Milvus vs Vespa
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?
Milvus
Open-source vector database built for scalable similarity search
VS
Vespa
Open-source big data serving engine for search and recommendation
| Feature | Milvus | Vespa |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 45,556 | ★ 7,043 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch, Algolia |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Milvus or Vespa better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Milvus and Vespa free and open-source?
Yes. Milvus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Vespa under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Milvus and Vespa with Docker?
Milvus: yes. Vespa: yes.