# Faiss vs Weaviate

| Attribute | Faiss | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 62 (36% (low)) | 63.7 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 47 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 5,592 | 15 |
| adoption.github_stars | 40,809 | 16,753 |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | Faiss is a library for efficient similarity search and clustering of dense vectors. It contains algorithms that search in sets of vectors of any size, up to ones that possibly do not fit in RAM. | 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 | `{"ann_index":"HNSW, IVF, PQ, multi-index, NSG","deployment":"self_hosted","serverless":false,"quantization":"product","storage_tier":"disk_backed","licence_class":"permissive_oss","product_class":"extension","distance_metrics":"Euclidean (L2), inner product, L1, Linf","horizontal_scale":"single_node"}` | `{"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 | C++ | Go |
| license.spdx | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| market.availability | - | `{"hqCountry":"NL","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","sourceUrl":"https://faiss.ai","retrievedAt":"2026-08-13T20:46:34.341Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://weaviate.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-05T13:28:29.566Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | - | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | - | no |
| release.cadence_days | 83 | 1 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.15.0","date":"2026-08-03T17:10:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.3","date":"2026-06-13T04:03:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.2","date":"2026-05-22T20:05:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.1","date":"2026-03-06T17:49:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.14.0","date":"2026-03-03T03:19:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.13.2","date":"2025-12-19T23:41:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.13.1","date":"2025-12-03T00:02:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.13.0","date":"2025-11-12T17:18:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.12.0","date":"2025-08-12T16:46:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.11.0","date":"2025-04-25T14:13:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.10.0","date":"2025-01-31T23:29:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.9.0","date":"2024-10-04T21:33:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.8.0","date":"2024-03-01T01:04:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.4","date":"2023-04-20T13:45:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.3","date":"2022-11-30T15:24:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.2","date":"2022-01-10T12:19:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.1","date":"2021-05-28T09:08:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.7.0","date":"2021-02-13T14:11:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.6.5","date":"2020-12-21T05:24:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/facebookresearch/faiss/releases/tag/v1.6.4","date":"2020-10-22T13:28:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.4"}]` | `[{"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"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.36.22","date":"2026-07-15T15:42:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.36.22"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.4","date":"2026-07-15T05:52:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.38.3","date":"2026-07-10T07:12:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.38.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/tag/v1.37.12","date":"2026-07-08T15:23:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.37.12"}]` |
| reliability.sla_pct | - | 99.95 |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.hipaa | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 6.1 | 6.7 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=faiss-cpu&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"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 | Faiss | Weaviate |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Serverless / consumption pricing | ✗ | - |
| **Index** |  |  |
| ANN index (HNSW / IVF / DiskANN / ScaNN / flat) | HNSW, IVF, PQ, multi-index, NSG | HNSW |
| Distance metrics (cosine / dot / Euclidean) | Euclidean (L2), inner product, L1, Linf | - |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Metadata filtering | - | - |
| Hybrid search (dense + sparse fusion) | - | ✓ |
| Built-in BM25 / lexical | - | ✓ |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Quantization | Product | Product |
| On-disk vs in-memory | Disk-backed | - |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Multi-tenancy (namespaces / collections / tenants) | - | ✓ |
| Horizontal scale | Single-node | Sharded / distributed |
| **Consistency** |  |  |
| Consistency | - | - |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Permissive OSS | Permissive OSS |
| **Classification** |  |  |
| Purpose-built vs feature-of-parent | Extension | Dedicated DBMS |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T16:38:24.980Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*