{"subject":{"id":"zilliz","slug":"zilliz","name":"Zilliz (Milvus)","tagline":"When you're truly at massive scale, Milvus/Zilliz earns its complexity. Don't start here for a chatbot MVP.","website":"https://zilliz.com","status":"active","overall":8.16,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","categoryIds":["cat-vector-memory"],"regions":["global","us","cn"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"Managed Milvus (Zilliz Cloud); open-source Milvus for self-host; designed for large-scale ANN.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://zilliz.com","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."}},"relatedJtbdSlugs":["managed-vector","self-host-vector","cheap-vector-scale","billion-scale-vector","hybrid-search-rag"],"alternatives":[{"id":"qdrant","slug":"qdrant","name":"Qdrant","tagline":"Depot pick for serious vector workloads with filters. Self-host or Cloud — either way you can leave.","website":"https://qdrant.tech","status":"active","overall":8.59,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-10-19","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.43,"roles":["same_jtbd_pick","same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["managed-vector","self-host-vector","cheap-vector-scale","billion-scale-vector","hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"Rust engine; open-source + Qdrant Cloud; excellent filtered ANN; competitive cloud pricing.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-10-19","scoreAsOf":"2026-10-19","website":"https://qdrant.tech","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=managed-vector","human":"/providers/qdrant","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-qdrant"},{"id":"weaviate","slug":"weaviate","name":"Weaviate","tagline":"Best when hybrid search and modularity matter. Cloud for convenience; self-host when lock-in anxiety spikes.","website":"https://weaviate.io","status":"active","overall":8.2,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.04,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner","same_jtbd_pick"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["managed-vector","self-host-vector","hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"Open-source + Weaviate Cloud; modular vectorizers; hybrid search; usage/cluster pricing on cloud.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://weaviate.io","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=managed-vector","human":"/providers/weaviate","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-weaviate"},{"id":"turbopuffer","slug":"turbopuffer","name":"Turbopuffer","tagline":"When your vector bill scares you and much of the corpus is cold, Turbopuffer is the interesting answer.","website":"https://turbopuffer.com","status":"active","overall":8.21,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.05,"roles":["same_jtbd_pick","same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["cheap-vector-scale","billion-scale-vector"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-10-24 (turbopuffer.com/pricing, fetched 2026-10-24): Usage-based with plan minimums: launch '$16/month minimum usage', scale '$256/month minimum usage', enterprise '>= $4,096/month' with '35% usage premium'. 'You'll pay for actual usage beyond the minimum.' 'Unused amo…","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://turbopuffer.com","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=cheap-vector-scale","human":"/providers/turbopuffer","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-turbopuffer"},{"id":"supabase-pgvector","slug":"supabase-pgvector","name":"Supabase (pgvector)","tagline":"Depot default for most agent apps under ~25–50M vectors. Don't add Pinecone until Postgres actually hurts.","website":"https://supabase.com","status":"active","overall":8.64,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.48,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["cheap-vector-scale","hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"Postgres + pgvector + Auth + Storage; usage on compute/storage; free tier. Vectors hitchhike on Postgres.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://supabase.com","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=cheap-vector-scale","human":"/providers/supabase-pgvector","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-supabase-pgvector"},{"id":"upstash-vector","slug":"upstash-vector","name":"Upstash Vector","tagline":"Prototype/edge RAG peer when you already on Upstash. Prefer Qdrant/Pinecone for serious filtered production…","website":"https://upstash.com/vector","status":"active","overall":8.15,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":-0.01,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["managed-vector","cheap-vector-scale"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14 (upstash.com/pricing/vector markdown): Free $0 — 200M vectors×dims, 10K queries/day, 1GB. PAYG $0.40 per 100K requests + $0.25/GB storage (≤50GB, 99.9% SLA). Fixed $60/mo (1M queries/day). Pro contact (100B scale). Bandwidth free to 200GB then $0.03/GB.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://upstash.com/vector","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=managed-vector","human":"/providers/upstash-vector","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-upstash-vector"},{"id":"pinecone","slug":"pinecone","name":"Pinecone","tagline":"Still the zero-ops vector default. If you already run Postgres, try pgvector before paying Pinecone rents.","website":"https://www.pinecone.io","status":"active","overall":7.95,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":-0.21,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["managed-vector","billion-scale-vector"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"Serverless + dedicated/pod tiers; usage on storage/reads/writes; Dedicated Read Nodes for high QPS.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://www.pinecone.io","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=managed-vector","human":"/providers/pinecone","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-pinecone"},{"id":"meilisearch-cloud","slug":"meilisearch-cloud","name":"Meilisearch Cloud","tagline":"Typesense/Algolia peer for product + RAG hybrid search. Prefer Typesense when hourly HA clusters are clearer…","website":"https://www.meilisearch.com","status":"active","overall":8.36,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.2,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14 (meilisearch.com/pricing): Cloud from ~**$20–$30/mo** usage-based or resource-based (example XS 0.5 vCPU/1GB ~$23/mo with disk). 