Quivr vs Verba
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Quivr | Verba |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 67 · Good | 15 · At risk |
| Known vulnerabilities | 3 known issues in core-0.0.33 | 2 known issues in v2.1.3 |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 39,586 | ★ 7,697 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | NotebookLM | NotebookLM |
What are Quivr and Verba?
Quivr
Quivr is an open-source RAG framework that helps developers build personal knowledge assistants over documents. It focuses on making retrieval-augmented generation simple and embeddable into products.
- RAG framework
- Document ingestion
- Embeddable into apps
- Many file types
Verba
Verba is an open-source retrieval-augmented generation application that lets you query and chat with your data. Built around Weaviate, it offers a customizable interface and supports many model providers.
- End-to-end RAG app
- Weaviate integration
- Many model providers
- Customizable UI
Quivr vs Verba: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Verba's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Quivr is actively maintained. Quivr is written in Go, while Verba is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Quivr versus BSD-3-Clause for Verba. Quivr has the considerably larger community, at 39,586 GitHub stars versus 7,697.
Why pick each one
Choose Quivr if…
- Developer-friendly RAG core
- Embeds into products
- Many file formats
Watch out for
- Requires LLM API keys
- Project scope shifted often
Choose Verba if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Quivr or Verba better?
Neither is universally better. Quivr has the larger community, while Verba is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Quivr and Verba free and open-source?
Yes. Quivr is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Verba under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Quivr and Verba with Docker?
Quivr: yes. Verba: yes.