This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Lamri Abdellah Ramdane
Ever notice how a new project runs blazing fast at first, but after some time and more users, your website slows to a crawl?
Queries take forever, pages spin endlessly, and suddenly your database feels like a bottleneck.
Here’s the thing: sometimes it’s not your database’s fault. What’s missing is a speed booster in your architecture: Redis.
What Exactly Is Redis?
According to the docs, Redis is an “in-memory, non-relational data store.” Sounds complicated? Let’s simplify:
- Your main database (like MySQL) is a warehouse. To get something, you need to check the index, find the shelf, then retrieve the item.
- Redis is like a desk drawer. You throw in the things you need most often (keys, phone, wallet). When you need them, you just open the drawer. Fast and simple.
In short: Redis is a blazing fast, in-memory key-value store.
Key features include:
Speed — microsecond-level read/write, handling hundreds of thousands of requests per second.
Key-Value simplicity — data lookup feels like a dictionary.
Flexible data types — strings, lists, hashes, sets, and sorted sets.
Why Do Developers Use Redis?
Sure, Redis is great for caching — but it’s way more than that.
1. Data Caching (Redis’s bread and butter)
Think of homepage product lists or top news articles. They don’t change every second, but they get requested constantly.
Instead of hammering MySQL for every user request, you cache them in Redis with an expiry time. Fast and efficient.
2. Session Sharing for Multi-Server Architectures
Scaling beyond one server? Without Redis, users log in on Server A, then get bounced to Server B and forced to log in again.
With Redis, all servers pull session data from one place — seamless login across the board.
3. Counters and Rankings
View counts, likes, game leaderboards. Redis’s atomic increment commands and sorted sets make this trivial even under high concurrency.
4. Lightweight Message Queues
Don’t keep users waiting for tasks like sending emails. Push the task into a Redis list, and let a background worker handle it. Smooth user experience.
How Do You Install Redis?
That’s where things get tricky, depending on your OS:
-
macOS: Use Homebrew (
brew install redis). Works, but you’ll still have to dig into config files and enable auto-start. -
Linux: Install with
aptoryum, then adjust configs and restart services manually. - Windows: More painful. Redis doesn’t have a native Windows build. The old Microsoft fork was discontinued, and now the official way is to install it inside WSL2, which can be overwhelming for beginners.
Bottom line: installing Redis can be a hassle.
The Easy Way: ServBay
If you’d rather spend time coding than messing with config files, tools like ServBay are game-changers.
ServBay is an integrated local development environment that bundles everything you need (databases, programming languages, servers, SSL, even AI models).
Installing Redis with ServBay is as easy as:
- Open the Package Library.
- Find Redis.
- Click Install.
In under a minute, Redis is up and running — no command line, no config headaches.
And Redis isn’t the only one:
- Need MySQL? One click.
- Switching between Python 2.7 and 3.12? One click.
- Want Nginx, PostgreSQL, or even local LLMs like DeepSeek and Qwen? All there.
ServBay takes the pain out of environment setup so you can focus on building.
Final Thoughts
Redis isn’t just a cache — it’s a Swiss army knife for performance, scalability, and concurrency.
But knowing Redis isn’t enough. Picking the right tools to work with it matters just as much.
Instead of wrestling with brew install or WSL2 configs, try ServBay and get Redis (and more) running in a single click.
Stop letting environment setup drain your energy. In 2025, we can do better. 
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Lamri Abdellah Ramdane