14-day trial. OSS self-host free. Enterprise custom (SSO/SLA).","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://www.meilisearch.com","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=hybrid-search-rag","human":"/providers/meilisearch-cloud","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-meilisearch-cloud"},{"id":"typesense-cloud","slug":"typesense-cloud","name":"Typesense Cloud","tagline":"Hybrid search peer when you want Algolia-like DX without per-request fees. Sample $0.03/hr floor pinned…","website":"https://cloud.typesense.org","status":"active","overall":8.29,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.13,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14: Hourly hardware clusters via cloud.typesense.org calculator (no per-search fees). Sample entry SKU ~0.5 GB RAM / 2 burst vCPU ≈ **$0.03/hr** (~$21.60/720h-mo); HA multi-node and higher RAM multiply. Bandwidth ~$0.09–$0.12/GB class on secondary trackers; 10 GB fr…","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://cloud.typesense.org","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=hybrid-search-rag","human":"/providers/typesense-cloud","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-typesense-cloud"},{"id":"algolia","slug":"algolia","name":"Algolia","tagline":"Enterprise product-search default. Prefer Typesense/OpenSearch when $/QPS dominates; vector DBs when pure…","website":"https://www.algolia.com","status":"active","overall":8.27,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":0.11,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14 (algolia.com/pricing): Pay-as-you-go — start free with 10K search requests/mo then ~$0.50–$1.75 per 1k depending on feature pack (Grow keyword vs AI Search tiers). Higher Medium/High usage and Enterprise support plans. Exact AI feature mix moves — pin calculator.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://www.algolia.com","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=hybrid-search-rag","human":"/providers/algolia","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-algolia"},{"id":"elastic-serverless","slug":"elastic-serverless","name":"Elasticsearch Serverless","tagline":"Enterprise hybrid/vector search when already in Elastic. Prefer Typesense/Meilisearch/Algolia for product…","website":"https://www.elastic.co","status":"active","overall":8.06,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":-0.1,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["hybrid-search-rag"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14 (elastic.co/pricing/serverless-search): Ingest from **$0.14**/VCU-hr; Search from **$0.09**; ML from **$0.07**; retention from **$0.047**/GB-mo; egress from $0.05/GB. Managed LLM $4.50/$21 per 1M in/out. Inference Service from $0.08/1M tokens. Agent Builder execu…","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://www.elastic.co","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=hybrid-search-rag","human":"/providers/elastic-serverless","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-elastic-serverless"},{"id":"astra-db","slug":"astra-db","name":"DataStax Astra DB","tagline":"Managed vector peer for Cassandra estates / huge write scale. Depot defaults remain Supabase pgvector /…","website":"https://www.datastax.com/products/datastax-astra","status":"active","overall":7.93,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":-0.23,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["managed-vector"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14 (datastax.com Astra/watsonx.data pricing): Pay-per-use from **$1.00 USD per Resource Unit**; Subscription dedicated from **~$83.30/mo**. Cassandra/Astra RU worksheets published (Starter 341 RU/mo → XL annual). Vector/Milvus RU/hr bands (Starter 1.25 → Large 16.50…","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://www.datastax.com/products/datastax-astra","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=managed-vector","human":"/providers/astra-db","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-astra-db"},{"id":"chroma","slug":"chroma","name":"Chroma","tagline":"Prototype on Chroma; graduate to Qdrant/pgvector/Pinecone before your corpus and QPS grow up.","website":"https://www.trychroma.com","status":"active","overall":7.88,"scoreKind":"curated_estimate","confidence":"high","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","deltaOverallVsSubject":-0.28,"roles":["same_jtbd_runner"],"sharedJtbdSlugs":["self-host-vector"],"pricing":{"normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens":null,"normalizationStatus":"unavailable","normalizationReason":"no_sourced_price","shape":"prose_notes_only","filterable":false,"priceSortEligible":false,"priceSortKeyUsdPerMillionInputTokens":null,"rows":[],"notesExcerpt":"As of 2026-09-14: Open-source embeddable vector DB + hosted Chroma Cloud; free/local for prototypes; Cloud usage-based for managed. Excellent DX for demos; graduate before high QPS/filtered production.","notesCheck":{"status":"no_known_contradiction","pairs":[],"review":null,"note":null},"lastReviewed":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOf":"2026-09-14","website":"https://www.trychroma.com","doNotParse":"Do not parse pricingNotes. Use rows only. normalizedUsdPerMillionTokens is a single number only when this provider has exactly one sourced token row. Input/output, context tiers, and non-token units stay null at this level.","gap":"No sourced price row for this provider. pricingNotes stay prose. See research/gaps.md."},"decideHint":"/api/decide?jtbd=self-host-vector","human":"/providers/chroma","compare":"/compare/zilliz-vs-chroma"}],"rankContract":{"style":"editorial_weighted","notAnElo":true,"note":"deltaOverallVsSubject is Depot overall (0–10) minus the subject. It is not Arena Elo and not an Artificial Analysis index."},"freshness":{"scoreAsOfMin":"2026-09-14","scoreAsOfMax":"2026-10-19","contractAsOf":"2026-10-03"},"honesty":["Alternatives are other catalog providers that share a JTBD as pick or runner-up. If fewer than three exist, same-category active providers fill the list and are labeled same_category.","Overall deltas are catalog scores. kind=curated_estimate is not a lab measurement.","Pricing rows are sourced or explicitly null. Do not parse pricingNotes. A single normalized USD figure is set only for a provider with exactly one token row."],"links":{"human":"/alternatives/zilliz","machine":"/api/alternatives?provider=zilliz","provider":"/api/providers/zilliz","canonical":"/api/canonical"}}