Weaviate vs Qdrant
Compare deployment options, cost efficiency, and features to choose the right vector database for your application.
Database Comparison
Qdrant takes the lead.
Both Weaviate and Qdrant are powerful vector databases designed for efficient similarity search and storage. However, their deployment options and features differ in important ways.
Why Qdrant:
- Qdrant ranks higher overall
- Qdrant offers more deployment options
- Qdrant has more permissive licensing
- Qdrant has 2 more strengths
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.
Qdrant
Qdrant is an open-source vector database available as both a managed cloud service and a self-hosted solution. It offers strong HNSW performance, flexible deployment, and predictable cost structures, making it suitable for both startups and large-scale RAG workloads.
Feature Comparison
Infrastructure & Technical Details
| Feature | Weaviate | Qdrant |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Self-Hosted, Managed Cloud | Self-Hosted, Managed Cloud |
| Cost | Free (self-host), cloud starts ~$25/mo | Starts ~$0.014/hour for smallest node |
| License | BSD | Apache 2.0 |
| Index Types | HNSW, Hybrid dense+sparse | HNSW, Sparse (dot similarity) |
| Cloud Providers | AWS, GCP | AWS, Azure, GCP |
| Regional Flexibility | low | high |
| Strengths Count | 8 | 10 |
| Weaknesses Count | 6 | 5 |