Is Milvus / Zilliz Cloud better than Qdrant in 2026?

It depends on your needs. Both rated 4.4/5 by users. Milvus / Zilliz Cloud excels at milvus is an open-source vector database designed for billion-scale similarity search, maintained by zilliz., while Qdrant focuses on rust-based open-source vector database with high-performance similarity search and rich filtering.. Milvus / Zilliz Cloud starts at free tier; Qdrant starts at free tier.

Which is cheaper, Milvus / Zilliz Cloud or Qdrant?

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud starts at free tier; Qdrant starts at free tier. Milvus / Zilliz Cloud has a free plan, and Qdrant also offers a free tier.

Can I migrate from Milvus / Zilliz Cloud to Qdrant?

Most users can switch between these tools. Qdrant supports data import from Milvus / Zilliz Cloud. Plan 1-3 days for migration depending on data volume and team size.

What are the key differences between Milvus / Zilliz Cloud and Qdrant?

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud uniquely offers Distributed Architecture, Billion-Scale Vectors, ANNS Algorithms (HNSW, IVF, DiskANN). Qdrant uniquely offers Written in Rust, HNSW Index, Sparse Vectors (BM25-compatible). Both share 2 features including Open Source (Apache 2.0), LangChain Integration. Milvus / Zilliz Cloud starts at free tier; Qdrant starts at free tier. Founded in 2017 and 2021 respectively.

When was this Milvus / Zilliz Cloud vs Qdrant comparison last updated?

This comparison was last updated on May 13, 2026. We review and refresh our comparisons regularly to reflect the latest pricing, features, and ratings from Milvus / Zilliz Cloud and Qdrant.

Home›Vector Databases›Compare›Milvus / Zilliz Cloud vs Qdrant

Updated May 13, 2026 · Independent Analysis

Milvus / Zilliz CloudvsQdrant

Capability Overview

Milvus / Zilliz Cloudvs Qdrant

★ 4.4/5-0.1 vs Qdrant

Only in Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

✦ Distributed Architecture
✦ Billion-Scale Vectors
✦ ANNS Algorithms (HNSW, IVF, DiskANN)

✓ Free plan5k+ users · est. 2017

View Full Review Try Milvus / Zilliz Cloud Free

Qdrantvs Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

★ 4.5/5+0.1 vs Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

Only in Qdrant

✦ Written in Rust
✦ HNSW Index
✦ Sparse Vectors (BM25-compatible)

✓ Free plan3k+ users · est. 2021

View Full Review Try Qdrant Free

Pricing Features Pros & Cons At a Glance FAQ Related

Pricing Intelligence

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud Plans

Free tier available

Milvus Open Source0

Open Source

• Full features
• Apache 2.0
• Community support

Zilliz Cloud Serverless

Custom

• From $0.1/CU-hr
• Managed Milvus
• Auto-scaling

Enterprise

Custom

• Dedicated clusters
• SLA
• Private VPC

Full Milvus / Zilliz Cloud Pricing Breakdown →

Qdrant Plans

Free tier available

Open Source0

Open Source

• Full features
• Apache 2.0
• Docker deployment

Qdrant Cloud

Custom

• From $0.014/hr
• Managed clusters
• Free tier available

Enterprise

Custom

• Private cloud
• SSO
• Dedicated support

Full Qdrant Pricing Breakdown →

Feature Matrix

1 differences found across 10 standardized features

Feature

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

Qdrant

GPU Acceleration

✓

✗

Total (raw)

Pros & Cons Face-Off

Evaluative strengths and weaknesses — not feature lists

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

Pros

+CNCF project — battle-tested for billion-scale workloads
+GPU acceleration and DiskANN for cost-efficient large-scale search
+Distributed architecture with independent storage/compute scaling
+Multi-vector search supports complex AI use cases

Cons

−Operational complexity — requires Kubernetes expertise for self-hosted
−Overkill for small-scale RAG applications

Qdrant

Pros

+Top benchmark performance via Rust and quantization
+Named vectors enable multimodal and complex search patterns
+Binary quantization reduces memory 32x
+Excellent documentation and developer experience

Cons

−Smaller managed cloud ecosystem than Pinecone
−Newer company — fewer enterprise customer references

At a Glance

User Rating

4.4/5vs4.5/5

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

Qdrant

▲

Starting Price

Pay-per-usevsPay-per-use

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

Qdrant

Feature Count

16 featuresvs16 features

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

Qdrant

User Base

5vs3

Milvus / Zilliz Cloud

▲

Qdrant

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Comparisons

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Authored by Oleh KemExpert verified·Updated May 13, 2026·Our methodology