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KVNest vs Upstash: EU-owned or serverless? (Nov 2026)

By KVNestUpdated

GET compare:kvnest-vs-upstash

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Pick Upstash for serverless and edge apps that want an HTTP API, per-request pricing, global read replicas or high availability today. Pick KVNest if you want an EU-owned company and upstream Redis Open Source 8.10 or Valkey 9.1 over a standard TLS connection, free during the public preview with no command quota.

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The short version

2 of 2 providers
KVNest and Upstash, compared
Provider Owner Free tier EU region on free Persistence High availability Hosted MCP EU regions Engine
KVNestours: Our own productNetherlands[1]€9/mo (not on sale), 1 GiB[1]256 MiBYesNot yet (Starter is a cache)[1]No[1]Hosted[6]Germany[1]Redis 8.10, Valkey 9.1
Upstash(Partly verified)United States[14]€8.88/mo, 250 MB[8]250 MBYesYes[9]Not published[8]Hosted[12]Frankfurt, Ireland +1[10]Redis-compatible
YesPartlyNoNot publishedPartly verifiedSmallest paid plan a month, excluding VAT. Persistence: what you can buy today; HA: on that plan. [n] is a source.

The table above comes from our EU provider comparison. These are the differences it doesn't show:

KVNestUpstash
How you connectRedis protocol over TLS (rediss://, port 6380)Redis protocol over TCP, or HTTPS REST
Pricing modelPer instance; Starter free during the previewPer command ($0.20 per 100K), or fixed per database
Command limitNo command quota on Starter500K a month free; Fixed plans have no command billing
BackupsNone during the previewDaily, up to 3 days, with the Prod Pack
HA and SLASingle node, no SLAMulti-zone HA and 99.99% SLA with the Prod Pack (+$200 a month)
Global replicasNoRead regions, $5 each on Fixed 250MB
Hosted MCP13 tools for instances74 tools across Redis and other Upstash products
TerraformNo provider yetupstash/upstash provider

Ownership and the CLOUD Act

Upstash, Inc. is a Delaware corporation. Its Frankfurt, Ireland and Belgium regions keep your data in the EU. But a US company is subject to the CLOUD Act: with a warrant, US authorities can require it to disclose data it controls, wherever that data is stored. Providers can challenge an order that conflicts with local law, but the risk stays with you.

KVNest is run by Kubenest in Amsterdam, with a single owner, and runs at Hetzner in Germany. If your customers ask who could be compelled to hand over the data, that's the difference.

  • KVNest: EU-owned, Netherlands; data in Germany.
  • Upstash: US parent, United States; data in Germany, Ireland, Belgium.
EU owner, EU data: 1US parent or headquarters, EU data, CLOUD Act exposure: 1

Engine and protocol

Upstash runs its own Redis-compatible engine. It supports the Redis protocol up to version 8.4, over TCP or HTTPS REST, and adds its own SEARCH.* and VECTOR.* commands. Upstash says its Search isn't compatible with the FT.* commands.

KVNest runs upstream Redis Open Source 8.10 or Valkey 9.1, chosen per instance, with admin commands disabled. Redis instances can turn on JSON, Bloom, Search and TimeSeries; Valkey instances get JSON, Bloom and Search.

What that means at the edge: KVNest needs a client that opens a TCP connection with TLS. Cloudflare Workers can do that with connect(). A runtime that only offers fetch can't reach KVNest, and Upstash's REST API is the better fit there.

Pricing model

Upstash bills per command or per database. Take 5 million commands a month on 200 MB. Pay-as-you-go costs $10 (about €8.88), since storage under 1 GB is free per database; 20 million commands cost $40 (about €35.50). Fixed 250MB caps the bill at $10, with no command billing.

KVNest Starter has no per-command charge. It's free during the public preview, but it's a 192 MB cache with no persistence. The planned paid plans, Casual (€9) and Pro (€39), are coming soon at provisional prices, so we don't compare them with plans you can buy today.

Agents

Both run a hosted MCP server. Upstash's covers Redis and its other products with 74 tools, signs in with OAuth by default and can be limited with ?features=. KVNest's has 13 tools for creating, configuring and connecting to instances, and uses a personal API token. Delete needs the instance name typed again. Setup: MCP docs.

When to pick Upstash instead

  • Serverless or edge apps without TCP. The REST API works from any runtime that can make an HTTPS request.
  • Per-request billing. If traffic is spiky or tiny, paying per command can cost less than a fixed instance.
  • Global replication. Read regions put copies close to users around the world.
  • High availability and backups today. The Prod Pack adds multi-zone HA, an SLA and daily backups.
  • One account for more. QStash, Workflow and Vector sit next to Redis, and there's a Terraform provider.

When to pick KVNest

  • An EU-owned company is a requirement, not only an EU region.
  • You want upstream Redis or Valkey, including Redis TimeSeries or the Redis Query Engine.
  • Steady traffic on a small cache, where per-command pricing adds up.
  • An isolated instance on the free plan, with no command quota.

