Qdrant vs Weaviate
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
Weaviate
Open-source vector database for semantic and AI search
| Feature | Qdrant | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 34,775 | ★ 16,841 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Algolia | Pinecone, Algolia |
What are Qdrant and Weaviate?
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
Weaviate
Weaviate is an open-source vector database that stores objects and their vector embeddings for semantic search. It enables AI-powered similarity search, retrieval-augmented generation and hybrid queries.
- Vector and hybrid search
- Built-in vectorization modules
- GraphQL and REST APIs
- Horizontal scaling
Qdrant vs Weaviate: key differences
Qdrant is written in Rust, while Weaviate is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Qdrant versus BSD-3-Clause for Weaviate. Qdrant is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Weaviate. Weaviate 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 16,841.
Why pick each one
Choose Qdrant if…
- Excellent performance
- Easy to deploy
Watch out for
- Specialized for vector workloads
Choose Weaviate if…
- Great for AI semantic search
- Easy to start
Watch out for
- Memory hungry with large datasets
Frequently asked questions
Is Qdrant or Weaviate 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 Weaviate free and open-source?
Yes. Qdrant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Weaviate under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Qdrant and Weaviate with Docker?
Qdrant: yes. Weaviate: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Qdrant or Weaviate?
Qdrant has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Weaviate. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.