Milvus vs Weaviate
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
Weaviate
Open-source vector database for semantic and AI search
| Feature | Milvus | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 45,556 | ★ 16,704 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Elasticsearch | Pinecone, Algolia |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Milvus or Weaviate better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community, while Weaviate is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Milvus and Weaviate free and open-source?
Yes. Milvus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Weaviate under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Milvus and Weaviate with Docker?
Milvus: yes. Weaviate: yes.