Node-Cache vs Redis for Simple Caching

Question

I am planning to use a cache in my Node.js application just to avoid a database read operation. It is only some small amount of data (instead of reading same data from database every time) . I am planning to have a local cache in each server. Should I go for Node Cache (https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-cache) or Redis ?

Which will be faster and efficient ?

Answer 1

If you plan on scaling your application in the future, you choose redis

If this is just a small project that you need good performance you go with in-memory.

As a starter I recommend to go with in-memory caching but use a inversion of control mechanism to be able to refactor easily this stuff after into using redis. Try something like this:

// cache service

module.exports = (provider) => {
   // provider here is an abstraction of redis or in memory node
   // implement your logic
   
   const save = (key, item) => {
     provider.save(key, item);
     // return promise callback etc
   }    

   const getItem = (key) => {
      provider.get(key);
   } 

   return {
     save,
     getItem,
   }
}

And then you just use the needed provider and you can easily refactor the code after, no need to change all the files in your app.