Tools

Vector databases

9 tools compared: how each is priced, where it runs, and what to consider instead.

Tool	Pricing model	Free tier	Open source
Chroma Open-source embedding database designed for simple local-first development, with a managed serverless cloud tier.	Free tier + paid	Yes	Yes
LanceDB Open-source, embedded vector database built on the Lance columnar format for multimodal AI data.	Free tier + paid	Yes	Yes
Milvus Open-source vector database built for billion-scale similarity search, governed under the Linux Foundation.	Open source + paid	Yes	Yes
pgvector Open-source PostgreSQL extension that adds vector similarity search directly inside a Postgres database.	Open source + paid	Yes	Yes
Pinecone Fully managed, cloud-only vector database for similarity search and retrieval-augmented generation at scale.	Free tier + paid	Yes	No
Qdrant Open-source vector database written in Rust, focused on filtered similarity search with a free managed cloud tier.	Free tier + paid	Yes	Yes
Vespa Open-source big-data serving engine combining vector search, keyword search and ranking at large scale.	Free tier + paid	Yes	Yes
Weaviate Open-source vector database with built-in hybrid (vector + keyword) search, available self-hosted or as managed cloud.	Free tier + paid	Yes	Yes
Zilliz Cloud Fully managed cloud version of Milvus, built and operated by Milvus's original creators.	Usage-based	Yes	No

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