# Faiss vs Milvus

| Attribute | Faiss | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 57 (35% (low)) | 57.2 (57% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 66 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 5,592 | 7 |
| adoption.github_stars | 41,146 | 46,375 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"Faiss is a library for efficient similarity search and clustering of dense vectors. It contains algorithms that search in sets of vectors of any size, up to ones that possibly do not fit in RAM. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://faiss.ai","question":"What is Faiss?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Faiss is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://faiss.ai","question":"Is Faiss free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Faiss supports Windows, macOS and Linux. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://faiss.ai","question":"What platforms does Faiss support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Faiss can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://faiss.ai","question":"Can Faiss be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Faiss is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss","question":"Is Faiss open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"A distributed database system for storing and searching high-dimensional vectors at scale. Supports multiple deployment models from local notebooks to cloud-managed services, with capabilities for hybrid search combining dense and sparse embeddings. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://milvus.io","question":"What is Milvus?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Milvus offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://milvus.io","question":"Is Milvus free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Milvus supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://milvus.io","question":"What platforms does Milvus support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Milvus can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://milvus.io","question":"Can Milvus be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 7 integrations for Milvus, including OpenAI, Sentence Transformers, BGE-M3, SPLADE, Jina AI, BM25 and PyMilvus. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://milvus.io","question":"What does Milvus integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Milvus is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus","question":"Is Milvus open source?","confidence":0.95}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Faiss is a library for efficient similarity search and clustering of dense vectors. It contains algorithms that search in sets of vectors of any size, up to ones that possibly do not fit in RAM. | A high-performance, distributed vector database that enables fast similarity search across billions of high-dimensional vectors, supporting real-time updates, flexible metadata filtering, and hybrid search capabilities for AI and machine learning applications. |
| features.capabilities | `{"ann_index":"HNSW, IVF, PQ, multi-index, NSG","deployment":"self_hosted","serverless":false,"quantization":"product","storage_tier":"disk_backed","licence_class":"permissive_oss","product_class":"extension","distance_metrics":"Euclidean (L2), inner product, L1, Linf","horizontal_scale":"single_node"}` | `{"ann_index":"HNSW, IVF, FLAT, SCANN, DiskANN, GPU_CAGRA","deployment":"self_hosted","serverless":true,"consistency":"eventual","quantization":"product","storage_tier":"disk_backed","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"permissive_oss","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"distance_metrics":"cosine, Euclidean, dot product","horizontal_scale":"sharded_distributed","metadata_filtering":"pre_filter"}` |
| integrations.count | - | 2 |
| integrations.list | - | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Sentence Transformers"},{"name":"BGE-M3"},{"name":"SPLADE"},{"name":"Jina AI"},{"name":"BM25"},{"name":"PyMilvus"},{"name":"Jina","category":"reranking"}]` |
| language.primary | C++ | Go |
| license.spdx | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| platform.support | `{"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://faiss.ai","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T20:46:34.341Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://milvus.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:15:28.965Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 83 | 7 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.15.1","date":"2026-09-16T19:24:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.15.0","date":"2026-08-03T17:10:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.3","date":"2026-06-13T04:03:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.2","date":"2026-05-22T20:05:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.1","date":"2026-03-06T17:49:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.0","date":"2026-03-03T03:19:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.13.2","date":"2025-12-19T23:41:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.13.1","date":"2025-12-03T00:02:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.13.0","date":"2025-11-12T17:18:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.12.0","date":"2025-08-12T16:46:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.11.0","date":"2025-04-25T14:13:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.10.0","date":"2025-01-31T23:29:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.9.0","date":"2024-10-04T21:33:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.8.0","date":"2024-03-01T01:04:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.4","date":"2023-04-20T13:45:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.3","date":"2022-11-30T15:24:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.2","date":"2022-01-10T12:19:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.1","date":"2021-05-28T09:08:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.0","date":"2021-02-13T14:11:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.6.5","date":"2020-12-21T05:24:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.5"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.25","date":"2026-09-29T06:56:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.25"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v3.0.2","date":"2026-09-20T09:36:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.24","date":"2026-09-16T10:51:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.24"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/client/v3.0.0","date":"2026-09-18T04:31:53Z","type":"stable","version":"client/v3.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v3.0.1","date":"2026-09-09T07:32:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.23","date":"2026-08-28T07:59:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.22","date":"2026-08-04T01:55:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.22"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v3.0.0","date":"2026-07-29T14:27:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.21","date":"2026-07-24T06:50:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.21"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/client/v3.0.0-beta","date":"2026-07-19T14:35:01Z","type":"prerelease","version":"client/v3.0.0-beta"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.20","date":"2026-07-14T06:44:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.20"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.19","date":"2026-06-26T11:47:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.18","date":"2026-06-05T04:03:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/client/v2.6.5","date":"2026-05-26T02:44:44Z","type":"stable","version":"client/v2.6.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.17","date":"2026-05-22T03:15:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.16","date":"2026-05-14T04:15:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v3.0-beta","date":"2026-05-09T04:49:46Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v3.0-beta"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/client/v2.6.4","date":"2026-05-08T02:40:41Z","type":"stable","version":"client/v2.6.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.15","date":"2026-04-17T02:29:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/milvus-io/milvus/releases/tag/v2.6.14","date":"2026-04-07T02:08:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.14"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | 6.2 | 4.4 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=faiss-cpu&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fmilvus-io%2Fmilvus%2Fpkg&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

| Capability | Faiss | Milvus |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Serverless / consumption pricing | ✗ | ✓ |
| **Index** |  |  |
| ANN index (HNSW / IVF / DiskANN / ScaNN / flat) | HNSW, IVF, PQ, multi-index, NSG | HNSW, IVF, FLAT, SCANN, DiskANN, GPU_CAGRA |
| Distance metrics (cosine / dot / Euclidean) | Euclidean (L2), inner product, L1, Linf | cosine, Euclidean, dot product |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Metadata filtering | - | Pre-filter |
| Hybrid search (dense + sparse fusion) | - | ✓ |
| Built-in BM25 / lexical | - | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Quantization | Product | Product |
| On-disk vs in-memory | Disk-backed | Disk-backed |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Multi-tenancy (namespaces / collections / tenants) | - | ✓ |
| Horizontal scale | Single-node | Sharded / distributed |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | Eventual |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Permissive OSS |
| **Classification** |  |  |
| Purpose-built vs feature-of-parent | Extension | Dedicated DBMS |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:49:50.443Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*