Turbopuffer vs PG Vector
Compare deployment options, cost efficiency, and features to choose the right vector database for your application.
Database Comparison
Turbopuffer takes the lead.
Both Turbopuffer and PG Vector are powerful vector databases designed for efficient similarity search and storage. However, their deployment options and features differ in important ways.
Why Turbopuffer:
- Turbopuffer ranks higher overall
- Turbopuffer is more cost-effective
- PG Vector has more permissive licensing
- PG Vector has 2 more strengths
Turbopuffer
⭐Turbopuffer is a fully managed cloud vector database built around a centroid-optimized SPFresh index. It is designed for extremely low-cost, large-scale storage, leveraging object storage engines like S3, GCS, or Azure Blob.
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.
Feature Comparison
Infrastructure & Technical Details
| Feature | Turbopuffer | PG Vector |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | BYOC, Managed Cloud | Self-Hosted, Managed Cloud |
| Cost | Minimum commitment $64/month | Free (extension), infra cost only |
| License | Proprietary | PostgreSQL |
| Index Types | SPFresh | Flat, IVFFlat, HNSW |
| Cloud Providers | AWS, GCP, Azure | AWS RDS, Azure Postgres, GCP AlloyDB, Supabase, Timescale |
| Regional Flexibility | high | high |
| Strengths Count | 7 | 9 |
| Weaknesses Count | 7 | 7 |