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Databases · head to head

Immuta vs Qdrant

Immuta logo

Immuta

Databases

Attribute-based access control and masking applied inside Snowflake, Databricks and BigQuery

From
On request
Rated
-
Qdrant logo

Qdrant

Databases

High-performance vector database for similarity search and embedding-based retrieval

From
Free
Rated
-

The short version

  • Only Qdrant has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Immuta contracts commonly start around one hundred to two hundred thousand US dollars a year for mid-market deployments and exceed five hundred thousand at enterprise scale, which excludes most data teams without a regulatory mandate.; Qdrant free tier extremely limited (0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB disk); suitable only for experiments
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Immuta and Qdrant actually diverge.

Attributes where Immuta and Qdrant differ
AttributeImmutaQdrant
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotefreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, API, CloudCloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Self-hosted, Edge (beta), Serverless (coming)

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 Immuta

  • Attribute-based policy
  • Native enforcement
  • Dynamic masking
  • Row-level filtering
  • Purpose-based access
  • Sensitive data tagging
  • Audit logging
  • Multi-platform

Only in Qdrant

Nothing recorded that Immuta does not also cover.

What people use each for

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

Immuta

  • A bank whose Snowflake estate has grown to tens of thousands of roles that no one can review before an auditnot Qdrant
  • A healthcare analytics team that must let researchers query patient data with identifiers masked unless a specific purpose is recordednot Qdrant
  • A multinational applying different residency and access rules per jurisdiction to the same tables without duplicating datasetsnot Qdrant
  • An organisation running both Snowflake and Databricks that wants one policy set rather than two divergent implementationsnot Qdrant

Qdrant

  • Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) backends for LLM applicationsnot Immuta
  • Semantic search across large document corporanot Immuta
  • Multimodal retrieval (text, images, video) for recommendation systemsnot Immuta
  • Similarity-based product or content recommendationsnot Immuta
  • Real-time vector indexing for streaming embedding datanot Immuta

Where each one falls short

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

Immuta

  • Contracts commonly start around one hundred to two hundred thousand US dollars a year for mid-market deployments and exceed five hundred thousand at enterprise scale, which excludes most data teams without a regulatory mandate.
  • Policy is only as good as the data classification underneath it, so an organisation with poorly tagged columns will spend months on classification before Immuta enforces anything useful.
  • Native enforcement means capability varies by platform, and a feature available on Snowflake may be absent or behave differently on BigQuery, which undermines the promise of one policy set everywhere.
  • Adding an access governance layer creates a new dependency in the path to data: a misconfigured policy silently returns fewer rows rather than erroring, and analysts can act on incomplete results without noticing.
  • It governs cloud data platforms, so personal data in operational databases, files and SaaS applications sits outside its scope and needs separate controls, meaning Immuta is rarely the whole answer.

Qdrant

  • Free tier extremely limited (0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB disk); suitable only for experiments
  • Standard and Premium pricing usage-based; specific costs not published; requires calculator or quote
  • Requires understanding of embeddings and vector search concepts; not suitable for SQL-only teams
  • Early-stage serverless offering (coming soon) suggests maturity gaps in that deployment model

Pricing, plan by plan

Immuta

On request
  • Immuta Platform$undefined/year
    • Attribute-based policy authoring
    • Native enforcement in supported data platforms
    • Dynamic masking and row-level security

Qdrant

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Single-node cluster
    • 0.5 vCPU
    • 1GB RAM
  • Standard$undefined/usage-based
    • Dedicated resources
    • Flexible scaling
    • High availability
  • Premium$undefined/minimum spend
    • SSO and SAML
    • Private VPC links
    • 99.9% uptime SLA

Which should you pick?

Choose Immuta if

  • You need attribute-based policy.
  • You work on Web, API, Cloud.
  • You also want native enforcement.

Choose Qdrant if

  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Self-hosted, Edge (beta), Serverless (coming).

Questions people ask

Is Immuta or Qdrant better?
Neither clearly leads. Immuta starts at On request and Qdrant at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Immuta or Qdrant?
Qdrant has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Immuta and Free for Qdrant.
Does Immuta or Qdrant run on more platforms?
Immuta runs on Web, API, Cloud. Qdrant runs on Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure), Kubernetes, Self-hosted, Edge (beta), Serverless (coming).
Can I use Qdrant for free?
Yes. Qdrant has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Immuta starts at On request.
What is Immuta best used for?
Immuta is most often used for a bank whose snowflake estate has grown to tens of thousands of roles that no one can review before an audit, a healthcare analytics team that must let researchers query patient data with identifiers masked unless a specific purpose is recorded, a multinational applying different residency and access rules per jurisdiction to the same tables without duplicating datasets, an organisation running both snowflake and databricks that wants one policy set rather than two divergent implementations. Of those, a bank whose snowflake estate has grown to tens of thousands of roles that no one can review before an audit and a healthcare analytics team that must let researchers query patient data with identifiers masked unless a specific purpose is recorded are not what Qdrant is typically brought in for.
What can Immuta do that Qdrant cannot?
Immuta covers Attribute-based policy, Native enforcement, Dynamic masking, Row-level filtering.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Immuta: Does Immuta sit in the query path?

No. It compiles policies into the data platform's own native controls, so queries run at normal speed through your existing tools.

Qdrant: Can I use Qdrant for free?

Yes, Qdrant offers a free tier that provides a single node cluster with 0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, and 4GB disk space. It includes free cloud inference with selected models and is described as free forever for testing and prototypes.

Source
Immuta: What does it cost?

Not published. Market data suggests roughly 100,000 to 200,000 US dollars a year for mid-market deployments and considerably more at enterprise scale.

Qdrant: How is Qdrant Cloud billing calculated?

Billing is calculated based on actual resource usage during each billing period. You are charged hourly for compute (vCPU), memory (GB), storage (GB), backups, and any paid inference tokens used.

Source
Immuta: Is Immuta still independent?

Yes. It remains independently owned, unlike several competitors in data access governance that have been acquired.

Qdrant: What happens if I scale beyond the free tier?

The Standard Tier uses the same usage-based billing model as the free tier but adds features like dedicated resources with flexible scaling, highly available setups with backup and disaster recovery, and a 99.5% uptime SLA.

Source
Immuta: Does it work across more than one warehouse?

Yes, one policy set can target Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery and Starburst, though enforcement capability varies by platform.

Qdrant: What SLA does Qdrant offer?

The Standard Tier provides 99.5% uptime SLA. The Premium Tier, which requires a minimum spend for enterprises, offers 99.9% uptime SLA along with single sign-on and private VPC links.

Source
Qdrant: Are there dedicated cloud infrastructure options?

Yes, Qdrant offers Hybrid Cloud (runs on your infrastructure) and Private Cloud (complete isolation) options, both with custom pricing that requires contacting the sales team.

Source
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