head to head · open source
zvec vs knowhere
zvec has 16,186 GitHub stars, 1,018 forks, 56 open issues and last shipped yesterday. knowhere has 3,896 stars, 337 forks, 40 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. zvec leads on adoption by 315% (16,186 vs 3,896 stars). zvec is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; knowhere is written in Python under Apache-2.0. zvec has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, knowhere 9%. zvec 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
| zvec | knowhere | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 337 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick zvec if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick knowhere if
- You want the knowhere 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 knowhere fits your workflow better
About zvec
English 中文 🚀 Quickstart 🏠 Home 📚 Docs 📊 Benchmarks 🔎 DeepWiki 🎮 Discord 🐦 X (Twitter) Zvec is an open source, in process vector database — lightweight, lightning fast, and designed to embed directly into applications. Battle tested within Alibaba Group, it delivers production grade, low latency and scalable similarity search with minimal setup. [!Important] 🚀 v0.7.0 (August 24, 2026) zvec grep ( zg ) : Local first workspace search that unifies ripgrep, BM25, and vector search behind one CLI — built for humans and AI agents. ReMe integration : zvec is now a file store backend in ReMe, the memory…
About knowhere
Prepare unstructured data for AI Agents 🔗 Website 📄 Docs 🏠 Self Host 🖥️ Dashboard Overview Knowhere is a document parsing and retrieval system that turns complex, dirty files into persistent, navigable memory for AI agents—especially across local and offline document collections. It ingests unstructured documents and produces persistent, navigable memory: parsing, hierarchy reconstruction, multi modal structuring, and graph construction in a single pipeline. Every result stays connected to its document, section, source pages, and related assets, making the output a natural fit for Agentic RAG , vector based…
read the full knowhere overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is zvec or knowhere more popular?
zvec has 16,186 GitHub stars and knowhere has 3,896. zvec has the larger community by that measure.
Are zvec and knowhere free?
Both are open source. zvec is licensed under Apache-2.0 and knowhere under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between zvec and knowhere?
zvec is written in C++ and knowhere 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, zvec or knowhere?
Choose zvec if you want the larger community (16,186 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose knowhere if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.