Moving from Upstash to KVNest

  1. Create an instance in the dashboard or over MCP, and pick Redis or Valkey.
  2. Copy your keys with a short script: scan Upstash, then write each key and its TTL to KVNest.
  3. Swap the client. Replace the REST client with a TCP client such as ioredis or redis, and point it at the rediss:// URL. See the Node.js guide.
KVNest

Netherlands

EU-owned

Best for. A free Redis or Valkey cache in Germany, set up by your AI agent over MCP.

The catch. Single node, no backups during the preview, and paid plans aren't on sale yet.

Disclosure: we run KVNest.

Details: KVNest
Owner
KVNest (company registered in Amsterdam), Netherlands.[1] Single owner, no US parent, no outside investors. Runs at Hetzner in Germany.
Free tier: Starter
€0/month. 256 MiB container (192 MB usable), 0.1 vCPU, 100 clients, allkeys-lru, no persistence: a cache, in Germany.
Smallest paid: Casual (coming soon)
€9/month (provisional; not yet on sale).[1] 1 GiB (768 MB usable), AOF persistence, 500 clients; coming soon at a provisional price. Pro: 4 GiB for a provisional €39/month.
EU regions
Germany (Hetzner).[1]
MCP: Hosted
Hosted MCP server with 13 tools (create, configure, connect, users, allowlist, password rotation, metrics, delete); delete needs the instance name typed again.[6]
Upstash

United States

US parent

Best for. Serverless apps wanting per-request billing, with a free tier in Frankfurt or Ireland.

The catch. A US company subject to the CLOUD Act, with its own Redis-compatible engine.

Details: Upstash
Owner
Upstash, Inc., United States.[14] A Delaware corporation (Upstash terms of service).
Free tier: Free
$0/month. 250 MB, 500K commands/month, 10 GB bandwidth, one database; data is always written to block storage.
Smallest paid: Fixed 250MB
$10/month (+$5 per read region).[8] 250 MB, 50 GB bandwidth, 10K commands/sec; multi-zone HA is the $200/month Prod Pack. Pay-as-you-go ($0.20 per 100K commands) is the other entry point.
EU regions
Frankfurt (AWS eu-central-1), Ireland (AWS eu-west-1), Belgium (GCP europe-west1).[10]
MCP: Hosted
Official remote MCP server with OAuth or API key; covers Redis and other Upstash products. A local npx server also exists.[12]

Where KVNest falls short

How we checked

From Upstash's and Cloudflare's own pricing, docs and legal pages, read on 4 and 5 November 2026. USD at the ECB rate of 4 November 2026 (1 USD = €0.8875). Found an error? Email legal@kvnest.com.

FAQ

Is Upstash GDPR compliant?

Upstash offers EU regions (Frankfurt, Ireland and Belgium) and a data processing addendum with GDPR terms. It's a US company, so it can be ordered under the CLOUD Act to hand over data it controls, wherever that data is stored. Whether that matters depends on your data and your customers. This isn't legal advice.

Does KVNest have a REST API for Redis commands?

No. KVNest's REST API manages instances; your data goes over the Redis protocol, with TLS on port 6380.

Can I use KVNest from Vercel or Cloudflare Workers?

Only from a runtime that can open a TCP connection with TLS. Cloudflare Workers can, through its connect() API, if your client library supports it. Runtimes that only offer fetch can't reach KVNest; use Upstash's REST API there.

Does KVNest charge per command?

No. Starter is free during the public preview and has no command quota. The planned paid plans are priced per instance, not per command.

Can I move my Upstash data to KVNest?

Yes, by copying the keys yourself: read them from Upstash and write them to a new KVNest instance. KVNest has no import tool yet, and Starter is a cache, so keep your Upstash copy until you're sure.

Sources

All 14 sources, last checked 4 Nov 2026
  1. [1]KVNest pricing (kvnest.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  2. [2]Upstash Data Processing Addendum (April 2025) (upstash.com), checked 5 Nov 2026.
  3. [3]Upstash Terraform provider (upstash/terraform-provider-upstash) (github.com), checked 5 Nov 2026.
  4. [4]Cloudflare Workers TCP sockets (connect()) (developers.cloudflare.com), checked 5 Nov 2026.
  5. [5]ECB euro reference rates (ecb.europa.eu), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  6. [6]KVNest MCP docs (kvnest.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  7. [7]KVNest docs (kvnest.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  8. [8]Upstash Redis pricing (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  9. [9]Durable storage (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  10. [10]Global database (region list) (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  11. [11]Redis API compatibility (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  12. [12]MCP server docs (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  13. [13]Prod Pack and Enterprise (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.
  14. [14]Terms of service (Upstash, Inc., Delaware) (upstash.com), checked 4 Nov 2026.

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