Turbopuffer vs Weaviate
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Turbopuffer and Weaviate built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Turbopuffer if…
Teams that want vector search billed like storage rather than compute — object-storage-backed pricing tends to undercut memory-resident vector databases at rest, especially for large, cold datasets.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Weaviate if…
Teams that want hybrid search included on every tier without an add-on, or that want an always-free cluster (not a time-limited trial) to build against before committing to a paid plan.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Turbopuffer: The full list of supported similarity metrics matters before committing — that wasn't fully documented in what's sourced here, unlike competitors that publish the complete list.
- Weaviate: Predictable flat pricing matters more than granular control — per-dimension consumption billing means cost scales with embedding choices in a way a flat per-month plan doesn't.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Turbopuffer alternatives · Weaviate alternatives
19 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Turbopuffer 0
Weaviate 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Turbopuffer | Weaviate |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | No — Entry plan (launch) carries a $16/month minimum usage; pricing lists no free plan. | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | No free offer | Always free |
| Entry paid plan | Launch plan: $16/month minimum usage, including all database features. Scale plan: $256/month minimum. Enterprise: $4,096/month or more, plus a 35% usage premium. | Flex tier starts at $45/month, pay-as-you-go, no commitment. |
| Pricing model | Usage-based, against a monthly minimum per plan: $16 Launch, $256 Scale, $4,096 or more for Enterprise, which the page also marks with a 35% usage premium. | Consumption-based, charged on total vector dimensions stored plus storage, backups and optional AI services. Flex pricing starts around $0.00465 per 1M dimensions. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | 20 public regions listed in the docs: 10 on AWS, 9 on GCP and 1 on Azure (eastus2); dedicated and BYOC clusters elsewhere on request. | Free: AWS, 2 regions. Flex and Premium shared: GCP and AWS, 7 regions. Premium dedicated: GCP, AWS and Azure, roughly 40 regions. |
| Uptime SLA | 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $4,096/month). Launch and Scale publish no uptime SLA. | Best effort on Free; 99.5% on Flex; 99.9% on Premium shared; 99.95% on Premium dedicated. |
| Vector | ||
| Max vector dimensions | 10,752 maximum dimensions for dense vectors; 1,024 maximum dimensions per sparse vector (sparse total dimensions unlimited) | 65,535 dimensions maximum per embedding vector in Weaviate Database, because the embedding is stored using uint16. Stated for Weaviate Database generally; the FAQ gives no separate Weaviate Cloud cap. |
| Similarity metrics supported | Cosine distance is documented as a supported metric (used in the SDK's example code); the full list of supported metrics wasn't confirmed beyond this. | cosine (the default), dot, l2-squared, hamming and manhattan, set per vector index in vectorIndexConfig; the HFresh index supports only cosine and l2-squared. |
| Hybrid search (vector + keyword) | Supported | Supported across all plans. |
| Metadata filtering | Exact attribute filters on every query (and/or/not, eq, in, contains, range); the planner combines the attribute index with the ANN index. | Filtered vector search combines vector search with structured, scalar filters, implemented as pre-filtering rather than post-filtering. |
| Support | ||
| Support on entry paid plan | Community Slack and email on Launch, the entry paid plan. Scale adds a private Slack channel with 8-5 hours; Enterprise 24/7. | Email support on every tier including Free. Phone and Slack support start at Premium; a technical account team is an add-on there. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type 2 audited for security and availability controls; report and penetration test available on request from the Trust Center. | SOC 2 Type II, independently audited via Drata; Weaviate Cloud is SOC 2 audited and the report is in the trust portal. |
| HIPAA | Customers storing PHI may request a Business Associate Agreement; turbopuffer commits to the HIPAA requirements on business associates. Pricing page lists the HIPAA-ready BAA on the Scale and Enterprise plans, not on Launch. | HIPAA compliant on Enterprise Cloud (AWS); in the plan comparison table HIPAA is marked available only on the Premium dedicated column. |
| GDPR / data residency | Data stays in the region selected unless the customer moves it via the API; GDPR/CCPA Data Processing Addendum offered to all customers. | DPA: customer-selected cloud provider and hosting region are not changed without written consent; EEA transfers rely on EU standard contractual clauses. |
| Encryption at rest | Customer data always encrypted at rest with AES-256, and in transit with TLS 1.2+; optionally with a customer's own key. | AES-256 or equivalent at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys managed in cloud-provider KMS (AWS, GCP, Azure). |
| Customer-managed keys | CMEK on the Enterprise plan using keys from the customer's own KMS/EKM; the encryption key is defined at the namespace level. | Encrypted volumes with customer keys listed only for the Premium dedicated plan; not available on Free, Flex or Premium shared. Plan table columns are Free, Flex, Premium shared, Premium dedicated. |
| Role-based access control | No built-in row or document-level RBAC; docs say permissions have to be implemented at the user level with query filters. Statement is about row/document-level RBAC; no org-level role model is documented either way. | RBAC included on every Weaviate Cloud plan including Free; SSO/SAML only from Premium upward. |
| Private networking / VPC | Private connections from customer VPCs to multi-tenant regions on the Enterprise plan: AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect. | PrivateLink (AWS) listed only for the Premium dedicated plan; not available on Free, Flex or Premium shared. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Dedicated single-tenancy clusters in further regions, or BYOC clusters inside the customer's own VPC on AWS, GCP or Azure, spun up on request. Pricing page lists Single-Tenancy and BYOC under Deployment on the Enterprise plan only. | Dedicated Cloud is a managed deployment on single-tenant infrastructure with no noisy neighbors, offered as the Premium plan's dedicated option. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Turbopuffer
- No — Entry plan (launch) carries a $16/month minimum usage; pricing lists no free plan.
