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Vald vs Weaviate

Vald: Kubernetes-native distributed vector search engine built on Yahoo Japan's NGT. Weaviate: Open-source AI-native vector database with hybrid search, modules for embeddings and multi-tenancy.

key differences

  • Only Weaviate has secondary indexes, full-text search, geospatial, json, compression.

choose vald for

  • +Large-scale image or embedding similarity search on Kubernetes
  • +Recommendation candidate retrieval
  • +Internal ANN services

best at · Vector search

choose weaviate for

  • +RAG over documents with hybrid retrieval
  • +Multi-tenant SaaS semantic search
  • +Product and content recommendation
  • +Agent memory stores

best at · Vector search, RAG, Search

overview
Primary model
Vector
Vector
Also supports
–
Document, Search Engine
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
LY Corporation (vdaas)
Weaviate B.V.
First release
2020
2019
Latest version
1.8.0 (Aug 26, 2026)
1.40.2 (Oct 22, 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Open source (permissive)BSD-3-Clause (core); enterprise features under the Weaviate License
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
5.6
33.4
Rank
#382
#65
GitHub stars
1.7K
16.9K
Stack Overflow questions
–
160
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
None
None
Consistency
Eventual
Tunable, Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
–
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
capabilities
Transactions
—
—
Joins
—
—
Secondary indexes
—
✓
Full-text search
—
✓
Vector search
✓
✓
Geospatial
—
✓
JSON
—
✓
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
—
✓
Encryption at rest
—
—
Role-based access
—
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
—
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
Vald gRPC API
GraphQL, Weaviate query API
Client languages
Go, Java, Python, Node.js
Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, C#
Best for
Vector search
Vector search, RAG, Search

Vald vs Weaviate: FAQ

What is the difference between Vald and Weaviate?

Vald: Kubernetes-native distributed vector search engine built on Yahoo Japan's NGT. Weaviate: Open-source AI-native vector database with hybrid search, modules for embeddings and multi-tenancy. Only Weaviate has secondary indexes, full-text search, geospatial, json, compression.

When should I choose Vald over Weaviate?

Choose Vald for large-scale image or embedding similarity search on Kubernetes, recommendation candidate retrieval and internal ANN services. Choose Weaviate for RAG over documents with hybrid retrieval; multi-tenant SaaS semantic search; and product and content recommendation.

Is Vald or Weaviate more popular?

Weaviate ranks #65 on the WhichDB Score (33.4/100) and Vald ranks #382 (5.6/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Vald and Weaviate open source?

Yes. Vald is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. Yes. Weaviate is open source. License: BSD-3-Clause (core); enterprise features under the Weaviate License.