# Chroma vs Epsilla

| Attribute | Chroma | Epsilla |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 64.7 (70% (medium)) | 65.3 (30% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 35 | - |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 6,246 | - |
| adoption.github_stars | 29,270 | - |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 2,592,643 | - |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"What is Chroma?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Chroma is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at $0.01. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"Is Chroma free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Chroma supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"What platforms does Chroma support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Chroma can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"Can Chroma be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for Chroma. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Chroma not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com","question":"What security certifications does Chroma have?","confidence":0.48},{"answer":"Yes. Chroma 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/chroma-core/chroma","question":"Is Chroma open source?","confidence":0.99},{"answer":"Chroma is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States. The vendor is headquartered in the United States.","source":"https://www.trychroma.com/pricing","question":"Where is Chroma available?","confidence":0.75}]` | `[{"answer":"A platform that simplifies building AI agents and knowledge-base systems for teams of any technical level. It provides enterprise-grade multi-tenancy and supports flexible deployment modes including cloud, on-premise, and private cloud. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://epsilla.com","question":"What is Epsilla?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Epsilla offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Paid plans start at $29 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://epsilla.com","question":"Is Epsilla free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to Epsilla. 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://epsilla.com","question":"What platforms does Epsilla support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Epsilla can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://epsilla.com","question":"Can Epsilla be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"self_hosted":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. | A platform that simplifies building AI agents and knowledge-base systems for teams of any technical level. It provides enterprise-grade multi-tenancy and supports flexible deployment modes including cloud, on-premise, and private cloud. |
| 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,"licence_class":"proprietary","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"parent_feature"}` |
| language.primary | Rust | - |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | - |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"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":"subscription","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free Tier","summary":"Free","features":["1 Team Member","1 Project","1 AI Application","1 Knowledge Base","10M Vector Storage","50 Messages/Month (Powered by GPT-4.1)","Community Support","Data Cleared after 30 Days of Inactivity"],"minSeats":1,"components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":0,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"messages":"50/month","projects":"1","team_members":"1","vector_storage":"10M","ai_applications":"1","knowledge_bases":"1"}},{"free":false,"name":"Starter Tier","summary":"$29/month","features":["2 Team Members","1 Project","5 AI Applications","5 Knowledge Bases","1G Vector Storage","500 Messages/Month (Powered by GPT-4.1)","Email Support"],"minSeats":2,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":29,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"messages":"500/month","projects":"1","team_members":"2","vector_storage":"1G","ai_applications":"5","knowledge_bases":"5"}},{"free":false,"name":"Professional Tier","summary":"$249/month","features":["20 Team Members","10 Projects","50 AI Applications","50 Knowledge Bases","10G Vector Storage","5000 Messages/Month (Powered by GPT-4.1)","Dedicated Support Channel","AI Concierge"],"minSeats":20,"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":249,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"contactSales":false,"includedLimits":{"messages":"5000/month","projects":"10","team_members":"20","vector_storage":"10G","ai_applications":"50","knowledge_bases":"50"}},{"free":false,"name":"AI Concierge","summary":"$2,499/month","features":["Everything in Professional","Fractional Forward Deployed AI Engineer","Done-For-You AI Agent & Workflow Build-Out","Domain-to-AI Enablement","Weekly Strategy & Review Calls","Custom Integration Support","Priority Support Channel","Ongoing Optimization"],"commitment":"monthly","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":2499,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}],"description":"Includes fractional forward deployed AI engineer from Epsilla team","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise Tier","summary":"Custom pricing","features":["Unlimited Team Members","Unlimited Projects","Unlimited AI Applications","Unlimited Knowledge Bases","Unlimited Vector Storage","Unlimited Messages/Month (any LLM Provider)","Extensive White-Labeling","SSO (SAML and OIDC)","On-Prem Deployment Options","Consulting and Customization","Premium Support with SLAs"],"contactSales":true,"includedLimits":{"messages":"Unlimited","projects":"Unlimited","team_members":"Unlimited","vector_storage":"Unlimited","ai_applications":"Unlimited","knowledge_bases":"Unlimited"}}],"addOns":[{"name":"Team Member","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"seat","amount":12,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"AI Application","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"application","amount":2,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Knowledge Base","components":[{"kind":"per_unit","unit":"database","amount":2,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Vector Storage","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"GB"},"kind":"metered","amount":18,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Messages","components":[{"per":{"qty":100,"unit":"messages"},"kind":"metered","amount":3,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]},{"name":"Remove \"Powered By Epsilla\"","components":[{"kind":"fixed","amount":39,"period":"month","currency":"USD"}]}],"summary":"Free tier through $2,499/month. Custom pricing for Enterprise. Metered add-ons $2–39/month.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://epsilla.com","retrievedAt":"2026-08-03T13:12:38.383Z","startingPrice":{"amount":29,"period":"month","currency":"USD"},"billingPeriods":["month","year"]}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | mid |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | - |
| 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"}]` | - |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.9 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.gdpr | 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"}` | - |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

| Capability | Chroma | Epsilla |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **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 | Proprietary |
| **Classification** |  |  |
| Purpose-built vs feature-of-parent | Dedicated DBMS | Feature of parent |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-09-21T02:34:42.193Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*