head to head · open source
lancedb vs qdrant-client
lancedb has 11,843 GitHub stars, 1,150 forks, 627 open issues and last shipped yesterday. qdrant-client has 1,377 stars, 383 forks, 191 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lancedb leads on adoption by 760% (11,843 vs 1,377 stars). lancedb is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; qdrant-client is written in Python under Apache-2.0. lancedb has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, qdrant-client 28%. lancedb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (vector-database), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| lancedb | qdrant-client | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 383 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lancedb if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick qdrant-client if
- You want the qdrant-client feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and qdrant-client fits your workflow better
About lancedb
The Multimodal AI Lakehouse How to Install ✦ Detailed Documentation ✦ Tutorials and Recipes ✦ Contributors The ultimate multimodal data platform for AI/ML applications. LanceDB is designed for fast, scalable, and production ready vector search. It is built on top of the Lance columnar format. You can store, index, and search over petabytes of multimodal data and vectors with ease. LanceDB is a central location where developers can build, train and analyze their AI workloads. Demo: Multimodal Search by Keyword, Vector or with SQL Star LanceDB to get updates! ⭐ Click here ⭐ to see how fast we're growing! Key…
read the full lancedb overview →
About qdrant-client
Python Client library for the Qdrant vector search engine. Python Qdrant Client Client library and SDK for the Qdrant vector search engine. Library contains type definitions for all Qdrant API and allows to make both Sync and Async requests. Client allows calls for all Qdrant API methods directly. It also provides some additional helper methods for frequently required operations, e.g. initial collection uploading. See QuickStart for more details! Installation Features Type hints for all API methods Local mode use same API without running server REST and gRPC support Minimal dependencies Extensive Test Coverage…
read the full qdrant-client overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lancedb or qdrant-client more popular?
lancedb has 11,843 GitHub stars and qdrant-client has 1,377. lancedb has the larger community by that measure.
Are lancedb and qdrant-client free?
Both are open source. lancedb is licensed under Apache-2.0 and qdrant-client under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lancedb and qdrant-client?
lancedb is written in Rust and qdrant-client in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lancedb or qdrant-client?
Choose lancedb if you want the larger community (11,843 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose qdrant-client if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.