kitio.aiWeaviate vs Vald
A side-by-side look at pricing plans, free tiers, features, pros and cons, updated for 2026. Vald is completely free, while Weaviate is freemium.
At a glance
Best for
Category
Pricing model
Starting price
Free plan
Made by
Based in
Rating
Key features
- Hybrid vector and keyword search
- Built-in vectorizer modules
- Multi-tenancy
- Generative search
- Weaviate Cloud
- Distributed ANN search
- Asynchronous auto-indexing
- Index replication
- Automatic index backup
- Custom gRPC filters
- Multi-language SDKs
| Feature | Weaviate | Vald |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Open-source vector database with hybrid search and built-in vectorizers | Open-source distributed vector search engine for billions of vectors |
| Category | Models & APIs | Models & APIs |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Free |
| Starting price | $45/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes, fully free |
| Made by | Weaviate | vdaas |
| Based in | Netherlands | – |
| Rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
| Key features |
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Pricing compared
Vald is completely free, while Weaviate is freemium.
Free plan
Cheapest paid plan
Top plan
Free trial
3 plans
Free
Free
- 1 cluster, 100K objects
- 1 GB memory, 10 GB disk
- Basic support
Flex
$45/mo
- Starting price, pay-as-you-go
- Shared cloud cluster
- RBAC, 99.5% uptime
Premium
Contact sales
- Prepaid contract
- Shared or dedicated deployment
- Up to 99.95% uptime
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
Weaviate
- Strong hybrid search
- Open source and self-hostable
- Good multi-tenant support
- Memory-hungry at scale
- Cloud pricing changed often
- Schema concepts to learn
Vald
- Free and open source
- Scales to billions of vectors
- Keeps serving while indexing
- Needs Kubernetes to run
- No managed cloud offering
- More setup than hosted vector databases
Which one should you choose?
Choose Weaviate if you want:
- Strong hybrid search
- Open source and self-hostable
- Good multi-tenant support
Watch out: memory-hungry at scale.
Choose Vald if you want:
- Free and open source
- Scales to billions of vectors
- Keeps serving while indexing
Watch out: needs kubernetes to run.
Weaviate vs Vald FAQ
What is the difference between Weaviate and Vald?
Weaviate: Open-source vector database with hybrid search and built-in vectorizers. Vald: Open-source distributed vector search engine for billions of vectors. Both are models & apis tools.
Is Weaviate or Vald cheaper?
Vald is completely free, while Weaviate is freemium.
Do Weaviate and Vald have free plans?
Weaviate: Yes. Vald: Yes, fully free.
Who makes Weaviate?
Weaviate is made by Weaviate, based in Netherlands.
Who makes Vald?
Vald is made by vdaas.
Which should I choose, Weaviate or Vald?
Choose Weaviate if you value strong hybrid search and open source and self-hostable. Choose Vald if you value free and open source and scales to billions of vectors.