This article covers everything else you need to know about Redis.
Visitors want your website to load fast. If it doesn’t, many will leave immediately. It shouldn’t take more than a few seconds. The shorter, the better.
The slower the site, the more visitors bounce. Naturally, you want to prevent that. So you want the fastest possible website or webshop.
There are many ways to get there. One powerful method is using Redis.
What is Redis?
Redis is an open-source, in-memory data store used for caching data in memory.
You can use it to cache frontend data, backend data, and sessions. When someone visits your website, a stored page is retrieved straight from the cache. It doesn’t need to be rebuilt dynamically, so it loads fast.
Redis is easy to download and get started with.
Redis uses so-called key-value datasets. Redis supports many different data types. Some examples are:
- Strings
- Lists
- Hashes
- Sets
- Sorted sets
- Bitmaps
Using Redis on your webshop can have a huge impact on speed. This is especially valuable for heavy websites or webshops.
Webshops, for example, rely heavily on images and product information.
It’s important that these load quickly, so visitors get the best experience.
Keep in mind, though: installing Redis doesn’t automatically make your shop faster. You still need to install and configure the right Redis plugin for your website or webshop.
What can you do with Redis?
Redis does more than just make websites faster. Performance can improve in other ways too — and how much you get out of it depends on how you use it.
For example, it’s best not to serve CSS or JS files from Redis. Serve them directly from storage instead. These files are often large and rarely change, so caching them just fills up Redis with little benefit.
That’s not really a downside, though. Redis has configurable policies that automatically clean up old items. It’s worth taking the time to set these up properly.
You can also configure what gets cached, and for how long. Once you make changes, monitor them to see what’s actually working.
What are the benefits of Redis?
Redis is popular for good reason. Here’s why.
All your data lives in one place. That means you only need to flush a single cache.
Redis can also automatically delete outdated data that’s no longer being used. And compared to many other tools, it’s more efficient and significantly faster — a real benefit if you’re running a large website or webshop.
It’s user-friendly on the backend too, and it speeds things up there as well. So the benefit runs both ways: faster for visitors, faster for the people managing the site.
Redis also scales well. You can run a single cache backend alongside multiple frontend servers.
- Faster frontend
- Faster backend
- Sessions possible via Redis
- Data in the cache instead of in the database
- Only one cache is needed
What is Redis cache?
Redis cache is one of the fastest open-source caching techniques available. “Cache” simply means the storage location where data sits for a while.
Without Redis, a WordPress or Magento cache typically lives on the server’s hard drive. As that cache grows, processing slows down — so, for example, a product change takes longer to show up on the backend.
Redis stores that data in RAM instead — the server’s faster working memory. That means changes get processed faster too.
What is a Redis server?
Redis stands for Remote Dictionary Server. You can run a dedicated Redis server as part of your hosting setup.
Setting it up is easy for CMS platforms like WordPress or Magento. For WordPress, you install a dedicated caching plugin.
Magento has included Redis support by default since version 1.9. You’ll still need to install the PHP Redis extension separately, and full-page caching requires an additional library.
Configuration happens within Magento itself — in the local.xml file for Magento 1, and in env.php for Magento 2.
Docker & Redis
Redis on Docker is popular. In fact, it’s one of the most widely used databases for Docker containers.
One advantage: you can spin up the cluster quickly on a Windows, Linux, or macOS host.
Docker containers keep things lightweight, which makes Redis a great fit for development environments. Docker’s whole goal is to package and deploy software simply — and containers make that even easier.
Conclusion regarding Redis
Fast loading is one of the main reasons to choose Redis. Its session management is a big part of that — no database round-trip is needed during a user session, so everything moves faster.
On top of that, it’s open-source, user-friendly, and works across multiple operating systems.
If you run a heavy website or a large online store, Redis pays off. Visitors stick around longer on fast sites and browse more pages. That, in turn, shows up in your results.
Do you have more questions about Redis? Feel free to contact us; we’re happy to help.
Hi! My name is Dion, Account Manager at Hypernode
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