Milvusvs
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Milvus
Open-source vector database for scalable similarity search
As of 30 August 2026, Milvus is free to use. Milvus is an open-source vector database built for scalable similarity search and AI applications. Softwr lists it under Machine Learning. Milvus is made by Zilliz, launched in 2017, available on Linux, macOS, Windows, Web.
Overview
What Milvus does
Milvus is an open-source vector database built for scalable similarity search and AI applications. It supports billion-scale vector search with high performance, provides multiple index types, and integrates with popular ML frameworks for embedding generation.
What people use it for
- Self hosting a vector database for semantic search
- Storing and querying embeddings for retrieval augmented generation
- Similarity search over images, audio or text at scale
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Milvus.
- Vector dimensions are capped at 32,768
- A collection is limited to 64 fields, 1,024 partitions and 16 shards
- Only 1 index is allowed per field
- Search returns at most 16,384 vectors as top-k, and nq is capped at 16,384
- Input and output per RPC is capped at 64 MB for insert, search and query
- VARCHAR values are limited to 65,535 characters
- Data loaded into query nodes cannot exceed 90% of available memory
- An instance supports at most 65,536 collections
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Milvus
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MilvusvsGoogle Vertex AI
Google Vertex AI: Unified ML platform to build, deploy, and scale AI models
- MilvusvsAzure Machine Learning
Azure Machine Learning: Enterprise-grade machine learning service
- MilvusvsDataRobot
DataRobot: Enterprise AI platform for automated machine learning
Pricing
What Milvus costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Open Source
Free
- Full features
- Self-hosted
- Community support
Zilliz Cloud
Free
- Managed service
- Free tier available
Capabilities
Features
Billion-scale vectors
Multiple index types
GPU acceleration
Hybrid search
Data partitioning
PyTorch
Integration with PyTorch
TensorFlow
Integration with TensorFlow
Hugging Face
Integration with Hugging Face
LangChain
Integration with LangChain
LlamaIndex
Integration with LlamaIndex
Linux support
Available on linux
Mac support
Available on mac
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
How much does Milvus cost?
Milvus is open-source and free to use and modify. The self-hosted version has no licensing cost. Zilliz Cloud (the managed SaaS version) does not publish pricing on the website.
SourceIs there a free or open-source version of Milvus?
Yes, Milvus is fully open-source and available for free. Milvus Lite is a lightweight option for learning and prototyping that can be installed via pip.
SourceDoes Milvus offer a managed cloud service?
Yes, Zilliz Cloud is a fully managed Milvus cloud offering with serverless and dedicated cluster options. Pricing must be requested from the company as it is not listed on the public website.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Milvus
- Company
- Zilliz
- Based in
- Redwood City, California
Keep looking
Where to go from Milvus
- Milvus alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Milvus pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Milvus badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Machine Learning softwareThe full category
- Best Machine Learning softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Machine Learning software for
Compare Milvus with
- Google Vertex AI
- AWS SageMaker
- Azure Machine Learning
- DataRobot
- Pinecone
- Weaviate
- Ray
- Fal AI
- Jupyter
- Keras
- LangChain
- Weights & Biases
- Alteryx
- Anaconda
- Domino Data Lab
- DVC
- Semantic Kernel
- Weaviate
Other Machine Learning software
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Free plan14 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Milvus, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Milvus
Milvus alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Milvus pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Milvus
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Milvus badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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