Milvus vs YaCy
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
YaCy
Decentralized peer-to-peer web search engine
| Feature | Milvus | YaCy |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 45,556 | ★ 3,999 |
| First released | 2019 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Elasticsearch | Google Search, Bing |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Milvus or YaCy better?
Neither is universally better. Milvus has the larger community, while YaCy is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Milvus and YaCy free and open-source?
Yes. Milvus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and YaCy under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Milvus and YaCy with Docker?
Milvus: yes. YaCy: yes.