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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs Zilliz

Canary Labs logo

Canary Labs

Databases

Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees

From
$3000/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zilliz logo

Zilliz

Databases

Managed vector database and vector lakebase for AI applications

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Zilliz has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Canary Labs pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.; Zilliz pricing structure not publicly disclosed, requires sales contact
  • They diverge on capability: Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Zilliz covers Vector indexing.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Canary Labs and Zilliz actually diverge.

Attributes where Canary Labs and Zilliz differ
AttributeCanary LabsZilliz
Starting price$3000/yearFree
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearcontact-sales
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, WebCloud, Self-hosted
FoundedUnknown2017

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Canary Labs

  • Loss-less compression
  • Unlimited clients
  • Store and forward
  • Views service
  • Sparkplug B
  • Calculation engine
  • Axiom
  • ODBC and REST

Only in Zilliz

  • Vector indexing
  • Distributed architecture
  • SQL interface
  • Tensor support
  • Real-time search
  • Cloud-native
  • Open-source compatible

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Canary Labs

  • A manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a PI System enterprise agreementnot Zilliz
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot Zilliz
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot Zilliz
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot Zilliz

Zilliz

  • Build retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systemsnot Canary Labs
  • Implement semantic search over documentsnot Canary Labs
  • Create multimodal search with text and imagesnot Canary Labs
  • Power recommendation engines with vector similaritynot Canary Labs
  • Enable similarity search on user embeddingsnot Canary Labs

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Canary Labs

  • Pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.
  • CustomerCare at 18 percent of licence cost is effectively mandatory on perpetual licences because lapsing it removes upgrades, so the perpetual option is not really a one-time cost.
  • The storage format is proprietary; getting data out at volume means the ODBC connector, an additional 2,500 USD one-time or 1,000 USD a year, or writing against the REST API.
  • Canary is a small vendor with a limited partner network outside North America, so support coverage and integrator availability in Europe and Asia are thinner than for AVEVA or Ignition.
  • It is a Windows-only server product with no Linux or container deployment, which complicates placing collectors in modern edge estates.

Zilliz

  • Pricing structure not publicly disclosed, requires sales contact
  • Operational complexity for self-hosted Milvus deployments
  • Learning curve for those unfamiliar with vector databases
  • Limited built-in analytics compared to some alternatives

Pricing, plan by plan

Canary Labs

$3000/year
  • Subscription, 3,500 tags$3000/year
    • Unlimited Axiom clients
    • Unlimited Excel clients
    • Support and upgrades included
  • Perpetual, 3,500 tags$8730/one-time
    • 7,400 USD licence plus 1,330 USD first-year CustomerCare
    • CustomerCare renews at 18 percent of licence cost per year
    • Unlimited clients
  • Private cloud, 3,500 tags$12320/year
    • Hosted by Canary
    • 1,500 USD one-time setup fee per system
    • Scales to around 58,684 USD per year at 60,000 tags
  • Enterprise unlimited$undefined/year
    • Unlimited tags
    • Negotiated licensing terms
    • Quoted pricing

Zilliz

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Zilliz review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Canary Labs if

  • You need loss-less compression.
  • You work on Windows, Web.
  • You also want unlimited clients.
Canary Labs review

Choose Zilliz if

  • You need vector indexing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud, Self-hosted.
  • You also want distributed architecture.
Zilliz review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or Zilliz better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Zilliz at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or Zilliz?
Zilliz has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3000/year for Canary Labs and Free for Zilliz.
Does Canary Labs or Zilliz run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. Zilliz runs on Cloud, Self-hosted.
Can I use Zilliz for free?
Yes. Zilliz has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year.
What is Canary Labs best used for?
Canary Labs is most often used for a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement, a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement, an ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboards, a plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an audit. Of those, a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement and a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement are not what Zilliz is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that Zilliz cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service. Zilliz covers Vector indexing, Distributed architecture, SQL interface, Tensor support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Canary Labs: What does Canary cost?

8,730 USD for a 3,500 tag perpetual system including first-year CustomerCare, or 3,000 USD a year on subscription.

Zilliz: What is the difference between Milvus and Zilliz Cloud?

Milvus is the open-source vector database that you can self-host. Zilliz Cloud is the fully managed service built on Milvus that removes operational overhead and handles scaling automatically.

Source
Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

No. Unlimited Axiom browser clients and unlimited Excel clients are included on every tier.

Zilliz: How many vectors can Zilliz handle?

Milvus and Zilliz Cloud can store and search billions of vectors through their distributed architecture that separates storage and compute layers.

Source
Canary Labs: Is perpetual cheaper than subscription?

Canary states perpetual pays off after roughly three years, and after that you still pay 18 percent CustomerCare annually.

Zilliz: Is Milvus open-source?

Yes, Milvus is open-source under the Apache License 2.0 and is part of the LF AI & Data Foundation.

Source
Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

No. Canary stores every collected value rather than approximating the trend, which matters for regulated data retention.

Zilliz: What pricing does Zilliz Cloud offer?

Zilliz Cloud pricing is not publicly listed and requires contacting their team to discuss your specific scale and use case requirements.

Source
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