# Chroma vs Weaviate

| Attribute | Chroma | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 64.7 (70% (medium)) | 62.5 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 35 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 6,246 | 15 |
| adoption.github_stars | 29,270 | 16,788 |
| 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":"Weaviate is an open-source vector database that supports hybrid search, metadata filtering, and scalable deployments. It enables developers to build AI applications with semantic search capabilities. It is indexed under Vector Databases.","source":"https://weaviate.io/blog/weaviate-cloud-pricing-update","question":"What is Weaviate?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Weaviate offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://weaviate.io","question":"Is Weaviate free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Weaviate supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://weaviate.io","question":"What platforms does Weaviate support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Weaviate can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://weaviate.io/blog/weaviate-cloud-pricing-update","question":"Can Weaviate be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR for Weaviate. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Weaviate not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://weaviate.io","question":"What security certifications does Weaviate have?","confidence":0.48},{"answer":"Yes. Weaviate is published under the BSD-3-Clause 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/weaviate/weaviate","question":"Is Weaviate open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Weaviate is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in the Netherlands.","source":"https://weaviate.io","question":"Where is Weaviate available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| 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. | Weaviate is an open-source vector database that supports hybrid search, metadata filtering, and scalable deployments. It enables developers to build AI applications with semantic search capabilities. |
| 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"}` | `{"ann_index":"HNSW","deployment":"self_hosted","quantization":"product","hybrid_search":true,"licence_class":"permissive_oss","multi_tenancy":true,"product_class":"dedicated_dbms","full_text_bm25":true,"horizontal_scale":"sharded_distributed"}` |
| integrations.count | - | 25 |
| language.primary | Rust | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| market.availability | `{"hqCountry":"US","primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"NL","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"]}` | `{"type":"hybrid","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://weaviate.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:28:29.566Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 4 | 1 |
| 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/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.14","date":"2026-09-07T12:19:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.37.16","date":"2026-09-07T12:56:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.13","date":"2026-08-27T10:13:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.37.15","date":"2026-08-27T06:41:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.39.2","date":"2026-08-26T17:21:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.39.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.12","date":"2026-08-25T12:21:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.39.1","date":"2026-08-25T08:35:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.39.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.11","date":"2026-08-20T12:55:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.11"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.10","date":"2026-08-18T07:42:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.9","date":"2026-08-06T13:57:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.9"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.39.0","date":"2026-08-04T11:42:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.39.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.8","date":"2026-07-29T16:57:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.39.0-rc.1","date":"2026-07-29T08:46:24Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.39.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.7","date":"2026-07-27T14:39:51Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.37.14","date":"2026-07-27T14:38:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.39.0-rc.0","date":"2026-07-23T07:48:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v1.39.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.6","date":"2026-07-21T07:01:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.36.23","date":"2026-07-20T08:00:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.36.23"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.5","date":"2026-07-16T18:45:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.37.13","date":"2026-07-17T07:15:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.13"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.95 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 5.1 | 6.7 |
| security.soc2 | yes | yes |
| security.trust_center | - | https://weaviate.io/blog/tags/security |
| 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":5,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fweaviate%2Fweaviate&per_page=100","last_12m":3,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` |

## Capabilities (Vector Databases)

| Capability | Chroma | Weaviate |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Serverless / consumption pricing | ✓ | - |
| **Index** |  |  |
| ANN index (HNSW / IVF / DiskANN / ScaNN / flat) | - | HNSW |
| Distance metrics (cosine / dot / Euclidean) | - | - |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Metadata filtering | Pre-filter | - |
| Hybrid search (dense + sparse fusion) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in BM25 / lexical | ✓ | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Quantization | - | Product |
| On-disk vs in-memory | Tiered | - |
| **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: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-09-21T02:34:43.111Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*