Chroma vs Qdrant

Embedded Design

Chroma is designed to be embedded in your application with minimal overhead. It prioritizes developer experience over advanced features.

Core Components

• • SQLite/DuckDB backend
• • HNSW index for vectors
• • Simple collection API
• • Automatic persistence

Production Design

Qdrant is built for production workloads with advanced filtering, distributed deployment, and optimized performance.

Core Components

• • Optimized HNSW index
• • Advanced filter engine
• • Distributed architecture
• • Multiple API protocols

Getting Started

import chromadb

# That's it - you're ready!
client = chromadb.Client()
collection = client.create_collection("my_data")

# Add data
collection.add(
    documents=["Hello world", "Goodbye world"],
    metadatas=[{"source": "notion"}, {"source": "google"}],
    ids=["id1", "id2"]
)

# Query
results = collection.query(
    query_texts=["Hello"],
    n_results=2
)

Pros

• ✓ Incredibly simple API
• ✓ Zero configuration
• ✓ Great for beginners
• ✓ Automatic vectorization

Cons

• ✗ Limited features
• ✗ Scale limitations
• ✗ Basic filtering only

Getting Started

from qdrant_client import QdrantClient
from qdrant_client.models import Distance, VectorParams, PointStruct

client = QdrantClient("localhost", port=6333)

# Create collection
client.create_collection(
    collection_name="my_data",
    vectors_config=VectorParams(size=768, distance=Distance.COSINE)
)

# Add data with filtering support
client.upsert(
    collection_name="my_data",
    points=[
        PointStruct(
            id=1,
            vector=[0.1] * 768,
            payload={"source": "notion", "type": "doc"}
        )
    ]
)

# Advanced filtering
results = client.search(
    collection_name="my_data",
    query_vector=[0.1] * 768,
    query_filter={
        "must": [{"key": "source", "match": {"value": "notion"}}]
    },
    limit=5
)

Pros

• ✓ Production features
• ✓ Advanced filtering
• ✓ Great performance
• ✓ Multiple APIs

Cons

• ✗ More complex setup
• ✗ Steeper learning
• ✗ More configuration