#9 in DatabasesUpdated 2026-08

Weaviate

by Weaviate · Open-source vector database for search, RAG and agents

68.3 — BenchRank score out of 100

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Overview

Weaviate is an open-source vector database that stores, indexes and searches high-dimensional vectors, supporting pure vector, semantic and hybrid (vector plus keyword) queries through Python, Go, TypeScript and JavaScript SDKs or GraphQL and REST APIs. It adds built-in embedding models, a natural-language Query Agent and Engram, and runs self-hosted or on Weaviate Cloud.

Best for: Teams building RAG, search and agent features who want a managed or self-hosted vector database
Pricing: Free tier at $0/month, then Flex pay-as-you-go from $45/month and Premium from $400/month on a prepaid contract, with usage-based charges for vector dimensions, storage, backups and AI services.
Runs on: Self-hosted

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

Open source and self-hostable; 20M+ downloads claimed
Hybrid search combines vector and keyword in one query
Built-in embeddings, so no external embedding pipeline
SDKs for Python, Go, TypeScript and JS, plus GraphQL/REST

Trade-offs

Free tier capped at 100,000 objects, 1 collection, 3 tenants
No HA, replication or backups on the free tier
SSO/SAML requires Premium, from $400/month
Vector-dimension rates vary by region and index type; costs hard to forecast

Pricing

Published plans from Weaviate’s own pricing page, in USD. Usage charges and add-ons may apply on top.

Weaviate pricing tiers, monthly rates in USD
Plan	Monthly	Includes
Free	Freeper cluster per month	1 cluster per user, always free, no credit card 100,000 objects, 1 GB memory, 10 GB disk 1 collection, up to 3 tenants Embeddings 2,000 req/day, Query Agent 1,000 req/mo
Flex	$45per month minimum, plus usage	Pay-as-you-go monthly, no commitment Shared cluster with replication and RBAC 99.5% uptime SLA, 7-day backup retention Next-business-day Sev 1 response
Premium	Contact sales	Prepaid contract; shared or dedicated deployment Up to 99.95% uptime; AWS, GCP and Azure SSO/SAML, metrics endpoint, phone and Slack support Sev 1 response as fast as 1 hour

How this score is made up

Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.

MCP support: 60 out of 100
API quality: 30 out of 100
Documentation: 90 out of 100
Agent friendliness: 75 out of 100
Pricing transparency: 100 out of 100
Changelog: 100 out of 100
Marketing site structure: 65 out of 100
Operational trust: 35 out of 100

Measured, but not part of the score

Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.

Openness: 85 out of 100
Maintenance: 100 out of 100

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