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

> 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.

Updated 2026-11-05; every fact last verified 2026-11-04. By KVNest.

## The short version

| Provider | Owner country | Free tier | Smallest paid | €/GiB (persistent) | Hosted MCP | Engine |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [KVNest](https://kvnest.com) | Netherlands (EU-owned) | Starter: free, 256 MiB | Casual (coming soon): €9/month, 1 GiB | €9 | Hosted | Redis 8.10, Valkey 9.1 |
| [Upstash Redis](https://upstash.com/pricing/redis) | United States | Free: free, 250 MB | Fixed 250MB: €8.88/month, 250 MB | €38.12 | Hosted | Upstash's own Redis-compatible engine (Redis protocol up to 8.4) |

The table above comes from our [EU provider comparison](https://kvnest.com/compare/eu-managed-redis). These are the differences it doesn't show:

| | KVNest | Upstash |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **How you connect** | Redis protocol over TLS (`rediss://`, port 6380) | Redis protocol over TCP, or HTTPS REST |
| **Pricing model** | Per instance; Starter free during the preview | Per command ($0.20 per 100K), or fixed per database |
| **Command limit** | No command quota on Starter | 500K a month free; Fixed plans have no command billing |
| **Backups** | None during the preview | Daily, up to 3 days, with the Prod Pack |
| **HA and SLA** | Single node, no SLA | Multi-zone HA and 99.99% SLA with the Prod Pack (+$200 a month) |
| **Global replicas** | No | Read regions, $5 each on Fixed 250MB |
| **Hosted MCP** | 13 tools for instances | 74 tools across Redis and other Upstash products |
| **Terraform** | No provider yet | `upstash/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: KVNest (company registered in Amsterdam), Netherlands (EU-owned)
- Upstash Redis: Upstash, Inc., United States

## 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](https://kvnest.com/docs/mcp).

## 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](https://kvnest.com/docs/nodejs).

- **Owner:** KVNest (company registered in Amsterdam), Netherlands (EU-owned)
- **EU regions:** Germany (Hetzner)
- **Free tier:** Starter: free, 256 MiB. 256 MiB container (192 MB usable), 0.1 vCPU, 100 clients, allkeys-lru, no persistence: a cache, in Germany.
- **Smallest paid plan:** Casual (coming soon): €9/month, 1 GiB (€9/month (provisional; not yet on sale)). 1 GiB (768 MB usable), AOF persistence, 500 clients; coming soon at a provisional price. Pro: 4 GiB for a provisional €39/month.
- **Persistence:** Not yet (Starter is a cache); **high availability:** No
- **Hosted MCP:** Hosted. Hosted MCP server with 13 tools (create, configure, connect, users, allowlist, password rotation, metrics, delete); delete needs the instance name typed again.
- **Engines:** Redis 8.10, Valkey 9.1
- **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.

- **Owner:** Upstash, Inc., United States
- **EU regions:** Frankfurt (AWS eu-central-1), Ireland (AWS eu-west-1), Belgium (GCP europe-west1)
- **Free tier:** Free: free, 250 MB. 250 MB, 500K commands/month, 10 GB bandwidth, one database; data is always written to block storage.
- **Smallest paid plan:** Fixed 250MB: €8.88/month, 250 MB ($10/month (+$5 per read region)). 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.
- **Persistence:** Yes; **high availability:** Not published
- **Hosted MCP:** Hosted. Official remote MCP server with OAuth or API key; covers Redis and other Upstash products. A local npx server also exists.
- **Engines:** Upstash's own Redis-compatible engine (Redis protocol up to 8.4)
- **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.

## Where KVNest falls short

- **Single node.** No replica or automatic failover yet.
- **No backups or SLA** during the preview. Keep a copy of anything you can't lose.
- **Starter is a cache.** Nothing goes to disk; when memory is full, least recently used keys go.
- **No HTTP data API and no global replicas.** You need a TCP client, in one region.
- **No Terraform provider or CLI yet.** Use the dashboard, the [REST API](https://kvnest.com/docs/api) or MCP.

**On an edge runtime without TCP,** or if you need HA today, Upstash is the better fit.

## 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.

## Questions

### 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

- [KVNest pricing](https://kvnest.com/pricing), checked 2026-11-04
- [Upstash Data Processing Addendum (April 2025)](https://upstash.com/trust/dpa.pdf), checked 2026-11-05
- [Upstash Terraform provider (upstash/terraform-provider-upstash)](https://github.com/upstash/terraform-provider-upstash), checked 2026-11-05
- [Cloudflare Workers TCP sockets (connect())](https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/runtime-apis/tcp-sockets/), checked 2026-11-05
- [ECB euro reference rates](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html), checked 2026-11-04
- [KVNest MCP docs](https://kvnest.com/docs/mcp), checked 2026-11-04
- [KVNest docs](https://kvnest.com/docs), checked 2026-11-04
- [Upstash Redis pricing](https://upstash.com/pricing/redis), checked 2026-11-04
- [Durable storage](https://upstash.com/docs/redis/features/durability.md), checked 2026-11-04
- [Global database (region list)](https://upstash.com/docs/redis/features/globaldatabase.md), checked 2026-11-04
- [Redis API compatibility](https://upstash.com/docs/redis/overall/compatibility.md), checked 2026-11-04
- [MCP server docs](https://upstash.com/docs/agent-resources/mcp.md), checked 2026-11-04
- [Prod Pack and Enterprise](https://upstash.com/docs/redis/overall/enterprise), checked 2026-11-04
- [Terms of service (Upstash, Inc., Delaware)](https://upstash.com/trust/terms.pdf), checked 2026-11-04