Facts read November 9, 2026
Redis Cloud vs Vercel Global Config (formerly Edge Config)
Redis Cloud is Cuely's default counters and cache pick when your description doesn't favor either one: full Redis from its maker, at a flat price per memory size. Pick Vercel Global Config (formerly Edge Config) if you care most about Next.js and React.
Side by side
| Fact | Redis Cloud | Vercel Global Config (formerly Edge Config) |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Managed Redis from Redis, sized by memory rather than billed per command. | A small read-optimized store on Vercel for flags, redirects and blocklists, read in under a millisecond. |
| Free plan | Free: one 30 MB database on a shared cloud deployment, best-effort SLA. | Hobby: 1 store of up to 1 MB, the first 100,000 reads and 100 writes a month. |
| Paid from | Essentials: from $0.007/hour, about $5/month (250 MB to 100 GB). | On demand: $3 per million reads and $1 per 100 writes. |
| At 1,000 users | $0/month | $0/month |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Best for | Teams that want Redis from the company that makes it; Steady traffic where a flat price beats per-command billing | Feature flags and A/B tests; Redirects and IP blocklists; Today's question id or a kill switch |
| Watch out | Free is a 30 MB database on shared infrastructure with a best-effort SLA. The pricing page doesn't state operations-per-second or connection limits; check the plan before a launch. | Vercel says to avoid it for frequently updated data: writes take up to 10 seconds to reach every region, and Hobby includes 100 writes a month. Each store is capped at 1 MB on every plan. |
Where they differ
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide which one Cuely picks for each need.
| Need | Redis Cloud | Vercel Global Config (formerly Edge Config) |
|---|---|---|
| votes, scores, leaderboards or streaks (many writes to the same numbers) | +2 Full Redis: INCR, sorted sets and expiring keys. | −3 Built for data that changes rarely; writes take up to 10 seconds to propagate and cost $1 per 100. |
| Next.js or React | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Reads from Vercel functions and middleware typically complete in under a millisecond. |
| global low latency | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Replicated to every Vercel region for reads. |
| keep costs as low as possible | −1 Free is 30 MB; paid starts at about $5 a month. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| traffic comes in viral spikes | −1 Plans are sized by memory and the page states no throughput limits, so headroom for a spike is unclear. | 0 No particular strength here. |
Sources: Redis Cloud pricing (read November 9, 2026), Vercel Global Config (formerly Edge Config) pricing (read November 9, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.