Chroma vs eXtremeDB
Chroma
trychroma.comeXtremeDB
mcobject.comSide by side
| Figure | Chroma | eXtremeDB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $250/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Embedded Databases | 9.4 (#1) | 8.0 (#10) |
| Purpose | Chroma is open-source data infrastructure for AI that stores embeddings and metadata and supports search and retrieval across text, images, and other modalities. | eXtremeDB is an in-memory database system designed for embedded devices and applications. |
| Security | Chroma Cloud says customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest and that access controls include SSO, role-based access control, and employee MFA. | Network communications can use TLS/SSL, with support for OpenSSL and wolfSSL implementations. |
| Support | The pricing page lists Community Slack for Starter, Slack support for Team, and dedicated support for Enterprise. | Product support is available from McObject’s engineering team on an annual contract and includes software updates and a 50 percent discount on major upgrades. |
Plans
In their own words
Chroma
Chroma is open-source infrastructure for storing embeddings and metadata, then searching and retrieving information across text, images, and other modalities. Search options include dense, sparse, and hybrid vector search, plus full-text and regex search and metadata filtering. It can run locally through pip, npm, or Docker, on Chroma Cloud, or in a customer’s own VPC. The maker says its Apache 2.0-licensed codebase powers both the open-source database and Chroma Cloud. Documented integrations include embedding providers such as OpenAI, Cohere, Google Gemini, Hugging Face, Jina AI, and Ollama, and frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, Haystack, Streamlit, and DeepEval. Cloud security features include encryption in transit and at rest, SSO, role-based access control, and employee MFA; Chroma Cloud has completed a SOC 2 Type II examination. Starter is free, with 10 databases and 10 team members. Team is $250 a month plus usage and includes $100 credits, 100 databases, and 30 team members.
eXtremeDB
eXtremeDB is an in-memory database system designed for embedded devices and applications. It can combine in-memory and persistent storage within one database system. Interfaces include native APIs, REST, SQL, ODBC, and JDBC, with language APIs for C/C++, Java, Python, C#, Go, and Rust. For time-series data, a sequence type provides columnar storage. Distributed options include High Availability, Cluster, and Active Replication Fabric for replication across IoT tiers. Network communications can use TLS/SSL with OpenSSL or wolfSSL. Technical specifications list maximum database sizes of 4 GB on 32-bit architectures and 18.4 exabytes on 64-bit architectures. eXtremeDB supports Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, and can be self-hosted. Evaluation downloads are listed for Linux, macOS, and Windows; custom trial packages can be requested for other platforms. McObject offers annual engineering support contracts that include software updates and a 50 percent discount on major upgrades. Commercial licensing is paid, with pricing available on request, and a 60-day trial is listed.