Vector databases · Comparison
Pinecone vs turbopuffer vs Zilliz Cloud
3 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Pinecone | turbopuffer | Zilliz Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeA serverless vector index with hybrid search, hosted models, backups and bulk import on a plan bought online, with no servers or replicas to size. | Worth the priceVector and full-text search billed by the bytes you store, write and query, with every database feature on the $16 plan. | Saves engineering timeManaged Milvus with a serverless option billed per request, free bulk import from object storage, and the Apache 2.0 engine as a way out. |
| Overall score | 6.8 | 5.6 | 7.2Best |
| Free option | Free plan | Paid only | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $20/mo | $16/mo minimum | $4/million vCUs |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Read units, write units and GB-month of storage (serverless) | GB stored, GB written, PB queried and GB returned | Serverless: vCUs and GB-month; Dedicated: CU-hours and GB-month |
| Free option | Starter free tier (2 GB, AWS us-east-1); 21-day Standard trial with $300 in credits | None; refund if cancelled within 30 days (sign-up page) | Free 5 GB cluster, no card; $100 trial credits for 30 days |
| Reference scenario (1M vectors, 1M queries) | $176.60/mo on Standard, computed | $30/mo on launch, computed | $113.28/mo on Serverless (GCP us-west1), computed |
| Plan minimum | Builder $20 flat; Standard $50; Enterprise $500 a month | launch $16; scale $256; enterprise from $4,096 a month | None |
| Hybrid search | Every plan (dense, sparse and full-text indexes) | Every plan (BM25 plus vector, rank fusion) | Every plan (BM25 full-text plus vector) |
| Backups | Standard and up, scheduled; $0.10 per GB-month | Manual namespace copies and branches; no automated backups | Dedicated clusters; point-in-time recovery on Business Critical |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 | SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001 not stated | SOC 2 Type II (under NDA) and ISO 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Standard add-on $190/mo (6-month minimum); included on Enterprise | scale and enterprise | Business Critical, through sales |
| EU regions | AWS Ireland and Frankfurt, GCP Netherlands, from Builder | AWS Frankfurt, Ireland and London; GCP Frankfurt and Belgium | Serverless in AWS Frankfurt; Dedicated in AWS, GCP and Azure EU regions |
| SSO | SAML on Standard and Enterprise | scale and enterprise, enabled on request | SAML or OIDC on Enterprise and up |
| BYOC | Enterprise only, priced by sales | enterprise | Through sales, annual commitment |
| Data export | List and fetch API; no bulk export | Paged query API (JSON) | SDK iterators; backup file export in private preview |
| Self-host path | None (Pinecone Local reached end of life on Oct 7, 2026) | None | Milvus (Apache 2.0), same SDKs |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Pinecone puts the most on a self-serve plan here: hybrid search, backups, bulk import, SAML SSO and a HIPAA add-on all on Standard. Query cost grows with namespace size, and there is no open-source engine to fall back on. | From its public pages, turbopuffer is the lowest-cost option for our scenario, with every database feature from a $16 minimum. It has no free tier, no automated backups and no open-source engine, and some pricing details differ between pages. | From its public pages, Zilliz Cloud is managed Milvus with per-request serverless billing, free bulk import, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and an open-source exit. Serverless runs in two regions only, and several prices differ between its pages. |
Evidence: Pinecone: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; turbopuffer: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Zilliz Cloud: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Pinecone review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Pinecone when
- You want a free tier, scheduled backups and bulk import from object storage.
- Pick turbopuffer when
- You want the lowest scenario cost here ($30 a month), billed by the bytes stored, written and queried.
From our turbopuffer review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick turbopuffer when
- You want the lowest bill for our scenario ($30 against $176.60) and every feature from a $16 minimum.
- Pick Pinecone when
- You want a free tier, scheduled backups and bulk import from object storage.
From our turbopuffer review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick turbopuffer when
- You want serverless pricing in AWS US regions such as us-east-1.
- Pick Zilliz Cloud when
- You want a free tier, free import from object storage and an open-source engine.
From our Zilliz Cloud review
Checked Oct 16, 2026- Pick Zilliz Cloud when
- You want no monthly minimum, an open-source engine behind the service and a lower scenario cost ($113.28 against $176.60).
- Pick Pinecone when
- You want serverless in AWS us-east-1, backups on the serverless plan and a HIPAA add-on bought online.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- PineconeBuilder$20/moFlat fee, card billing only; usage beyond the caps is blocked, not billed
- Up to 10 GB storage, 5M write units and 2M read units a month
- 10 GB egress a month
- US, EU and Asia regions on AWS, GCP and Azure
- No backups, bulk import or RBAC
- turbopufferLowest pricelaunch$16/mo minimumUsage above the minimum: $0.33/GB stored, $2/GB written, $1/PB queried, $0.05/GB returned
- All database features: vector, BM25 full-text and hybrid search
- Unlimited namespaces
- SOC 2 report and GDPR-ready DPA
- Community Slack and email support
- Zilliz CloudStandard (Serverless)$4/million vCUsPlus $0.30 per GB-month of storage; GCP us-west1 and AWS eu-central-1 only; no minimum
- Reads and writes billed in vCUs
- Import from object storage at no charge
- Organization and project RBAC, API keys
- No backups on Serverless clusters
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Pinecone 2026-10-16, turbopuffer 2026-10-16, Zilliz Cloud 2026-10-16.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Zilliz CloudSelf-serve sign-up, no card needed; the highest score of the 3 self-serve products here (7.2/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- Zilliz CloudFree plan, no card needed; scored 7.2/10.
- Lowest starter price
- turbopuffer$16/mo minimum for the launch plan. Zilliz Cloud lists no comparable paid price.
- Highest overall score
- Zilliz Cloud7.2/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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