Weaviate vs LanceDB

Weaviate9.1Visit LanceDB8.7Visit

Higher score Weaviate #3 in Vector Database Hosting 9.1/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 2 of 3 features Visit Weaviate

vs

LanceDB #7 in Vector Database Hosting 8.7/10 Open source ✓ 2 of 3 features Visit LanceDB

• Weaviate fits best

  Production hybrid search deployments

• LanceDB fits best

  Open-source multimodal data teams

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Side by side

Feature	Weaviate 9.1/10 Visit ↗	LanceDB 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.1	8.7
Ranking	#3 in Vector Database Hosting	#7 in Vector Database Hosting
Best for	Production hybrid search deployments	Open-source multimodal data teams
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Free
Starting price	$45/mo	Open source
Free plan	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Self-hosted
Support	Email, Phone, Community, Docs · 24/7	Community, Docs
Compliance	SOC 2, HIPAA, SSO/SAML	SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Weaviate 2/3 · LanceDB 2/3
Hybrid search	✓	✓
Metadata filtering	✓	✓
Serverless scaling	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Specs
Included storage	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Deployment regions	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Maximum dimensions	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	Hybrid search combines vector and BM25/BM25F keyword results Managed cloud and self-hosted deployment options Replication, multitenancy, compression, and multiple index types	Combines vector, full-text, and hybrid search with reranking Stores vectors, metadata, and multimodal data in shared tables Supports versioning, reproducibility, schema evolution, and filtering
Cons	Free plan is limited to 100,000 objects and 1 GB memory Flex starts at $45 per month, with usage-based charges possible Premium requires a prepaid contract starting at $400 per month	Sparse-vector support is not part of the listed capability set Paid plan amounts are not published in the available pricing details Production deployment options add complexity beyond local use
Our verdict	Weaviate is an open-source vector database for developers and teams building AI applications. It stores data objects and vector embeddings, with vector similarity search, BM25/BM25F keyword search, hybrid search, metadata and scalar… Read the review →	LanceDB is an open-source embedded retrieval library and multimodal lakehouse for AI and machine-learning workloads. It is designed for teams that need to store vectors, metadata, and multimodal data together while supporting vector… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Weaviate — where it wins

  • Hybrid search combines vector and BM25/BM25F keyword results
  • Managed cloud and self-hosted deployment options
  • Replication, multitenancy, compression, and multiple index types

  Where it doesn't

  • Free plan is limited to 100,000 objects and 1 GB memory
  • Flex starts at $45 per month, with usage-based charges possible
  • Premium requires a prepaid contract starting at $400 per month

• LanceDB — where it wins

  • Combines vector, full-text, and hybrid search with reranking
  • Stores vectors, metadata, and multimodal data in shared tables
  • Supports versioning, reproducibility, schema evolution, and filtering

  Where it doesn't

  • Sparse-vector support is not part of the listed capability set
  • Paid plan amounts are not published in the available pricing details
  • Production deployment options add complexity beyond local use

• Weaviate9.1/10 · Free plan

  A flexible vector database for production hybrid search across cloud and self-managed deployments.

  Visit WeaviateFull verdict →
• LanceDB8.7/10 · Open source

  A strong fit for open-source AI teams building multimodal retrieval with versioned tables.

  Visit LanceDBFull verdict →