- Weaviate
- Yes
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“turbopuffer pricing launch Includes all database features Deployment Multi-Tenancy Security & Compliance SOC2 report, GDPR-ready DPA Support Community Slack & Email Sign up $16/month minimum usage”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Weaviate Pricing ↗
“always free - 1 cluster per user, upgrade to paid anytime.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Kind of free offer
- Turbopuffer
- No free offer
- Weaviate
- Always free
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“turbopuffer pricing launch Includes all database features Deployment Multi-Tenancy Security & Com”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Weaviate Pricing ↗
“free forever $0 /mo no credit card required a fully managed ai database to explore weaviate features.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Entry paid plan
- Turbopuffer
- Launch plan: $16/month minimum usage, including all database features. Scale plan: $256/month minimum. Enterprise: $4,096/month or more, plus a 35% usage premium.
- Weaviate
- Flex tier starts at $45/month, pay-as-you-go, no commitment.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Turbopuffer Pricing ↗
“$16/month minimum usage [...] $256/month minimum usage [...] Contact us >= $4,096/month 35% usage premium”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Weaviate Cloud Pricing ↗
“Flex: Starts at $45/mo. Pay-as-you-go, monthly, no commitment.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official pricing · Report a correction
Pricing model
- Turbopuffer
- Usage-based, against a monthly minimum per plan: $16 Launch, $256 Scale, $4,096 or more for Enterprise, which the page also marks with a 35% usage premium.
- Weaviate
- Consumption-based, charged on total vector dimensions stored plus storage, backups and optional AI services. Flex pricing starts around $0.00465 per 1M dimensions.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“$16/month minimum usage [...] $256/month minimum usage [...] >= $4,096/month 35% usage premium”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Weaviate Cloud Pricing ↗
“Why is pricing based on the total number of vector dimensions? [...] You are also billed for persistent and backup storage of objects and their embeddings. [...] Vector dimensions Free from $0.00465 / 1M”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Regions
- Turbopuffer
- 20 public regions listed in the docs: 10 on AWS, 9 on GCP and 1 on Azure (eastus2); dedicated and BYOC clusters elsewhere on request.
- Weaviate
- Free: AWS, 2 regions. Flex and Premium shared: GCP and AWS, 7 regions. Premium dedicated: GCP, AWS and Azure, roughly 40 regions.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Regions ↗
“All Regions Region Location Browser RTT aws - ap-southeast-2 Sydney, Australia [...] gcp - asia-northeast3 Seoul, South Korea [...] azure - eastus2 Virginia, US”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Weaviate Pricing ↗
“Cloud availability Cloud service provider AWS GCP, AWS GCP, AWS GCP, AWS, Azure Regions Limited (2) Limited (7) Limited (7) All (~40)”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Uptime SLA
- Turbopuffer
- 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $4,096/month). Launch and Scale publish no uptime SLA.
- Weaviate
- Best effort on Free; 99.5% on Flex; 99.9% on Premium shared; 99.95% on Premium dedicated.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“Support Hours 24/7 Support SLA Uptime SLA 99.95% Contact us >= $4,096/month”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Weaviate Pricing ↗
“SLAs Availability Best effort 99.5% 99.9% 99.95%”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Max vector dimensions
- Turbopuffer
- 10,752 maximum dimensions for dense vectors; 1,024 maximum dimensions per sparse vector (sparse total dimensions unlimited)
- Weaviate
- 65,535 dimensions maximum per embedding vector in Weaviate Database, because the embedding is stored using uint16. Stated for Weaviate Database generally; the FAQ gives no separate Weaviate Cloud cap.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Limits ↗
“Max dimensions for dense vectors 10,752 Max total dimensions for sparse vectors Unlimited (seen: 30,522) Max dimensions per sparse vector 1,024”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- FAQ | Weaviate Documentation ↗
“What is the maximum number of vector dimensions for embeddings? [...] As the embedding is currently stored using [...] the maximum possible length is currently 65535.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Similarity metrics supported
- Turbopuffer
- Cosine distance is documented as a supported metric (used in the SDK's example code); the full list of supported metrics wasn't confirmed beyond this.
