Chroma vs Cody
Open-source vector DB designed for AI apps — embeddings-first, dev-friendly
vs. AI coding assistant by Sourcegraph — code graph + enterprise codebase context
Pricing tiers
Chroma
Cloud — Free
$5 free credits. Great for trying it out.
Free
Cloud — Pro
$100 credits included, then usage-based. Dedicated resources, SOC2, priority support.
$0 base (usage-based)
Self-Host (OSS)
MIT-licensed. Embedded or Docker. Free forever.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud — Enterprise
Custom. VPC, compliance, dedicated support.
Custom
Cody
Cody Free
$0. 500 autocompletes + 20 chat messages/mo. Claude Sonnet + GPT-4o-mini.
Free
Cody Pro
$9/user/mo. Unlimited autocomplete, unlimited chat, premium LLMs (Claude Opus, GPT-5).
$9/mo
Enterprise Starter
$19/user/mo. Adds advanced context (code graph), SSO, centralized billing.
$19/mo
Enterprise
$59/user/mo. On-prem deploy option, full Sourcegraph platform, audit logs, SLA.
$59/mo
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing cloud-free on Chroma vs free on Cody.
| Metric | Chroma | Cody |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Chroma · 11 features
- Client-Server Mode — Run Chroma via Docker; clients connect over HTTP.
- Collections — Named groups of embeddings + metadata.
- Distributed (Cloud) — Horizontal scaling on Chroma Cloud.
- Embedded Mode — In-process Python — chromadb.Client() and go. Zero setup.
- Embedding Functions — Plug-in embedders (OpenAI, Cohere, SentenceTransformers, HF).
- Full-Text Search — BM25 + vector hybrid.
- Metadata Filters — Where-clause query language.
- Migration Tools — Import from Pinecone + other stores.
- Multi-Modal — Text + image embeddings (CLIP, etc.).
- Python + JS APIs — Same API shape across both SDKs.
- Serverless Cloud — Pay for storage + queries, auto-scale.
Cody · 17 features
- Audit Logs — Enterprise compliance.
- Autocomplete — Inline code completion.
- Batch Changes (Enterprise) — Large-scale automated refactors.
- Chat — Conversational AI with @-context.
- Code Graph Context — Automatic dependency-aware context.
- Commands (Slash) — Pre-built prompts (/explain, /doc, /test).
- Custom Prompts — Shareable team-level prompt library.
- Inline Edit — Highlight code → edit via natural language.
- JetBrains Plugin — IntelliJ/PyCharm/WebStorm/etc.
- @ Mentions — Add files/symbols/URLs as context.
- Multi-LLM Selection — Pick Claude/GPT/Gemini per request.
- Neovim Plugin — Nvim integration.
- On-Prem Deploy (Enterprise) — Self-host full Sourcegraph + Cody.
- OpenCtx Extensions — Third-party context providers.
- Prompts Library — Team-wide reusable prompts.
- SSO (Enterprise) — SAML + OIDC.
- VS Code Extension — Primary IDE.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Chroma | Cody |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | — | src CLI (context tool) |
| SDK | chromadb (JS/TS), chromadb (Python) | — |
| REST | Chroma HTTP API | Cody API (Enterprise) |
| MCP | Chroma MCP | — |
| OTHER | Docker Server, Embedded Mode (in-process Python) | Cody for JetBrains, Cody for Neovim, Cody for VS Code, Sourcegraph Cloud Web |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Chroma and Cody may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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