Qdrant vs tinysearch
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Qdrant
High-performance open-source vector search engine
VS
tinysearch
Tiny WebAssembly-powered static site search
| Feature | Qdrant | tinysearch |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 34,775 | ★ 2,972 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Algolia | Algolia |
What are Qdrant and tinysearch?
Qdrant
Qdrant is an open-source vector similarity search engine and database written in Rust. It powers semantic search, recommendations and retrieval-augmented generation with a convenient API.
- Fast vector similarity search
- Payload filtering with vectors
- Distributed clustering
- REST and gRPC APIs
tinysearch
tinysearch is a lightweight full-text search engine that compiles a static site's content into a small WebAssembly module for client-side search. It is designed for blogs and documentation where a search server would be overkill.
- WebAssembly search module
- No backend required
- Tiny index size
- Client-side full-text search
Qdrant vs tinysearch: key differences
Both projects are written in Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Qdrant versus MIT for tinysearch. Tinysearch is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Qdrant. Tinysearch is the more established project (first released 2019), while Qdrant arrived in 2021. Qdrant has the considerably larger community, at 34,775 GitHub stars versus 2,972. Qdrant lists first-class Docker deployment; tinysearch does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Qdrant if…
- Excellent performance
- Easy to deploy
Watch out for
- Specialized for vector workloads
Choose tinysearch if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Qdrant or tinysearch better?
Neither is universally better. Qdrant has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Qdrant and tinysearch free and open-source?
Yes. Qdrant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tinysearch under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Qdrant and tinysearch with Docker?
Qdrant: yes. tinysearch: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Qdrant or tinysearch?
tinysearch has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Qdrant. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.