Head to head
Supabase Vector (pgvector) vs Zilliz Cloud (Milvus)
As a vector database API, Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) rates higher on the APIbenchmarks Index, 85.4 to 85.2, a 0.2-point gap. Here is how they compare on each criterion.
Criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Supabase Vector (pgvector) | Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) |
|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | ||
| Reliability | ||
| Ecosystem & SDKs | ||
| Accessibility | ||
| APIbenchmarks Index | 85.2 | 85.4 |
Specifications
| Supabase Vector (pgvector) | Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Postgres-native embeddings, no separate service | Managed Milvus at billion-vector scale |
| Free tier | Free project: 500MB DB, pgvector included | 5GB storage + compute credits, permanent free tier |
| Pricing | Bundled in Postgres plan (storage-based) | Per compute-unit-hour + storage |
| Official SDKs | 7 languages | 9 languages |
Is Supabase Vector (pgvector) better than Zilliz Cloud (Milvus)?
On the APIbenchmarks Index, Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) rates higher (85.4 vs 85.2). It leads on the four weighted criteria, but price is reported separately, so the best choice still depends on your budget.
Verdict in one line
Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) leads by 0.2 points (85.4 vs 85.2) and wins 2 of 4 criteria; Supabase Vector (pgvector) wins 2.
Winner by criterion
| Criterion | Winner | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Documentation & DX | 86 | 82 | |
| Reliability | 80 | 88 | |
| Ecosystem & SDKs | 84 | 85 | |
| Accessibility | 92 | 88 |
Choose Supabase Vector (pgvector) if… / choose Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) if…
- →documentation & dx matters most to you (86 vs 82)
- →accessibility matters most to you (92 vs 88)
- →your use case matches its focus: postgres-native embeddings, no separate service
- →reliability matters most to you (88 vs 80)
- →ecosystem & sdks matters most to you (85 vs 84)
- →you need broad SDK coverage (9 official SDKs vs 7)
- →your use case matches its focus: managed milvus at billion-vector scale
Pricing side by side
- Model
- Bundled in Postgres plan (storage-based)
- Free tier
- Free project: 500MB DB, pgvector included
- Free$0/mo
- Pro$25/mo per org
- Team$599/mo per org
- EnterpriseCustom
- Model
- Per compute-unit-hour + storage
- Free tier
- 5GB storage + compute credits, permanent free tier
- Free (Serverless)$0/month
- ServerlessPay-as-you-go (from ~$0.35/M vCU)
- DedicatedFrom ~$99/month (compute + storage)
- Business Critical (BC)Custom
- BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud)Custom
Vendor-published pricing, verified 2026-06-27 (Supabase Vector (pgvector)) and 2026-06-27 (Zilliz Cloud (Milvus)).
SDK and language coverage
Both · 1
Python (supabase-py)
Only Supabase Vector (pgvector) · 6
TypeScript / JavaScriptvecs (Python vector client)SwiftKotlinDart / FlutterSQL (native pgvector operators)
Only Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) · 8
JavaGoNode.js / JavaScriptC# (.NET, contributed by Microsoft)C++Rust (in development)RESTful APIgRPC API
Strengths and weaknesses
- +Embeddings live in the same Postgres as relational data, no separate vector service to provision or keep in sync
- +Combine vector similarity with SQL WHERE filters, joins, and row-level security in a single query
- +HNSW indexing (pgvector 0.5.0+) reaches accuracy@10 of 0.99 at 1M vectors and beat Qdrant on equivalent compute in Supabase's benchmarks
- –HNSW index builds are memory-bound and can take hours on a 10M-row, 1536-dim table, producing tens-of-GB indexes
- –Good query latency requires the index to fit in RAM, pushing you to larger, costlier compute add-ons
- –Performance degrades and p99 tail latency grows beyond roughly 5–50M vectors on a single node, not ideal for billion-scale search
- +Top-tier benchmark performance: Milvus 2.6 delivers ~4x throughput and 72% memory reduction via RaBitQ quantization while holding ~95% recall, and 3-7x higher QPS than Elasticsearch on full-text workloads
- +Scales to billions of vectors; reviewers report searching millions of vectors in ~200ms
- +Removes the heavy operational burden of self-hosting distributed Milvus (Kubernetes, monitoring, backups, HA)
- –Cost is the most cited complaint, managed pricing can be far more expensive than self-hosting Milvus on a cheap VPS for small/hobby projects
- –vCU / CU-hour + tiered-storage billing model can be hard to forecast and reason about
- –Underlying Milvus has a steep learning curve, especially for distributed/self-hosted setups
Supabase Vector (pgvector) vs Zilliz Cloud (Milvus): questions
- Which has better documentation, Supabase Vector (pgvector) or Zilliz Cloud (Milvus)?
- Supabase Vector (pgvector) scores higher on documentation and developer experience: 86 vs 82 out of 100.
- Which is more reliable, Supabase Vector (pgvector) or Zilliz Cloud (Milvus)?
- Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) scores higher on reliability: 88 vs 80 out of 100.
- Do Supabase Vector (pgvector) and Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) have a free tier?
- Supabase Vector (pgvector): yes (Free project: 500MB DB, pgvector included). Zilliz Cloud (Milvus): yes (5GB storage + compute credits, permanent free tier).
- How are Supabase Vector (pgvector) and Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) priced?
- Supabase Vector (pgvector): Bundled in Postgres plan (storage-based). Zilliz Cloud (Milvus): Per compute-unit-hour + storage.
- Which has more official SDKs?
- Zilliz Cloud (Milvus) lists 9 official SDKs, Supabase Vector (pgvector) lists 7.
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