Infinity vs Milvus
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Infinity
AI-native database for embedding and hybrid search
VS
Milvus
Open-source vector database built for scalable similarity search
| Feature | Infinity | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,664 | ★ 45,556 |
| First released | 2024 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Elasticsearch | Pinecone, Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Choose Infinity if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Infinity or Milvus better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community, while Infinity is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Infinity and Milvus free and open-source?
Yes. Infinity is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Milvus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Infinity and Milvus with Docker?
Infinity: yes. Milvus: yes.