Zilliz Cloud vs Weaviate

Zilliz Cloud8.9Visit Weaviate8.7Visit

Higher score Zilliz Cloud #1 in Ai Databases 8.9/10 Free plan · 30-day trial Free planFree trial✓ 2 of 3 features Visit Zilliz Cloud

vs

Weaviate #3 in Ai Databases 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 2 of 3 features Visit Weaviate

• Zilliz Cloud fits best

  Teams wanting a managed vector database with a free tier

• Weaviate fits best

  Teams needing cloud or self-hosted vector search

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Side by side

Feature	Zilliz Cloud 8.9/10 Visit ↗	Weaviate 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.9	8.7
Ranking	#1 in Ai Databases	#3 in Ai Databases
Best for	Teams wanting a managed vector database with a free tier	Teams needing cloud or self-hosted vector search
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Starting price	—	$45/mo
Free plan	✓	✓
Free trial	30 days	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms	Web	Web
Support	Docs	Email, Phone, Community, Docs · 24/7
Compliance	SSO/SAML, 2FA, GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001	SOC 2, HIPAA, SSO/SAML
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Zilliz Cloud 2/3 · Weaviate 2/3
Metadata filtering	✓	✓
Hybrid search	✓	✓
Managed backups	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Specs
Deployment	Not checked yet	Not checked yet
Index types	FLAT, IVF_FLAT, IVF_SQ8, IVF_PQ, HNSW, DISKANN, AUTOINDEX, SCANN, HNSW_SQ, HNSW_PQ, HNSW_PRQ, IVF_RABITQ, SPARSE_INVERTED_INDEX, SPARSE_WAND	HNSW, Flat, Dynamic, HFresh
Max vector dimensions	32768	Not checked yet
Our review
Pros	Hybrid dense-sparse, BM25, multimodal, and filtered vector search Free plan includes 5 GB storage and 2.5 million vCUs monthly RBAC, SSO, MFA, private networking, and multiple compliance options	Hybrid vector and BM25 keyword search with metadata filtering Cloud and self-hosted deployment with multiple index types REST, GraphQL, gRPC APIs and five official client-language options
Cons	Paid pricing varies by usage, deployment, provider, region, and resources Deployment is cloud-only Support channels list documentation only	Free plan is limited to 100,000 objects and 1 GB memory Flex starts at $45 per month with a shared cloud cluster Premium requires a $400 monthly prepaid contract
Our verdict	Zilliz Cloud is a managed Milvus-based vector database for teams building AI applications. It serves prototypes, development workloads, and production systems that need vector similarity search, metadata filtering, hybrid retrieval,… Read the review →	Weaviate is an open-source vector database for developers building semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation, recommendations, and other AI applications. It stores objects with vector embeddings and supports vector similarity,… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Zilliz Cloud — where it wins

  • Hybrid dense-sparse, BM25, multimodal, and filtered vector search
  • Free plan includes 5 GB storage and 2.5 million vCUs monthly
  • RBAC, SSO, MFA, private networking, and multiple compliance options

  Where it doesn't

  • Paid pricing varies by usage, deployment, provider, region, and resources
  • Deployment is cloud-only
  • Support channels list documentation only

• Weaviate — where it wins

  • Hybrid vector and BM25 keyword search with metadata filtering
  • Cloud and self-hosted deployment with multiple index types
  • REST, GraphQL, gRPC APIs and five official client-language options

  Where it doesn't

  • Free plan is limited to 100,000 objects and 1 GB memory
  • Flex starts at $45 per month with a shared cloud cluster
  • Premium requires a $400 monthly prepaid contract

• Zilliz Cloud8.9/10 · Free plan · 30-day trial

  A managed vector database with hybrid search, enterprise controls, and a free tier.

  Visit Zilliz CloudFull verdict →
• Weaviate8.7/10 · Free plan

  A flexible vector database with hybrid search, multiple APIs, and cloud or self-hosted deployment.

  Visit WeaviateFull verdict →