Amazon ElastiCache vs Apache Traffic Server
Amazon ElastiCache
aws.amazon.com
Apache Traffic Server
trafficserver.apache.orgSide by side
| Figure | Amazon ElastiCache | Apache Traffic Server |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.09/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 1 |
| Spec score · Caching Software | 9.4 (#1) | 8.9 (#2) |
| Deployment | Customers can run ElastiCache as a serverless cache or as a node-based cluster. | The documentation lists web proxy cache, reverse proxy, and cache hierarchy deployments. |
| Purpose | Amazon ElastiCache is a fully managed caching service compatible with Valkey, Memcached, and Redis OSS that delivers microsecond latency performance. | Apache Traffic Server is a fast, scalable, extensible HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 caching proxy server. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 88 reviews | 4.1 out of 5 from 17 reviews |
| Security | ElastiCache supports encryption in transit and at rest, IAM authentication, Valkey or Redis OSS AUTH, and role-based access control. | Security options include client access controls, client authentication, SSL termination, and access control via SSL. |
| Security controls | ElastiCache supports VPC network isolation, KMS customer keys, IAM authentication, Redis or Valkey AUTH tokens, and automatic certificate lifecycle management. | Security documentation covers IP allowlists, TLS termination on both client and origin connections, mutual TLS, certificate verification, rotating TLS ticket keys, OCSP stapling and split DNS. |
| System requirements | Clusters are designed for access from Amazon EC2, require VPC subnet and security-group preparation, and support all AWS Regions. | Build requirements include CMake, Ninja, pkg-config, GCC or Clang, OpenSSL, PCRE, libcap, flex, hwloc, Lua, curses and curl, with platform-specific packages for Linux, Alpine, macOS and FreeBSD. |
| What it does | Amazon ElastiCache is a managed cloud service for deploying, operating, and scaling distributed in-memory caches and data stores. | Apache Traffic Server is a fast, scalable and extensible HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 caching proxy. |
Plans
Amazon ElastiCache
- AWS Free TierFree
- Backup storage$0.09 a month
- ElastiCache Serverless$6 a month
- ElastiCache Serverless$6 a month
- Database Savings PlansPrice not published
- On-demand nodesPrice not published
In their own words
Amazon ElastiCache
Amazon ElastiCache is a managed caching service compatible with Valkey, Memcached, and Redis OSS, with performance described as microsecond latency. Customers can deploy a serverless cache or a node-based cluster. ElastiCache Serverless monitors compute, memory, and network use and scales vertically and horizontally as demand changes. It replicates data across multiple Availability Zones and offers a 99.99% availability SLA for each cache. Listed uses include application and semantic caching, data and session stores, and leaderboards. It can act as a front-end cache for Amazon RDS, Aurora, DocumentDB, and DynamoDB, and improve performance with EC2 and EMR. Security options include encryption in transit and at rest, IAM authentication, Valkey or Redis OSS AUTH, and role-based access control. CloudWatch provides more than 40 operational metrics at no additional charge. Valkey serverless pricing starts at $6 a month, billed according to stored data in GB-hours and requests measured in ECPUs. Data tiering is unavailable with ElastiCache Serverless.
Apache Traffic Server
Apache Traffic Server is a free, open-source caching proxy server for HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2. It stores frequently requested pages, images, and web service calls so they can be reused, with the stated aims of improving response time and reducing server load and bandwidth needs. It can also add keep-alive behavior, filter or anonymize requests, and balance traffic through a proxy layer. Deployment patterns include web proxy cache, reverse proxy, and cache hierarchy. As a layer 7 HTTP load balancer, it can choose next-hop servers using request attributes, weighted round robin, or URL consistent hashing. Plug-in APIs let teams add behavior such as changing headers, handling ESI requests, or implementing cache algorithms. Security options include client access controls and authentication, SSL termination, and SSL-based access control. It is self-hosted, with Linux and macOS listed as platforms. The project identifies enterprises, internet service providers, backbone providers, and large intranets as its intended audience. The listed stable release is 10.2.0; 9.2.15 is listed as the long-term support release.