Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL vs Zilliz Cloud
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
azure.microsoft.com
Zilliz Cloud
zilliz.comSide by side
| Figure | Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL | Zilliz Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 10 | 4 |
| Spec score · Ai Databases | 8.1 (#12) | 7.3 (#31) |
| Founded | 1975 | 2017 |
| Headquarters | Redmond, Washington, United States | Redwood Shores, California, United States |
| Integrations | Change feed supports event-driven architectures and streaming pipelines using Azure Functions and Spark. | Documented integrations include Prometheus, Datadog, AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and external model providers. |
| Scaling | Throughput options include standard provisioned, autoscale provisioned, and serverless models. | Serverless clusters scale automatically to zero. |
| Search | It offers built-in vector and hybrid similarity search for workloads including RAG and AI agents. | The service supports approximate nearest neighbor vector search, filtered search, hybrid search, and full-text search. |
| Security | Microsoft recommends private endpoints, disabling public network access, and client-side encryption with Always Encrypted for sensitive data. | Zilliz Cloud documents TLS 1.2 or higher in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest. |
Plans
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
- Free tierFree
- 30-day free trialPriced on request
- Standard provisioned throughputPriced on request
- Standard provisioned throughputPrice not published
- Autoscale provisioned throughputPriced on request
- Autoscale provisioned throughputPrice not published
- ServerlessPriced on request
- ServerlessPrice not published
- Azure Cosmos DB free tierFree
- Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL — standard provisioned throughputPrice not published
Zilliz Cloud
- Free clusterFree
- Business CriticalPriced on request
- DedicatedPriced on request
- ServerlessPriced on request
In their own words
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL
Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL is a fully managed cloud database built around schema-agnostic JSON documents and SQL-like querying. It supports global data distribution, multi-region writes, and automatic failover, with configurable consistency controls and transactions. Search includes vector and hybrid similarity capabilities for workloads such as retrieval-augmented generation and AI agents. Throughput can use standard provisioned, autoscale provisioned, or serverless models. The service lists SDKs for.NET, Java, JavaScript/Node.js, Python, Go, and Rust. Its change feed can support event-driven architectures and streaming pipelines using Azure Functions and Spark; no-ETL analytical workflows are available through Azure Synapse Link or Fabric mirroring. Microsoft states that NoSQL data has service-level agreements including less than 10 millisecond read and write latency and 99.999 percent availability. A free tier includes 1,000 RU/s and 25 GB of storage for one account per Azure subscription, and a 30-day trial is listed. The Azure Cosmos DB emulator provides a no-cost local development environment for Windows or Linux. The pricing page notes that the selected compute pricing model and API cannot be changed after selection.
Zilliz Cloud
Zilliz Cloud is a managed Milvus service for deploying and scaling vector search applications. It supports approximate nearest neighbor, filtered, hybrid, and full-text search. Teams can choose Free, Serverless, or Dedicated cluster deployments; Serverless clusters scale automatically to zero. During ingestion, the service can create vector embeddings from raw text using a configured embedding function.
Documented integrations include Prometheus, Datadog, AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and external model providers. Migration sources include Pinecone, Qdrant, Elasticsearch, and PostgreSQL. The service supports sparse vectors, metadata filtering, up to 32768 dimensions, and a range of index types, including FLAT, HNSW, DISKANN, and AUTOINDEX. SDKs are listed for Python, Java, Go, Node.js, and C++. The Free cluster costs nothing and includes 5 GB storage, 2.5M vCUs/month, and up to 5 collections. Dedicated and Serverless pricing is pay as you go; storage charges apply to stored data and backup files even when a cluster is stopped.