Milvus vs Zvec

Milvus is an open-source vector database from Zilliz for GenAI and scalable vector search. It supports approximate-nearest-neighbor, filtered, range, hybrid, and full-text search, along with reranking, fetch, and query operations. Metadata filtering, sparse vectors, and index types including HNSW, IVF, FLAT, DiskANN, and SCANN are documented. Deployment choices are Milvus Lite as a Python library, Standalone as a single-machine server, and Distributed on Kubernetes. Documentation recommends Lite for up to a few million vectors, Standalone up to 100 million, and Distributed for 100 million to tens of billions. Lite can run locally without a cloud service for private or sensitive data; an online upgrade from Standalone to a cluster is not currently supported. Official interfaces include REST plus Python, Go, Java, Node.js, and C++ APIs or SDKs. C# is contributed by Microsoft and Rust is under development. Security documentation covers authentication, TLS for gRPC and REST, and role-based access control at collection, database, and instance levels. The Apache 2.0 software is free, and Zilliz Cloud is offered as a managed option.

Zvec is an open-source, in-process vector database for indexing and querying vectors locally without a server or external infrastructure. It supports dense and sparse vectors, full-text search, and hybrid retrieval with structured filters. Listed index types include Flat, HNSW, IVF, and DiskANN, with RaBitQ variants also available; quantization options include FP16, INT8, INT4, RaBitQ, and PQ. Write-ahead logging provides persistence across process crashes or power failures. Multiple processes can read a collection at once, while writes are exclusive to one process. SDKs are listed for Python, Node.js, Go, Rust, Dart/Flutter, C, and C++. The README lists Linux, macOS, and Windows support, and prebuilt SDK binaries are published for Android and iOS as well. Named integrations include Logseq, MyContext, ReMe, txtai, and CocoIndex. The maker presents Zvec for application developers working on prototyping, local development, embedded and edge applications, or production systems. Its product family also includes Zvec-Grep, a local search CLI and MCP tool for code, documentation, and text-based data. It is available free under the Apache License 2.0.