# Alternatives to Chroma Chroma is an open-source embedding (vector) database for AI applications, with a hosted Chroma Cloud. Chroma ranks #1 of 9 in Vector databases, with an Alt Score of 93. It is licensed under Apache-2.0, open source with paid hosting from $0/month + usage-based pricing and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 12 of 13 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/chroma/ Category: Vector databases ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Chroma is aimed at developers building AI applications such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, and AI memory systems who want an open-source, developer-first vector database that works from local prototyping through to production. - **What you get**: Users get an Apache 2.0-licensed vector database with Python and JavaScript SDKs, a small core API for creating collections and adding, querying, and updating records, metadata filtering, and hybrid dense-plus-sparse (RRF) search; a separate fully managed, usage-based Chroma Cloud service is also offered for teams that don't want to operate the infrastructure themselves. - **How it works**: Chroma can run embedded in-process for quick prototyping, as a standalone client-server via the `chroma run` command, or in a distributed/serverless architecture where a gateway, write-ahead log, query executor, and compactor scale independently over object storage; if no embedding function is specified when a collection is created, Chroma automatically generates embeddings using its built-in DefaultEmbeddingFunction (a Sentence Transformers all-MiniLM-L6-v2 model). ## Profile - **License**: Apache-2.0 (verified 2026-07-16) - **Pricing model**: OSS + paid hosting (verified 2026-07-16) - **Starts at**: $0/month + usage-based pricing (verified 2026-07-16) - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-16) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [LanceDB](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/lancedb.md) | 93 | Apache License 2.0 | ? | | 2 | [Milvus](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/milvus.md) | 89 | Apache License 2.0 | Linux, macOS, Windows | | 3 | [Qdrant](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/qdrant.md) | 86 | Apache License 2.0 | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux | | 4 | [Pinecone](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pinecone.md) | 83 | Proprietary | Web | | 5 | [Vespa](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/vespa.md) | 83 | Apache-2.0 | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web | | 6 | [pgvector](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pgvector.md) | 79 | PostgreSQL License | Linux, macOS, Windows | | 7 | [Weaviate](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/weaviate.md) | 79 | BSD 3-Clause License | Web, Linux, macOS, Windows | | 8 | [turbopuffer](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/turbopuffer.md) | 68 | Proprietary | Web | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Vector databases checklist | Chroma | LanceDB | Milvus | Qdrant | Pinecone | Vespa | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | OSS + paid hosting | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | | Starts at | $0/month + usage-based pricing | ? | From $0/month (Serverless, usage-based) or $126/GB/month (Dedicated) | $25 USD | $20/mo | $0.05/vCPU-hour (Vespa Cloud Startup plan, usage-based) | | License | Apache-2.0 | Apache License 2.0 | Apache License 2.0 | Apache License 2.0 | Proprietary | Apache-2.0 | | Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | ? | Linux, macOS, Windows | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux | Web | Linux, macOS, Windows, Web | | Open source | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Fully managed cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Hybrid search (vector + keyword) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Metadata filtering | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Horizontal scaling / sharding | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Serverless option | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Partial | | Built-in embedding generation | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Multi-tenancy / namespaces | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | | Real-time upserts | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | | SQL / existing-DB integration | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Partial | ? | | Free tier | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | SDKs (Python/JS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ## Sources Sources for Chroma. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **License**: Apache-2.0 — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Apache License” - **Pricing model**: OSS + paid hosting — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Chroma the database is open-source and self-hostable for free (Apache 2.0, per GitHub README); Chroma Cloud is a separate paid, usage-based hosted service with Starter/Team/Enterprise tiers. - Quote: “Currently Chroma accepts credit card for Starter and Team plans. Enterprise plans have configurable billing methods.” - **Starts at**: $0/month + usage-based pricing — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Starter tier of Chroma Cloud is listed as "$0" "/month" "+ usage" ("Get up and running quickly. Free credits then usage-based pricing."); usage is billed per-unit (e.g. $2.50/GiB written, $0.33/GiB st - Quote: “$0” - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Chroma's Python/JS packages install via pip/npm on any OS; the CLI install page explicitly documents a curl-based installer (macOS/Linux) and an iex-based installer (Windows). - Quote: “you can still install the CLI as a standalone program with `cURL` (or `iex` on Windows)” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “We currently release new tagged versions of the `pypi` and `npm` packages on Mondays. Hotfixes go out at any time during the week.” - **Open source**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Chroma - the open-source data infrastructure for AI” - **Self-hostable**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “for client-server mode, chroma run --path /chroma_db_path” - **Fully managed cloud**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Our hosted service, Chroma Cloud, powers serverless vector, hybrid, and full-text search.” - **Hybrid search (vector + keyword)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “RRF is ideal for hybrid search scenarios where you want to merge results from different ranking methods (e.g., dense and sparse embeddings).” - **Metadata filtering**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: source": "notion"}, {"source": "google-docs"}], # filter on these!" - Quote: “metadatas=[{” - **Horizontal scaling / sharding**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Its components run as independent services so the system can scale horizontally while keeping a consistent API for clients.” - **Serverless option**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “we can effectively leverage object storage to deliver a cost-effective serverless retrieval system without compromising on the performance requirements demanded by our users” - **Built-in embedding generation**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “If you don’t specify an embedding function when creating a collection, Chroma will set it to be the DefaultEmbeddingFunction” - **Multi-tenancy / namespaces**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Chroma's API exposes tenant and database objects (e.g. POST /api/v2/tenants) used for multi-tenant isolation, consistent with the distributed architecture doc's description of a 'multi-tenant architec - Quote: “Creates a new tenant.” - **Real-time upserts**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “Upserts records in a collection (create if not exists, otherwise update).” - **Free tier**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Note: Starter tier lists "$0 + usage", "10 databases", "10 team members" as included; separately, self-hosting the open-source database is free. - Quote: “Get up and running quickly. Free credits then usage-based pricing.” - **SDKs (Python/JS)**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-16) - Quote: “pip install chromadb # python client # for javascript, npm install chromadb!” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/