- Weaviate
- cosine (the default), dot, l2-squared, hamming and manhattan, set per vector index in vectorIndexConfig; the HFresh index supports only cosine and l2-squared.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Turbopuffer documentation ↗
“distance_metric="cosine_distance"”
Read 2026-09-11 · official docs · Report a correction
- Distance metrics | Weaviate Documentation ↗
“If not specified explicitly, the default distance metric in Weaviate is [...] l2-squared The squared euclidean distance between two vectors. [...] manhattan The distance between two vector dimensions measured along axes at right angles.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Hybrid search (vector + keyword)
- Turbopuffer
- Supported
- Weaviate
- Supported across all plans.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Hybrid Search — turbopuffer docs ↗
“To improve search quality, multiple strategies can be used together. This is commonly referred to as hybrid search. turbopuffer supports vector search and BM25 full-text search.”
Read 2026-09-14 · official docs · Report a correction
- Weaviate Cloud Pricing ↗
“Hybrid search ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Backup retention × 7 days 30 days 45 days”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Metadata filtering
- Turbopuffer
- Exact attribute filters on every query (and/or/not, eq, in, contains, range); the planner combines the attribute index with the ANN index.
- Weaviate
- Filtered vector search combines vector search with structured, scalar filters, implemented as pre-filtering rather than post-filtering.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Query documents ↗
“Exact filters for attributes to refine search results for. Think of it as a SQL WHERE clause. [...] When combined with a vector, the query planner will automatically combine the attribute index and the approximate nearest neighbor index for best performance and recall.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Filtering | Weaviate Documentation ↗
“Weaviate provides powerful filtered vector search capabilities, allowing you to combine vector searches with structured, scalar filters. [...] Filtered vector search in Weaviate is based on the concept of pre-filtering.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Support on entry paid plan
- Turbopuffer
- Community Slack and email on Launch, the entry paid plan. Scale adds a private Slack channel with 8-5 hours; Enterprise 24/7.
- Weaviate
- Email support on every tier including Free. Phone and Slack support start at Premium; a technical account team is an add-on there.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- turbopuffer pricing ↗
“Support Community Slack & Email Private Slack Channel Support Hours 8-5 [...] Support Community Slack & Email Private Slack Channel Support Hours 24/7”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Weaviate Pricing ↗
“Support / onboarding Email support ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Phone support × × ✓ ✓ Slack support × × ✓ ✓ Technical account team × × add-on add-on”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
SOC 2
- Turbopuffer
- SOC 2 Type 2 audited for security and availability controls; report and penetration test available on request from the Trust Center.
- Weaviate
- SOC 2 Type II, independently audited via Drata; Weaviate Cloud is SOC 2 audited and the report is in the trust portal.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“turbopuffer undergoes System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2 audits of the design and operational effectiveness of security and availability controls. You can request a copy of the latest SOC 2 report and Penetration Test from our Trust Center”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Vector Database Pricing | Weaviate ↗
“SOC2 SOC 2 Type II independently audited via Drata. See our Trust Portal. [...] Is Weaviate Cloud SOC 2 / HIPAA compliant? + Yes. Weaviate Cloud is SOC 2 audited, and Enterprise Cloud on AWS is HIPAA compliant. See the Trust Portal for details.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
HIPAA
- Turbopuffer
- Customers storing PHI may request a Business Associate Agreement; turbopuffer commits to the HIPAA requirements on business associates. Pricing page lists the HIPAA-ready BAA on the Scale and Enterprise plans, not on Launch.
- Weaviate
- HIPAA compliant on Enterprise Cloud (AWS); in the plan comparison table HIPAA is marked available only on the Premium dedicated column.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“Customers who wish to store protected health information (PHI) in turbopuffer may request a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with turbopuffer, under which turbopuffer commits to compliance with the requirements of HIPAA on business associates that store and process PHI.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Vector Database Pricing | Weaviate ↗
“HIPAA HIPAA compliant available on Enterprise Cloud (AWS) for regulated healthcare workloads. [...] HIPAA compliant × × × ✓”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- Turbopuffer
- Data stays in the region selected unless the customer moves it via the API; GDPR/CCPA Data Processing Addendum offered to all customers.
