Milvus / Zilliz
Partial infoScalable open-source vector database for billion-scale search.
Milvus is an Apache-2.0 vector database built for very large scale, with multiple index types and GPU acceleration. Zilliz Cloud is the managed version from the same team.
License
Open source (Apache-2.0)
Deployment
Managed, Self-hosted
Pricing
Open-source; Zilliz Cloud is managed with a free tier and usage-based plans.
SDKs / languages
Python, Java, Go, Node.js
Founded
2019
Strengths
- Proven at billion-vector scale
- Many index types incl. GPU
- Managed Zilliz Cloud option
Limitations
- Heavier to self-host (distributed)
- Operational complexity at scale
Alternatives
Chroma
Developer-friendly open-source embedding database.
LanceDB
Embedded, serverless vector database on the Lance columnar format.
MongoDB Atlas Vector Search
Vector search built into MongoDB Atlas documents.
pgvector
Vector similarity search as a Postgres extension.
Pinecone
Fully managed, serverless vector database.
Qdrant
Fast open-source vector search engine written in Rust.
Facts verified 19 July 2026. Neutral summary, not an endorsement; verify current details with the vendor.