head to head · open source
Qdrant vs Chroma
Qdrant has 34,650 GitHub stars, 2,682 forks, 704 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Chroma has 29,320 stars, 2,517 forks, 843 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Qdrant leads on adoption by 18% (34,650 vs 29,320 stars). Qdrant is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Chroma is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Qdrant has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Chroma 9%. Qdrant was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Qdrant | Chroma | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Qdrant if
- You weight community size — 35K 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 Chroma if
- You want the Chroma feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Chroma fits your workflow better
About Qdrant
Qdrant is a vector similarity search engine and database built in Rust, designed for production use in AI applications. It stores, manages, and retrieves high dimensional vectors alongside associated metadata (payloads), supporting fast nearest neighbor search with filtering. It solves the problem of efficiently performing semantic or neural based matching at scale—such as finding similar images, recommending content, or powering retrieval augmented generation (RAG)—by replacing slow or inflexible brute force or index based approaches with a purpose built engine optimized for vector operations.…
read the full Qdrant overview →
About Chroma
Chroma is an open source vector database designed to store, index, and retrieve embeddings for AI applications. It runs as a local Python or JavaScript client or in client server mode, providing a lightweight infrastructure layer for AI search and retrieval workloads. Built in Rust and licensed under Apache 2.0, it targets developers building RAG, agents, and other embedding dependent systems.
read the full Chroma overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Qdrant or Chroma more popular?
Qdrant has 34,650 GitHub stars and Chroma has 29,320. Qdrant has the larger community by that measure.
Are Qdrant and Chroma free?
Both are open source. Qdrant is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Chroma under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Qdrant and Chroma?
Qdrant is written in Rust and Chroma in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Qdrant or Chroma?
Choose Qdrant if you want the larger community (34,650 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Chroma if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.