Marqo 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?
Marqo
End-to-end vector search engine for text and images
VS
Milvus
Open-source vector database built for scalable similarity search
| Feature | Marqo | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,017 | ★ 45,556 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Pinecone | Pinecone, Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Marqo or Milvus better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community, while Marqo is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Marqo and Milvus free and open-source?
Yes. Marqo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Milvus under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Marqo and Milvus with Docker?
Marqo: yes. Milvus: yes.