PG Vector vs Weaviate
Compare deployment options, cost efficiency, and features to choose the right vector database for your application.
Database Comparison
PG Vector takes the lead.
Both PG Vector and Weaviate are powerful vector databases designed for efficient similarity search and storage. However, their deployment options and features differ in important ways.
Why PG Vector:
- PG Vector ranks higher overall
- PG Vector offers more deployment options
- PG Vector is more cost-effective
- PG Vector has more permissive licensing
- PG Vector has 1 more strengths
PG Vector
PG Vector is a popular Postgres extension that adds vector search capabilities directly inside a traditional relational database. It is ideal for teams that want to keep embeddings, metadata, and application data in one system without operating a separate vector database.
Weaviate
Weaviate is a cloud and self-hosted vector database offering hybrid dense+sparse search, strong metadata filtering, and a modular storage layer. It is designed for enterprise and production RAG workloads that require flexibility and scalable cloud hosting.
Feature Comparison
Infrastructure & Technical Details
| Feature | PG Vector | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Self-Hosted, Managed Cloud | Self-Hosted, Managed Cloud |
| Cost | Free (extension), infra cost only | Free (self-host), cloud starts ~$25/mo |
| License | PostgreSQL | BSD |
| Index Types | Flat, IVFFlat, HNSW | HNSW, Hybrid dense+sparse |
| Cloud Providers | AWS RDS, Azure Postgres, GCP AlloyDB, Supabase, Timescale | AWS, GCP |
| Regional Flexibility | high | low |
| Strengths Count | 9 | 8 |
| Weaknesses Count | 7 | 6 |