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Cockroach Labs
Cockroach Labs: The cloud-native distributed SQL database
Qdrant
High-performance vector database for similarity search and embedding-based retrieval
As of 29 August 2026, Qdrant is free to use. Qdrant is an open-source vector search engine designed for AI applications requiring embedding-based retrieval. Softwr lists it under Databases. Qdrant is available on Web, Self-hosted, Browser extension.
Overview
What Qdrant does
Qdrant is a vector database engine built in Rust and optimised for production vector search. The platform powers retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, semantic search, and embedding-based similarity applications. Unlike traditional databases, Qdrant indexes vectors for fast approximate nearest neighbor search at scale. Key features include hybrid search combining dense vectors with sparse vectors for improved retrieval quality, multivector support for multimodal AI applications (text + images + video), and advanced metadata filtering using JSON predicates with support for nested structures, text search, and geo-spatial queries. Real-time indexing avoids the costly full rebuilds required by some vector databases. Quantization techniques reduce memory footprint by up to 64x, making large-scale deployments more economical. Qdrant operates across multiple deployment scenarios: Qdrant Cloud for managed hosting on AWS, GCP, or Azure; Hybrid Cloud for Kubernetes deployments with decoupled control and data planes; Private Cloud for air-gapped or compliance-sensitive environments; and Edge (beta) for lightweight local search. The core engine is open-source (30,000+ GitHub stars) with commercial support available. Qdrant differentiates through sophisticated search capabilities, performance at scale, and deployment flexibility versus narrower competitors.
What people use it for
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) backends for LLM applications
- Semantic search across large document corpora
- Multimodal retrieval (text, images, video) for recommendation systems
- Similarity-based product or content recommendations
- Real-time vector indexing for streaming embedding data
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 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
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Qdrant
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.
- QdrantvsPostgreSQL
PostgreSQL: The world's most advanced open source relational database
- QdrantvsAirtable
Airtable: Create apps that perfectly fit your team's needs
- QdrantvsAmazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora: MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud
Pricing
What Qdrant costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Single-node cluster
- 0.5 vCPU
- 1GB RAM
- 4GB disk
- Forever free for testing and prototypes
Standard
On request
- Dedicated resources
- Flexible scaling
- High availability
- Backup and disaster recovery
- 99.5% uptime SLA
Premium
On request
- SSO and SAML
- Private VPC links
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- Priority support
- For enterprises with custom SLAs
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.
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.
SourceHow 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.
SourceWhat 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.
SourceWhat 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.
SourceAre 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.
SourceKeep looking
Where to go from Qdrant
- Qdrant alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Qdrant pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Qdrant badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Databases softwareThe full category
- Best Databases softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Databases software for
Compare Qdrant with
- Zilliz
- Cockroach Labs
- PostgreSQL
- Amazon Aurora
- Airtable
- Chroma
- Vespa
- YugabyteDB
- NATS
- QuestDB
- Elasticsearch
- Apache Druid
- Grist
- IBM Db2
- Instaclustr
- Knack
- LanceDB
- Marqo
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Free, then $16.4/mo11 researched notesThe AI-powered database built for demanding enterprise workloads
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From $59/mo14 researched notesEmbedded retrieval library over the Apache 2.0 Lance columnar format, with proprietary Cloud and Enterprise tiers for serving at scale.
Pricing on request14 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Qdrant, 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 Qdrant
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