vector databases
for Infra & RAG teams
Pinecone vs Qdrant: which is better for Infra & RAG teams?
TL;DR for Infra & RAG teams
Pinecone offers a turnkey managed vector database with hybrid search and enterprise SLA; Qdrant provides open-source flexibility with strong filtering and lower costs.
Key Differences
| Feature | Pinecone | Qdrant |
|---|---|---|
| Managed vs open-source | Pinecone approach | Qdrant approach |
| Cost model (serverless vs free) | Pinecone approach | Qdrant approach |
| Customization & control | Pinecone approach | Qdrant approach |
| Metadata filtering | Pinecone approach | Qdrant approach |
| Scalability & replication | Pinecone approach | Qdrant approach |
| Community & support | Pinecone approach | Qdrant approach |
Pricing Snapshot
Pinecone: serverless or pods (~$0.096/hr); Qdrant: free self-host, cloud from ~$30/mo (2025‑10‑13)
Last reviewed: 2025-10-13
Pinecone
Choose Pinecone if:
- You want zero-ops with enterprise SLA
- You need turnkey hybrid search
- You are okay with higher cost
Pros
- + Fully managed serverless service
- + High-performance vector search
- + Hybrid search & metadata filters
- + Enterprise-grade reliability
- + Scales automatically
Cons
- - Higher cost compared to OSS
- - Limited customization
- - No on-prem deployment
- - Pricing per pod & usage
Qdrant
Choose Qdrant if:
- You want open-source & flexible deployment
- You need advanced filtering & control
- You are cost-sensitive
Pros
- + Open-source & free to self-host
- + High-performance Rust engine
- + Advanced metadata filtering
- + Distributed & horizontally scalable
- + ACID transactions
Cons
- - Smaller community & tooling
- - Requires configuration for scaling
- - Fewer built-in analytics
- - Cloud cost after free tier
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