# Chroma vs LanceDB

**Leader by Vioscale score:** Chroma

| Attribute | Chroma | LanceDB |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 67.6 (70% (medium)) | 59.2 (43% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 81 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 6,246 | 453 |
| adoption.github_stars | 29,148 | 11,284 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | 2,592,643 | 1,350,674 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":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 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. |
| 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":"self_hosted","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"}` |
| integrations.count | - | 15 |
| 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"}]` |
| language.primary | Rust | Rust |
| 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}` | `{"cli":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"]}` | - |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | - |
| pricing.model | commercial | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | low | - |
| pricing.transparent | 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"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.9","date":"2026-08-25T10:32:32Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.8","date":"2026-08-25T06:26:50Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.10","date":"2026-08-25T10:37:30Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.7","date":"2026-08-24T21:09:33Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.6","date":"2026-08-23T17:33:36Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.5","date":"2026-08-23T08:08:08Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.4","date":"2026-08-22T16:39:04Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.3","date":"2026-08-21T10:26:13Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.2","date":"2026-08-19T01:59:45Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.1","date":"2026-08-17T16:57:15Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.38.0-beta.0","date":"2026-08-14T01:10:07Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.38.0-beta.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.37.1","date":"2026-08-10T07:55:09Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.37.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.37.1-beta.2","date":"2026-08-10T06:31:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.37.1-beta.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.37.1-beta.1","date":"2026-08-07T21:16:26Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.37.1-beta.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.37.1-beta.0","date":"2026-07-29T07:12:53Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v0.37.1-beta.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.33.0","date":"2026-07-28T21:32:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.33.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/python-v0.36.0","date":"2026-07-28T21:33:04Z","type":"stable","version":"python-v0.36.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.33.0-beta.0","date":"2026-07-24T19:34:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.33.0-beta.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/v0.32.0-beta.3","date":"2026-07-24T22:04:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.32.0-beta.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb/releases/tag/python-v0.36.0-beta.0","date":"2026-07-24T19:34:22Z","type":"stable","version":"python-v0.36.0-beta.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | - |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 5.1 | - |
| security.soc2 | yes | 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=lancedb&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

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

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T17:02:55.818Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*