zvec
FreeA lightweight, lightning-fast, in-process vector database
About zvec
Zvec is an open-source, in-process vector database developed by Alibaba. It is designed to be lightweight, lightning-fast, and battle-tested, capable of scaling to billions of vectors with sub-millisecond search latency. Key capabilities include support for both dense and sparse embeddings, hybrid search that combines semantic similarity with structured filters, durable storage via write-ahead logging (WAL), concurrent read access by multiple processes, and single-process exclusive writes. As an in-process library, Zvec runs anywhere your code runs — notebooks, servers, CLI tools, or edge devices — with no servers, no configuration, and no fuss.
Key Features
Pros & Cons
- Extremely fast sub-millisecond search latency
- Simple installation and usage with zero configuration
- Native support for both dense and sparse embeddings
- Hybrid search enables precise filtering combined with semantic similarity
- Durable persistence via write-ahead logging prevents data loss
- Concurrent read access allows multiple processes to query simultaneously
- Versatile deployment across various environments
- Open-source with backing from Alibaba
- Writes are single-process exclusive, limiting write concurrency
- In-process architecture restricts scaling to multi-node distributed setups
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