---
id: python-binary-memcached
version: "0.32.0"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# python-binary-memcached — A pure python module to access memcached via its binary protocol with SASL auth support

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 154.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

python-binary-memcached is a pure Python client for memcached that communicates using the binary protocol rather than the text protocol. It supports SASL authentication, making it suitable for hosted memcached services like Heroku that require credentials. The library is thread-safe and offers both a standard client for single-server or replicated setups and a DistributedClient that uses consistent hashing to distribute keys across multiple memcached servers.

The package depends on six and uhashring for consistent hashing when using the distributed client. It has been actively maintained since 2011, with recent updates adding TLS support and protocol argument exposure. The library is classified as Beta and supports Python 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12.

Use it for:

- Connect to Heroku memcached or other SASL-authenticated memcached services from Python applications.
- Distribute cached data across multiple memcached servers using consistent hashing to minimize cache invalidation on server changes.
- Secure memcached connections with TLS encryption in production environments.
- Replace text-protocol memcached clients when binary protocol features or authentication are required.
- Build thread-safe caching layers in multi-threaded Python applications.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

A pure Python client library for accessing memcached using the binary protocol with SASL authentication support, including distributed key hashing and TLS encryption.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, installs with minimal friction, and solves a specific problem—binary protocol access with authentication—that text-protocol clients do not. It is suitable for production use, particularly when integrating with hosted memcached services that require SASL authentication.

## Install

pip install python-binary-memcached
uv add python-binary-memcached
poetry add python-binary-memcached

## Installing python-binary-memcached

Before you install: Low friction: pure Python wheel with only two runtime dependencies (six and uhashring). Active maintenance with a recent release on 2026-04-28 and continuous repository activity.

License in practice: Permissive license allows commercial and private use without restriction or attribution requirement.

Quickstart:

pip install python-binary-memcached

import bmemcached
client = bmemcached.Client(('127.0.0.1:11211',), 'user', 'password')
client.set('key', 'value')
print(client.get('key'))

Requires a running memcached server accessible at the specified host and port.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package supports Python versions beyond 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12.
- Performance characteristics compared to other memcached clients for high-throughput scenarios.
- Thread safety guarantees and behavior under concurrent access patterns.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 154.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

memcached binary protocol client, memcached sasl authentication, distributed memcached hashing, python memcached tls, memcached consistent hashing, thread-safe memcached client, heroku memcached python, caching, memcached, distributed-systems

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