Chroma vs Weaviate: pricing, quotas & features (2025)
Open-source vector DB designed for AI apps — embeddings-first, dev-friendly
vs. Open-source vector DB with hybrid search + modular embeddings
Data sourced from vendor documentation · Last updated May 2026
Summary
Chroma and Weaviate are both search platforms, addressing the same core use case with different implementation philosophies and trade-offs. Both offer a free tier, making it easy to prototype without a credit card. Weaviate offers paid plans from $45/month; Chroma does not publish standard pricing. Weaviate has a broader documented feature set (13 vs 11 features). The right choice depends on your existing stack, team experience, and feature requirements. All pricing and quota data below is sourced from Chroma and Weaviate's official documentation — not generated by AI or estimated.
Chroma vs Weaviate: Comparativa de precios, cuotas y características (2025)
En esta comparativa analizamos Chroma y Weaviate lado a lado — incluyendo precios mensuales, límites del tier gratuito, características técnicas, cuotas de uso (almacenamiento, transferencia, usuarios activos mensuales) y los interfaces de desarrollo disponibles. Todos los datos proceden de la documentación oficial de cada proveedor, no de respuestas generadas por IA.
Chroma es una plataforma de la categoría search — Open-source vector DB designed for AI apps — embeddings-first, dev-friendly. Ofrece 4 tiers de precio: Cloud — Free gratuito, Cloud — Pro gratuito, Self-Host (OSS) gratuito, Cloud — Enterprise (personalizado). Su catálogo en Staxly documenta 11 características y 6 interfazes para desarrolladores.
Weaviate pertenece a la categoría search — Open-source vector DB with hybrid search + modular embeddings. Ofrece 5 tiers de precio: Sandbox (14-day trial) gratuito, Self-Hosted (OSS) gratuito, Flex desde $45/mes, Premium desde $400/mes. Su catálogo documenta 13 características y 8 interfazes para desarrolladores.
A continuación encontrarás los tiers de precio completos de ambas plataformas, una matriz de cuotas del tier gratuito (transferencia, almacenamiento, MAU, llamadas a la API y otros límites), el listado completo de características y los interfaces (CLI, SDKs, REST, GraphQL, MCP) disponibles para integrar cada servicio.
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Pricing tiers
Chroma
Weaviate
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing cloud-free on Chroma vs sandbox on Weaviate.
| Metric | Chroma | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| 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.
Weaviate · 13 features
- BYOC — Run managed Weaviate in your own cloud account.
- Backups — S3, GCS, Azure Blob backup destinations.
- Compression (PQ/BQ/RQ) — Reduce vector memory footprint by up to 32x.
- Dynamic Indexing — HNSW + flat + dynamic index selection.
- Generative Search — Search + RAG answers in one API call.
- Hybrid Search — Combine BM25 + dense vector search in one query.
- Modular Vectorizers — 60+ plug-in vectorizers + generative AI modules.
- Multi-Tenancy — Per-tenant isolated vector stores in one cluster.
- Query Agent (AI) — Agentic natural-language query generator.
- RBAC — Role-based access control for collections + tenants.
- Replication — Multi-node async + sync replication.
- Self-Host (OSS) — BSD-3 licensed. Docker + k8s Helm.
- Structured Filters — Metadata filters pre + post vector search.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Chroma | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| SDK | chromadb (JS/TS), chromadb (Python) | weaviate-client, weaviate-go-client, weaviate-java-client, weaviate-ts-client |
| REST | Chroma HTTP API | Weaviate REST API |
| GRAPHQL | — | Weaviate GraphQL |
| MCP | Chroma MCP | Weaviate MCP |
| OTHER | Docker Server, Embedded Mode (in-process Python) | Weaviate gRPC |
Key takeaways
- Both Chroma and Weaviate offer a free tier — Chroma ("Cloud — Free") and Weaviate ("Sandbox (14-day trial)") — with no credit card required to start.
- Weaviate's entry paid tier (Flex) costs $45/month; Chroma does not list public pricing.
- Weaviate has a broader documented feature set (13 features) vs. Chroma (11 features) in Staxly's catalog.
- Developer integrations differ: only Weaviate offers GRAPHQL.
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