Vespa
Vespa is an open-source serving engine for text, vectors, tensors, and structured data, plus a managed Cloud. vespa.ai still sells search, RAG, recommendation, and online ranking together. docs.vespa.ai/en/cloud and cloud.vespa.ai describe Vespa Cloud. cloud.vespa.ai/en/pricing has a unit table, not a $20 seat. vespa.ai/free-trial and the README still say you can run apps in Cloud for free during a trial.
Compare Qdrant if you wanted a dedicated vector engine with Cloud Free / usage-based Standard, Pinecone if you wanted Free / $20 / $50 min / $500 min, and Milvus if you wanted another OSS vector database.
Key Features
- OSS plus Cloud: Self-host Apache-2.0 Vespa, or deploy on Vespa Cloud / Vespa on AWS. Do not treat the marketing homepage as a dollar quote.
- Hybrid retrieval, not vectors only: First-party pages still combine keyword, vector, tensor, and structured search with online ML ranking. That is the product, not a leftover algorithm zoo.
- Cloud prices are units: cloud.vespa.ai/en/pricing lists vCPU hour, memory GB hour, disk GB hour, GPU hour, volume GB month, and network GB. AWS and GCP rows differ. Confirm that page before you invent a seat.
- Free trial is not a forever Free node: vespa.ai/free-trial and the README advertise a Cloud trial. We did not treat that as Qdrant-style free-forever.
Use Cases
- People who will self-host Vespa and pay their own machines.
- Teams that need ranking + hybrid search, not only ANN.
- Teams that will open the Cloud calculator and accept unit billing.
Limitation: vespa.ai/pricing is a marketing page without a printed seat.
Pricing
GitHub, vespa.ai, and cloud.vespa.ai/en/pricing on 2026-08-18.
| Piece | Price | Notes from first-party pages |
|---|---|---|
| Vespa OSS | $0 | Apache-2.0. 7,052 stars. Self-host. |
| Vespa Cloud trial | Free trial | vespa.ai/free-trial and README. Confirm current terms. |
| Vespa Cloud usage | Unit table | vCPU / memory / disk / GPU / volume / network. AWS and GCP differ. |
| Support / sales | Contact | Homepage Contact us. No invented Enterprise seat. |
If a leftover blog still calls Vespa an unpriced all-in-one toolkit, treat this table as the source.
Getting Started
- Open github.com/vespa-engine/vespa or docs.vespa.ai.
- Confirm cloud.vespa.ai/en/pricing before you assume a $20 Builder row.
- Confirm Qdrant if you wanted a printed Cloud Free node.
- Do not paste homepage "below 100 milliseconds" as a contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the engine free?
Yes. Apache-2.0. Cloud is a separate product with a trial and unit billing.
Is there a public dollar table?
There is a Cloud unit table. There is no public $20 / $50 / $500 seat matrix like Pinecone.
Same as Qdrant?
No. Qdrant is a vector engine plus Cloud Free / usage-based Standard. Vespa is a serving platform that also does vectors.
Alternatives
- Qdrant: OSS vector engine plus Cloud Free / usage-based Standard.
- Pinecone: Managed vector DB with public dollar rows.
- Milvus: Another open vector database; managed Cloud is Zilliz.
Tips
- Quote 7,052 stars and Apache-2.0 from the GitHub check.
- Split Vespa OSS from Vespa Cloud units.
- Confirm the Cloud calculator before you invent a monthly seat.
Conclusion
Vespa is an Apache-2.0 search and serving engine with 7,052 stars; Cloud bills units after a trial, not an unpriced toolkit. Start at github.com/vespa-engine/vespa or cloud.vespa.ai/en/pricing, then decide whether Qdrant already covers the vector Cloud you need.
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