Milvus
Open-source vector database for similarity search, from a laptop library to a Kubernetes cluster.
Updated · AppBreakup editorial · Self-hosted, Linux
Is Milvus free?
Yes, free and open source
- License:
- Apache-2.0
Checked on Milvus's site Nov 2, 2026
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- 3 of 3
- Alternatives ranked
- 7
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
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About Milvus
Milvus is an open-source vector database for storing embeddings and running fast approximate nearest-neighbour search, the building block behind semantic search, recommendation and retrieval-augmented generation. It is licensed under Apache 2.0 and comes in three shapes: Milvus Lite, a Python library for notebooks and small projects; Standalone, a single-server Docker image; and Distributed, a cloud-native deployment on Kubernetes for very large collections. It supports a wide range of index types, including HNSW, IVF, DiskANN and GPU indexes, along with metadata filtering and hybrid search. Official SDKs cover Python, Go, Java, Node.js and C++, plus a REST API. The software itself is free; teams that don't want to run it can use Zilliz Cloud, the managed service from the company behind Milvus. It suits engineering teams that expect to scale to large vector workloads and want to self-host or keep the option to.
Best for: Teams self-hosting vector search that need to scale to very large collections.
Pros and cons
What works
- Apache 2.0 licence with no paid core
- Same API from a local Python library up to a distributed cluster
- Many index types, including disk-based and GPU indexes
- Managed option available through Zilliz Cloud
Why people leave
- Distributed mode needs Kubernetes and has many moving parts
- Heavier to operate than single-binary options like Qdrant or Chroma
- Managed hosting is a separate product from a separate site
Milvus vs Qdrant, Pinecone and Chroma
From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.
| Attribute | Milvus | Qdrant | Pinecone | Chroma |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Open source | Open source | Free plan + paid | Open source |
| Verified price | — | — | $20 a month flat (Builder) | — |
| Free plan | Free app | Free app | Yes (Starter) | Free app |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Self-hosted, Linux | Self-hosted, Web | Web | Self-hosted, Linux, macOS, Windows |
Top Milvus alternatives
See all 7- 1
Qdrant68.8Open-source vector database in a single Rust binary, simpler to run on one server.
- 2
Pinecone64.8Fully managed and serverless, for teams that don't want to operate any infrastructure.
- 3
Chroma55.9Open-source embedding database that runs in-process with Python or JavaScript, much simpler to start with than a Milvus cluster.
- 4
Elasticsearch52.6Combines dense-vector kNN with full-text search in one engine, useful for hybrid search on data already in Elastic.
- 5
MongoDB Atlas51.2Atlas Vector Search keeps embeddings next to your documents, avoiding a separate vector store for MongoDB apps.
Why people left Milvus
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
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Reviews
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Milvus: common questions
What is Milvus?
Milvus: Open-source vector database for similarity search, from a laptop library to a Kubernetes cluster. Best for teams self-hosting vector search that need to scale to very large collections. Available for Linux, and you can host it yourself.
Is Milvus free?
Yes. Milvus is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.
Is Milvus open source?
Yes. The source code is on GitHub at milvus-io/milvus. You can also run it on your own server.
What platforms does Milvus run on?
Milvus is available for Self-hosted and Linux.
What are the best alternatives to Milvus?
The highest-ranked Milvus alternatives right now are Qdrant, Pinecone and Chroma. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.
Milvus vs Qdrant: what's the difference?
Both Milvus and Qdrant are free and open source. Only Milvus runs on Linux. Only Qdrant runs on Web.