FAISS vs Milvus

Table of contents

• vector database comparison: FAISS vs Milvus
• Deployment Options
• Scalability
• Data Management
• Security
• Vector Similarity Search
• Integration and API
• Community and Ecosystem
• Pricing

vector database comparison: FAISS vs Milvus

This page contains a detailed comparison of the FAISS and Milvus vector databases.

You can also check out my detailed breakdown of the most popular vector databases here.

Deployment Options

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Local Deployment	✅	✅
Cloud Deployment	❌	✅
On - Premises Deployment	✅	✅

Scalability

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Horizontal Scaling	❌	✅
Vertical Scaling	✅	❌
Distributed Architecture	❌	✅

Data Management

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Data Import	✅	✅
Data Update / Deletion	✅	✅
Data Backup / Restore	❌	✅

Security

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Authentication	❌	✅
Data Encryption	❌	❌
Access Control	❌	✅

Vector Similarity Search

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Distance Metrics	Euclidean, Inner Product	Euclidean, Cosine, Jaccard
ANN Algorithms	IVF, HNSW, Flat	IVF, HNSW, Flat
Filtering	❌	✅
Post-Processing	❌	✅

Integration and API

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Language SDKs	Python	Python, Java, Go
REST API	❌	✅
GraphQL API	❌	❌
GRPC API	❌	❌

Community and Ecosystem

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Open-Source	✅	✅
Community Support	✅	✅
Integration with Frameworks	✅	✅

Pricing

Feature	FAISS	Milvus
Free Tier	✅	✅
Pay-as-you-go	❌	❌
Enterprise Plans	❌	✅