Milvus vs Xapian
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
Xapian
Mature open-source probabilistic search engine library
| Feature | Milvus | Xapian |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 45,556 | ★ 877 |
| First released | 2019 | 1999 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Milvus or Xapian better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community, while Xapian is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Milvus and Xapian free and open-source?
Yes. Milvus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Xapian under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Milvus and Xapian with Docker?
Milvus: yes. Xapian: check the project docs for container support.