What is Infinispan used for?

Infinispan is an open-source in-memory distributed data grid and NoSQL key-value store for Java that scales across clusters. It is a good fit for distributed caching for Java applications, clustered session storage and low-latency data grid for microservices.

Is Infinispan open source?

Yes. Infinispan is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at infinispan/infinispan and is written mainly in Java.

Yes. Infinispan is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Infinispan?

Yes. Infinispan can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What are some alternatives to Infinispan?

Similar open-source tools in the Databases category include Apache Ignite, Redis and Dragonfly. SaaS products in the same category include Azure Cosmos DB, Aerospike and Amazon DocumentDB.

Is Infinispan actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Infinispan was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 16.2.3, published on 3 September 2026. The project has 1.4k stars on GitHub.

Infinispan: open-source databases

About Infinispan

Infinispan is an open-source in-memory distributed database and data grid platform. At its core is a key/value store that can hold any kind of data, from Java objects to plain text, distributed across elastically scalable clusters to provide high availability and fault tolerance.

It can be used as a volatile cache or as a persistent data store, and it offers flexible deployment options. The project's topics also mention search engine capabilities, persistent storage, semantic search and vector database use, in addition to NoSQL and in-memory caching. The documentation includes a five-minute getting started guide and simple tutorials, and contributions are handled under the Developer Certificate of Origin.

Infinispan is written in Java and licensed under Apache-2.0, and it can be embedded in applications or run as a standalone server that you operate yourself. It has been developed since 2010 and suits Java and cloud-native developers who need distributed caching, session storage or a fast clustered data layer.

Key features

Distributed in-memory key/value store
Elastically scalable clusters
High availability and fault tolerance
Cache or persistent store modes
Embedded or server deployment
Search and vector capabilities

Good fit for

→Distributed caching for Java applications
→Clustered session storage
→Low-latency data grid for microservices

Built with: Java
Tags: data-grid; in-memory; key-value-store; nosql; distributed-cache; java; vector-database; clustering; apache-2.0

Infinispan: questions and answers

What is Infinispan used for?: Infinispan is an open-source in-memory distributed data grid and NoSQL key-value store for Java that scales across clusters. It is a good fit for distributed caching for Java applications, clustered session storage and low-latency data grid for microservices.
Is Infinispan open source?: Yes. Infinispan is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at infinispan/infinispan and is written mainly in Java.
Is Infinispan free?: Yes. Infinispan is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Infinispan?: Yes. Infinispan can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What are some alternatives to Infinispan?: Similar open-source tools in the Databases category include Apache Ignite, Redis and Dragonfly. SaaS products in the same category include Azure Cosmos DB, Aerospike and Amazon DocumentDB.
Is Infinispan actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Infinispan was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 16.2.3, published on 3 September 2026. The project has 1.4k stars on GitHub.