ||
| JCache API with near cache (up to 45x faster) | ||
| Near Cache |
Caching is one of the most important features that a database can support, particularly for distributed applications. Being able to cache data on multiple machines can often speed up database-heavy applications by orders of magnitude.
Both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite include support for the "near cache": a small local cache that stores frequently accessed data on the heap. What's more, both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite include an API for JCache, the standard Java caching API.
However, where Redis+Redisson truly excels is in the performance of JCache. Only Redis+Redisson includes a JCache API with near caching that can execute operations up to 45 times faster.
API architecture
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Asynchronous API | partial support | |
| Reactive API | ||
| RxJava3 API |
The Asynchronous, Reactive, and RxJava3 programming models are all related ways of performing asynchronous and parallel programming in Java. Using these three models is a time-tested way to speed up and optimize your distributed applications in Java.
If you want to use them, however, you'll have to choose Redis+Redisson. Apache Ignite only offers partial support for the Asynchronous API, and no support at all for the Reactive and RxJava3 APIs. Redis+Redisson, meanwhile, includes support for all three.
Transactions
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Transactions API |
Java transactions are a paradigm that allow developers to execute multiple commands within a single step. Both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite offer ACID-compliant transactions to ensure that all statements within a single transaction either succeed or fail. More specifically, both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite include support for both Spring transaction management.
Distributed services
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| ExecutorService | ||
| MapReduce | ||
| SchedulerService | ||
| RemoteService | ||
| LiveObjectService |
Integration with frameworks
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Spring Cache | ||
| Spring Cache with near cache (up to 45x faster) | ||
| Hibernate Cache | ||
| Hibernate Cache with near cache (up to 5x faster) | ||
| Tomcat Session Manager | ||
| Spring Session | ||
| Statistics monitoring | 20 different statistics monitoring systems including JMX | Own monitoring tool |
Security
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | ||
| Authorization | ||
| SSL support |
Custom data serialization
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| JSON codec | ||
| JDK Serialization | ||
| Avro codec | ||
| Smile codec | ||
| CBOR codec | ||
| MsgPack codec | ||
| Kryo codec | ||
| FST codec | ||
| LZ4 compression codec | ||
| Snappy compression codec |
Stability and ease of use
| Redis + Redisson | Apache Ignite | |
|---|---|---|
| Fully-managed services support (AWS Elasticache, Azure Cache, IBM Bluemix...) |
||
| Large memory amount handling |
Both Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite are capable of handling very large amounts of memory, which makes them ideal for performance-intensive applications.
However, between Redis+Redisson and Apache Ignite, only Redis includes support for fully managed services such as AWS ElastiCache and Azure Redis Cache. Apache Ignite does not have support from large cloud providers such as AWS and Microsoft, so you'll have to manage the deployment yourself if you want to use one of these providers.
Conclusion
With the head-to-head comparison between Redis and Apache Ignite complete, let's see how the two solutions stack up. Redis+Redisson is by far the winner when it comes to features such as distributed collections, locks, synchronizers, and objects, as well as custom data serialization and high performance.
Looking to enhance the power of your Redis database with a feature-rich Redis Java client? Check out the Redisson project, with use cases for everything from caching and scaling Java applications to distributed data processing and task scheduling.