kitio.aiQdrant vs Milvus
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Qdrant starts at See pricing page and Milvus starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
At a glance
Best for
Category
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Payload filtering
- Quantization
- Hybrid sparse and dense search
- Multivector support
- Free cloud cluster
- Distributed architecture
- Many index types
- GPU indexing
- Hybrid search
- Milvus Lite
| Feature | Qdrant | Milvus |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Fast open-source vector search engine written in Rust | Open-source vector database built for billion-scale search |
| Category | Models & APIs | Models & APIs |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | See pricing page | See pricing page |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Made by | Qdrant | Zilliz |
| Based in | Germany | United States |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
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Pricing compared
Qdrant starts at See pricing page and Milvus starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
3 plans
Free Tier
Free
- Single node cluster
- 0.5 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB disk
- Free cloud inference (select models)
Standard Tier
Usage-based
- Managed production clusters
Enterprise
Contact sales
- Enterprise security and compliance
- On-premise options
Prices in USD, checked Oct 28, 2026 or later. Plans change often, so confirm on each tool's site before you buy.
Pros and cons
Qdrant
- High performance
- Generous free cloud tier
- Easy local setup
- Fewer built-in embedding helpers
- Cluster tuning needs care
- Smaller ecosystem than Postgres
Milvus
- Scales to billions of vectors
- Wide index choice
- Managed option via Zilliz
- Complex to run distributed
- Many components to operate
- Overkill for small apps
Which one should you choose?
Choose Qdrant if you want:
- High performance
- Generous free cloud tier
- Easy local setup
Watch out: fewer built-in embedding helpers.
Choose Milvus if you want:
- Scales to billions of vectors
- Wide index choice
- Managed option via Zilliz
Watch out: complex to run distributed.
Qdrant vs Milvus FAQ
What is the difference between Qdrant and Milvus?
Qdrant: Fast open-source vector search engine written in Rust. Milvus: Open-source vector database built for billion-scale search. Both are models & apis tools.
Is Qdrant or Milvus cheaper?
Qdrant starts at See pricing page and Milvus starts at See pricing page. Check both pricing pages for current plans.
Do Qdrant and Milvus have free plans?
Qdrant: Yes. Milvus: Yes.
Who makes Qdrant?
Qdrant is made by Qdrant, based in Germany.
Who makes Milvus?
Milvus is made by Zilliz, based in United States.
Which should I choose, Qdrant or Milvus?
Choose Qdrant if you value high performance and generous free cloud tier. Choose Milvus if you value scales to billions of vectors and wide index choice.