RAG & Vector Databases
Retrieval frameworks, document pipelines and vector stores.
7 projects · catalog last checked 2026-10-20. "Highlight" is editorial; status, commit and release come from the weekly evidence refresh.
Comparison
| Project | What it does | Highlight (editorial) | Deployment | Hardware | Licence | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LlamaIndex | Data framework for RAG | Framework | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | MIT | active |
| Haystack | Production RAG pipelines | Framework | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | Apache-2.0 | active |
| RAGFlow | Deep-document-understanding RAG engine | Engine + UI | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | Apache-2.0 | active |
| Qdrant | Vector search engine | Vector DB | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | Apache-2.0 | active |
| Chroma | Embedding database | Vector DB (embedded) | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | Apache-2.0 | active |
| Milvus | Cloud-native vector database | Vector DB (scale) | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | Apache-2.0 | active |
| Weaviate | Vector DB with hybrid search | Vector DB (hybrid) | library, self-hosted | cpu-ok | BSD-3-Clause (core) ⚠ needs review | active |
Quick start
docker run -d -p 6333:6333 qdrant/qdrant
pip install llama-index llama-index-vector-stores-qdrant
Project details
LlamaIndex
Data framework for RAG
| Upstream repository | LlamaIndex on GitHub |
| Setup docs | LlamaIndex setup guide |
| Licence | MIT · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | MIT |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | – |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-14 |
| Latest release | v0.14.25 (2026-09-21) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Python |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |
Haystack
Production RAG pipelines
| Upstream repository | Haystack on GitHub |
| Setup docs | Haystack setup guide |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | – |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-20 |
| Latest release | v3.4.0 (2026-10-15) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Python |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |
RAGFlow
Deep-document-understanding RAG engine
| Upstream repository | RAGFlow on GitHub |
| Setup docs | RAGFlow setup guide |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | – |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-20 |
| Latest release | v1.0.0-rc2 (2026-10-16) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Python |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |
Qdrant
Vector search engine
| Upstream repository | Qdrant on GitHub |
| Setup docs | Qdrant setup guide |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | – |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-05 |
| Latest release | v1.19.2 (2026-10-05) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Rust |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |
Chroma
Embedding database
| Upstream repository | Chroma on GitHub |
| Setup docs | Chroma setup guide |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | – |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-17 |
| Latest release | 1.5.9 (2026-05-05) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Rust, Python |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |
Milvus
Cloud-native vector database
| Upstream repository | Milvus on GitHub |
| Setup docs | Milvus setup guide |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | – |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-20 |
| Latest release | v3.0.3 (2026-10-14) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Go |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |
Weaviate
Vector DB with hybrid search
| Upstream repository | Weaviate on GitHub |
| Setup docs | Weaviate setup guide |
| Licence | BSD-3-Clause (core) ⚠ needs review · licence evidence · checked 2026-10-20 |
| Licence detected by GitHub | NOASSERTION |
| Repository state | active |
| Licence review reason | Multiple licences: source is variously BSD-3-Clause or the Weaviate License (upstream LICENSE). |
| Last lookup | ok |
| Last commit | 2026-10-16 |
| Latest release | v1.40.1 (2026-10-13) |
| Deployment | library, self-hosted |
| Hardware | cpu-ok |
| Languages | Go |
| Evidence collected | 2026-10-20 |