# Chroma vs Deep Lake

| Attribute | Chroma | Deep Lake |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 67.6 (70% (medium)) | 65.7 (37% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 81 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 6,246 | 1,384 |
| adoption.github_stars | 29,148 | 9,228 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 2,592,643 | 28,208 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true}` |
| description.long | A search system enabling simultaneous vector similarity, full-text, and structured metadata queries across large datasets. Deployable as open-source self-hosted infrastructure or managed cloud service with usage-based pricing, supporting multi-tenant workloads and distributed scaling. | Deep Lake is a data engine optimized for AI that combines vector and tensor storage with GPU acceleration, offering versioned data, full-text search, and serverless query capabilities for machine learning and AI agent applications. |
| features.capabilities | `{"deployment":"self_hosted","serverless":true,"storage_tier":"tiered","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"permissive_oss","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"horizontal_scale":"sharded_distributed","metadata_filtering":"pre_filter"}` | `{"deployment":"managed","serverless":true,"hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"source_available","product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true}` |
| language.primary | Rust | C++ |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Starter","summary":"Free tier plus metered charges for write, storage, query, and network","features":["10 databases","10 team members","Community Slack"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":2.5,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.33,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0075,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Get up and running quickly with free credits then usage-based pricing","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"databases":"10","free_credits":"$5","team_members":"10"}},{"free":false,"name":"Team","summary":"$250/month with $100 included credits, plus overage metering","features":["100 databases","30 team members","Slack support","SOC II compliance","Volume-based discounts"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":250,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":2.5,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.33,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.0075,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GiB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Scale production workloads with included credits and priority support","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"databases":"100","team_members":"30","monthly_credits":"$100"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing negotiated per deployment","features":["Unlimited databases","Unlimited team members","Dedicated support","Single tenant clusters","BYOC clusters","SLAs"],"description":"Security, scale, and dedicated support for organizations with custom requirements","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Freemium model with usage-based metering. Starter plan free with $5 credits; Team plan $250/month plus metered charges with $100 included credits; Enterprise with custom pricing.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T11:06:40.719Z","startingPrice":{"amount":0.0075,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Basic","summary":"Free $15 credit, then $0.15/compute-unit/hr + $23/TB/mo storage","features":["Pay as you go compute","Daily backups with 1-day retention","SSO (Google/Microsoft)","MFA","1 business day support"],"components":[{"kind":"one_time","amount":15,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"compute-unit-hour"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.15,"currency":"USD"},{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"TB/month"},"kind":"metered","amount":23,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Testing & starter projects with pay-as-you-go pricing","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"storage":"500 GB","compute_credit":"$15"}},{"free":false,"name":"Team","summary":"$99/seat/month, 7-day free trial","features":["1M traces/month per seat","10M queries/month per seat","Daily backups with 1-day retention","SSO (Google/Microsoft)","MFA","1 business day support","7-day free trial"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"seat","amount":99,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Per-seat collaboration for teams","contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"storage":"500 GB","traces_per_month_per_seat":"1M","queries_per_month_per_seat":"10M"}},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","summary":"Custom pricing","contactSales":true}],"addOns":[{"name":"Data Transfer (Egress)","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":0.09,"currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"From $99/seat/month (Team) or pay-as-you-go Basic with $15 credit. 7-day free trial available.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.activeloop.ai","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:08:11.282Z","freeTrialDays":7,"startingPrice":{"amount":99,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | high |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | 11 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/latest","date":"2025-04-01T23:29:39Z","type":"prerelease","version":"latest"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.9","date":"2026-05-05T05:55:40Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.4","date":"2026-05-05T04:47:11Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/foundation-cli-v0.1.0-alpha.3","date":"2026-05-01T00:44:16Z","type":"prerelease","version":"foundation-cli-v0.1.0-alpha.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.8","date":"2026-04-16T23:35:52Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.7","date":"2026-04-08T07:49:29Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.3","date":"2026-04-08T04:25:36Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.6","date":"2026-04-07T03:01:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.2","date":"2026-04-04T15:46:18Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.5","date":"2026-03-10T09:30:59Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.3","date":"2026-03-07T19:07:43Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.2","date":"2026-02-27T19:50:12Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.1","date":"2026-02-19T20:01:23Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.1","date":"2026-02-19T19:30:48Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.5.0","date":"2026-02-09T08:47:05Z","type":"stable","version":"1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.4.0","date":"2026-02-09T05:36:21Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.4.1","date":"2026-01-14T19:19:18Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.3.1","date":"2026-01-13T21:17:59Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/1.4.0","date":"2025-12-24T02:59:03Z","type":"stable","version":"1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/chroma-core/chroma/releases/tag/cli-1.3.0","date":"2025-12-24T01:22:45Z","type":"stable","version":"cli-1.3.0"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.5.2","date":"2026-02-11T02:06:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.5.1","date":"2026-02-07T05:15:26Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.5.0","date":"2026-01-22T17:07:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.4.5","date":"2026-01-13T18:47:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.4.4","date":"2025-12-14T07:20:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.4.3","date":"2025-12-03T02:02:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.4.1","date":"2025-11-21T10:52:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.3.3","date":"2025-09-29T07:14:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v3.9.52","date":"2025-09-05T13:50:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.52"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.4.0","date":"2025-10-24T19:03:18Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.3.5","date":"2025-10-10T17:50:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.3.4","date":"2025-10-10T15:16:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.3.0","date":"2025-08-29T08:50:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v3.9.51","date":"2025-08-07T07:23:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.51"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v3.9.50","date":"2025-08-01T11:57:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.50"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v3.9.46","date":"2025-07-09T14:33:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.46"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.2.14","date":"2025-07-08T23:03:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.2.12","date":"2025-07-02T11:03:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v4.2.8","date":"2025-06-10T14:39:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v4.2.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/activeloopai/deeplake/releases/tag/v3.9.45","date":"2025-06-10T10:56:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v3.9.45"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.scorecard | 5.1 | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":4,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=chromadb&per_page=100","last_12m":4,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=deeplake&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

| Capability | Chroma | Deep Lake |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Managed |
| Serverless / consumption pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Index** |  |  |
| ANN index (HNSW / IVF / DiskANN / ScaNN / flat) | - | - |
| Distance metrics (cosine / dot / Euclidean) | - | - |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Metadata filtering | Pre-filter | - |
| Hybrid search (dense + sparse fusion) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in BM25 / lexical | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Quantization | - | - |
| On-disk vs in-memory | Tiered | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Multi-tenancy (namespaces / collections / tenants) | ✓ | - |
| Horizontal scale | Sharded / distributed | - |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | - |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Source-available |
| **Classification** |  |  |
| Purpose-built vs feature-of-parent | Dedicated DBMS | Dedicated DBMS |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:09:01.534Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*