ParadeDB vs Sphinx

ParadeDB adds full-text and vector search, filters, facets, and joins to PostgreSQL through the pg_search extension. It runs inside standard Postgres without a fork or sidecar process. Documented queries include BM25 full-text, vector and hybrid search, fuzzy, phrase, proximity, and regex searches, with filtering, sorting, and highlighting. Indexing covers columnar, vector, JSON, array, and composite data, alongside aggregates, facets, and joins. ParadeDB documents ACID transactions and consistent reads, with index updates applied alongside application-data writes. Deployment options include ParadeDB Cloud, BYOC, Kubernetes with CloudNativePG, self-hosted PostgreSQL, and listed PaaS providers. Local installation is documented through a curl installer, Docker, and Postgres.app, whose steps assume PostgreSQL 18. Community is AGPL-3.0 open source and supports single-node deployments; read replicas and high availability are Enterprise features. Community costs nothing, fully free forever. Cloud is in private preview with pricing not stated, while Enterprise uses custom pricing.

Sphinx has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.