Vector databases: star history compared

Vector search jumped from an information-retrieval niche to core infrastructure the moment retrieval-augmented generation became the default LLM architecture. The 2022–2023 inflection is visible in every curve in this category — Chroma sprinted from zero alongside the LangChain wave, Qdrant and Weaviate converted the moment into durable growth, and pgvector made the counter-argument that your existing Postgres was the vector database all along.

Ranked by current GitHub stars · growth = stars gained in the trailing 90 days · data updated Jul 2026

Vector databases — star history

FromTo

milvus-io/milvus
facebookresearch/faiss
qdrant/qdrant
chroma-core/chroma
pgvector/pgvector
weaviate/weaviate

Ranking

6 repositories

#	Repository	Stars	+90d	First star	Health
1	milvus-io/milvus	45,441	~97	2019	debt charts
2	facebookresearch/faiss	40,634	~132	2017	debt charts
3	qdrant/qdrant	33,700	~198	2020	debt charts
4	chroma-core/chroma	28,918	~84	2022	debt charts
5	pgvector/pgvector	22,420	~88	2021	debt charts
6	weaviate/weaviate	16,678	~43	2016	debt charts

Decision matrix

Repository health compared

Live Postgres analysis · unavailable data stays labeled

Popularity is only one axis. Compare technical scale, maintenance cadence, ownership resilience, and change pressure using the same completed repository analysis behind each report.

:: Reach

Popularity and real-world adoption

Signal	milvus-io/milvus	facebookresearch/faiss	qdrant/qdrant	chroma-core/chroma	pgvector/pgvector	weaviate/weaviate
GitHub starsCurrent public GitHub metadata total.	◆45,441	40,634	33,700	28,918	22,420	16,678
Stars gained · trailing 90dChange in the newest 90 days covered by each cached series.	+97	+132	◆+198	+84	+88	+43
ForksCurrent public GitHub metadata total.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Largest package audienceLargest resolved registry total; sources are shown explicitly.	No resolved package	No resolved package	No resolved package	No resolved package	No resolved package	No resolved package
Repository ageElapsed years since the GitHub creation timestamp.	6.9 years	9.5 years	6.2 years	3.8 years	5.3 years	10 years

:: Codebase

Size and technical center of gravity

Signal	milvus-io/milvus	facebookresearch/faiss	qdrant/qdrant	chroma-core/chroma	pgvector/pgvector	weaviate/weaviate
Dominant languageLargest share of analyzed code lines at current HEAD.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Code linesAnalyzed source lines at current HEAD, excluding blanks and comments.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Languages representedLanguages with non-zero files or line counts.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available

:: Maintenance

Commit volume and recent operating cadence

Signal	milvus-io/milvus	facebookresearch/faiss	qdrant/qdrant	chroma-core/chroma	pgvector/pgvector	weaviate/weaviate
Repository commitsFull repository commit total reported by the analysis.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Commits · trailing 90dCommit count in the newest 90 days covered by the repository analysis.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available

:: Ownership

How broadly maintenance responsibility is distributed

Signal	milvus-io/milvus	facebookresearch/faiss	qdrant/qdrant	chroma-core/chroma	pgvector/pgvector	weaviate/weaviate
Bus factorFewest analyzed contributors carrying at least half the commits.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Top contributor concentrationShare of attributed commits carried by the most active contributor.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available

:: Change signals

Debt markers and fix pressure in frequently changed files

Signal	milvus-io/milvus	facebookresearch/faiss	qdrant/qdrant	chroma-core/chroma	pgvector/pgvector	weaviate/weaviate
Fix-labelled share · frequently changed filesFix-labelled commits divided by commits across the analyzed high-frequency file set.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Recent TODO/FIXME movementLatest cumulative marker count and its change over the trailing 90 days.	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available

Head to head

open in the builder

faiss vs milvus milvus vs qdrant faiss vs qdrant

Frequently asked

Which of these vector databases has the most GitHub stars?

milvus-io/milvus is the most-starred of the vector databases gitdebt compares, with 45,441 GitHub stars as of Jul 2026. It earned its first star in 2019.

Which of these vector databases is growing the fastest?

qdrant/qdrant added the most stars over the last 90 days of its cached history — about 198 new stars, compared with about 97 for the category leader milvus-io/milvus. 90-day figures are approximate for older repos, whose history is downsampled.

How is this comparison computed?

The table ranks public repository metadata by current total stars. When historical stargazer timestamps are available, gitdebt plots their cumulative series on shared axes and estimates trailing 90-day growth. Repo-health charts come independently from each repository's commit history.

Related categories

all categories

Fastest-growing repos across all of gitdebt