# LanceDB vs Milvus

| Attribute | LanceDB | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 58.5 (53% (medium)) | 57.2 (57% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 453 | 7 |
| adoption.github_stars | 11,663 | 46,375 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 1,423,043 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A purpose-built lakehouse designed for AI applications that unifies storage, indexing, and retrieval of multimodal data (text, images, videos, and more) at petabyte scale. Enables fast vector search, metadata filtering, and feature engineering workflows for machine learning workloads without data synchronization overhead. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://lancedb.com","question":"What is LanceDB?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"LanceDB supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://lancedb.com","question":"What platforms does LanceDB support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. LanceDB can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://lancedb.com","question":"Can LanceDB be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 15 integrations for LanceDB, including LangChain, LlamaIndex, DuckDB, Apache Arrow, Pandas, Polars, CrewAI and Hugging Face, plus 7 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://lancedb.com","question":"What does LanceDB integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for LanceDB. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as LanceDB not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://lancedb.com","question":"What security certifications does LanceDB have?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. LanceDB 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/lancedb/lancedb","question":"Is LanceDB open source?","confidence":0.99}]` | `[{"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 | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A specialized lakehouse platform designed to store and query text, images, and vector data together, enabling high-performance vector search for real-time and historical multimodal AI workloads. | 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 | `{"deployment":"self_hosted","serverless":true,"storage_tier":"disk_backed","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"permissive_oss","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"horizontal_scale":"sharded_distributed","metadata_filtering":"post_filter"}` | `{"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 | 15 | 2 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"LangChain"},{"name":"LlamaIndex"},{"name":"DuckDB"},{"name":"Apache Arrow"},{"name":"Pandas"},{"name":"Polars"},{"name":"CrewAI"},{"name":"Hugging Face"},{"name":"Apache Fluss"},{"name":"Ray"},{"name":"Volcano Engine"},{"name":"Voxel51"},{"name":"Continue"},{"name":"OpenClaw"},{"name":"LeRobot"},{"name":"Fluss","category":"streaming storage"},{"name":"Apache Flink","category":"data processing"},{"name":"MemGPT","category":"ai"},{"name":"OpenSearch","category":"search"},{"name":"Flight SQL","category":"sql"}]` | `[{"name":"OpenAI"},{"name":"Sentence Transformers"},{"name":"BGE-M3"},{"name":"SPLADE"},{"name":"Jina AI"},{"name":"BM25"},{"name":"PyMilvus"},{"name":"Jina","category":"reranking"}]` |
| language.primary | Rust | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://lancedb.com","retrievedAt":"2026-09-10T21:10:06.700Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://milvus.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:15:28.965Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | - | 7 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.6","date":"2026-10-12T11:38:16Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.5","date":"2026-10-12T06:04:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.4","date":"2026-10-11T06:35:36Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.3","date":"2026-10-09T21:14:01Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.2","date":"2026-10-09T18:21:48Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.1","date":"2026-10-09T00:50:00Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.41.0-beta.0","date":"2026-10-07T14:47:59Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.41.0-beta.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0","date":"2026-10-07T09:17:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.40.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.13","date":"2026-10-06T04:37:12Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.12","date":"2026-09-30T13:32:37Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.11","date":"2026-09-24T10:05:30Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.10","date":"2026-09-24T07:50:40Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.9","date":"2026-09-23T23:41:17Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.8","date":"2026-09-23T17:06:19Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.7","date":"2026-09-23T07:29:15Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.6","date":"2026-09-22T18:00:48Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.5","date":"2026-09-21T18:53:28Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.4","date":"2026-09-20T08:29:17Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.3","date":"2026-09-17T20:06:51Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.40.0-beta.2","date":"2026-09-17T12:52:48Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.40.0-beta.2"}]` | `[{"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"}]` |
| security.disclosure_policy | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | - |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 4.4 |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=lancedb&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 | LanceDB | Milvus |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Serverless / consumption pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Index** |  |  |
| ANN index (HNSW / IVF / DiskANN / ScaNN / flat) | - | HNSW, IVF, FLAT, SCANN, DiskANN, GPU_CAGRA |
| Distance metrics (cosine / dot / Euclidean) | - | cosine, Euclidean, dot product |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Metadata filtering | Post-filter | Pre-filter |
| Hybrid search (dense + sparse fusion) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in BM25 / lexical | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Quantization | - | Product |
| On-disk vs in-memory | Disk-backed | Disk-backed |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Multi-tenancy (namespaces / collections / tenants) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Horizontal scale | Sharded / distributed | Sharded / distributed |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | Eventual |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Permissive OSS |
| **Classification** |  |  |
| Purpose-built vs feature-of-parent | Dedicated DBMS | Dedicated DBMS |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:02:32.885Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*