# Milvus vs Turbopuffer

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Turbopuffer

| Attribute | Milvus | Turbopuffer |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 57.2 (57% (medium)) | 67.6 (61% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 7 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 46,375 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"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}]` | `[{"answer":"Vector and full-text search database built on object storage, offering 10x cheaper cost and extreme scalability for AI applications, semantic search, and recommendation systems. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/pricing-log","question":"What is Turbopuffer?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Turbopuffer is a paid product; published pricing starts at $1. There is no free tier. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/pricing-log","question":"How much does Turbopuffer cost?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Turbopuffer. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/pricing-log","question":"What platforms does Turbopuffer support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Turbopuffer, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/pricing-log","question":"Can Turbopuffer be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for Turbopuffer. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Turbopuffer not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/security","question":"What security certifications does Turbopuffer have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Turbopuffer is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/pricing-log","question":"Where is Turbopuffer available?","confidence":0.5}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | 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. | Vector and full-text search database built on object storage, offering 10x cheaper cost and extreme scalability for AI applications, semantic search, and recommendation systems. |
| features.capabilities | `{"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"}` | `{"ann_index":"SPFresh (centroid-based)","deployment":"managed","serverless":true,"consistency":"tunable","storage_tier":"tiered","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"proprietary","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"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 | Go | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | - | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true,"linux":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://milvus.io","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T15:15:28.965Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Launch","summary":"$16/month minimum with usage-based overage","commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":16,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false}],"summary":"From $16/month (Launch plan minimum) with consumption-based billing","currency":"USD","sourceUrl":"https://turbopuffer.com/docs/pricing-log","retrievedAt":"2026-09-18T12:36:43.751Z","startingPrice":{"amount":16,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | no |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | mid |
| pricing.starting_price | - | `{"amount":16,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | no | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 7 | - |
| release.history | `[{"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.sla_pct | - | 99.95 |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| 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=go&package_name=github.com%2Fmilvus-io%2Fmilvus%2Fpkg&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | - |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

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

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T20:15:09.576Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*