- Weaviate
- DPA: customer-selected cloud provider and hosting region are not changed without written consent; EEA transfers rely on EU standard contractual clauses.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“Customer data inserted into one region remains in that region, except when requested by the customer via the turbopuffer API. [...] turbopuffer provides a Data Processing Addendum (DPA) for all customers to enable compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Weaviate Data Processing Agreement | Weaviate ↗
“the data processor agrees not to change the customer-selected cloud provider or hosting region without the customer [...] rely on EU approved standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- Turbopuffer
- Customer data always encrypted at rest with AES-256, and in transit with TLS 1.2+; optionally with a customer's own key.
- Weaviate
- AES-256 or equivalent at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit; keys managed in cloud-provider KMS (AWS, GCP, Azure).
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“Customer data and usage data is always encrypted in transit with TLS1.2+. Customer data is always encrypted at rest with AES-256”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Weaviate Data Processing Agreement | Weaviate ↗
“Encryption at rest: Customer and sensitive data are encrypted using AES-256 or equivalent standards. Encryption in transit: TLS 1.2+ is enforced for all external and internal communications. Encryption keys are managed securely using cloud provider KMS (AWS, GCP, Azure).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Customer-managed keys
- Turbopuffer
- CMEK on the Enterprise plan using keys from the customer's own KMS/EKM; the encryption key is defined at the namespace level.
- Weaviate
- Encrypted volumes with customer keys listed only for the Premium dedicated plan; not available on Free, Flex or Premium shared. Plan table columns are Free, Flex, Premium shared, Premium dedicated.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“turbopuffer offers support for customer managed encryption keys (CMEK), allowing customers on the Enterprise plan to ensure their data is encrypted using keys from their Key Management System (KMS)/Enterprise Key Manager (EKM). [...] the encryption key is defined at the namespace level.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Vector Database Pricing | Weaviate ↗
“Plan Free Flex Premium shared dedicated [...] Encrypted volumes (customer keys) × × × ✓”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Role-based access control
- Turbopuffer
- No built-in row or document-level RBAC; docs say permissions have to be implemented at the user level with query filters. Statement is about row/document-level RBAC; no org-level role model is documented either way.
- Weaviate
- RBAC included on every Weaviate Cloud plan including Free; SSO/SAML only from Premium upward.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Permissions ↗
“Permissions in turbopuffer currently have to be implemented at the user-level with filters, as turbopuffer [...] provide built-in mechanisms for row/document-level RBAC.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Vector Database Pricing | Weaviate ↗
“Security RBAC ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ SSO / SAML × × ✓ ✓ [...] ✓ Baseline security with RBAC.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Private networking / VPC
- Turbopuffer
- Private connections from customer VPCs to multi-tenant regions on the Enterprise plan: AWS PrivateLink, GCP Private Service Connect.
- Weaviate
- PrivateLink (AWS) listed only for the Premium dedicated plan; not available on Free, Flex or Premium shared.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Security & Compliance ↗
“turbopuffer supports private network connections between customer VPCs and our multi-tenant regions [...] This feature is available to customers on the Enterprise plan. AWS regions use AWS PrivateLink GCP regions use GCP Private Service Connect”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Vector Database Pricing | Weaviate ↗
“Plan Free Flex Premium shared dedicated [...] PrivateLink (AWS) × × × ✓”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Dedicated infrastructure
- Turbopuffer
- Dedicated single-tenancy clusters in further regions, or BYOC clusters inside the customer's own VPC on AWS, GCP or Azure, spun up on request. Pricing page lists Single-Tenancy and BYOC under Deployment on the Enterprise plan only.
- Weaviate
- Dedicated Cloud is a managed deployment on single-tenant infrastructure with no noisy neighbors, offered as the Premium plan's dedicated option.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Regions ↗
“In addition to these public clusters, we run dedicated clusters in various other regions for single-tenancy customers and in any region inside your VPC in AWS, GCP and Azure (BYOC). We can spin up dedicated or BYOC clusters in hours upon request”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Enterprise AI Database | Weaviate ↗
“Dedicated Cloud A professionally managed AI database on single-tenant infrastructure. Consistent performance with no noisy neighbors, backed by SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Turbopuffer or Weaviate?
Turbopuffer: Launch plan: $16/month minimum usage, including all database features. Scale plan: $256/month minimum. Enterprise: $4,096/month or more, plus a 35% usage premium.
Weaviate: Flex tier starts at $45/month, pay-as-you-go, no commitment.
Free tier: Turbopuffer or Weaviate?
Turbopuffer: No — Entry plan (launch) carries a $16/month minimum usage; pricing lists no free plan.
Weaviate: Yes
Should I choose Turbopuffer or Weaviate?
Pick Turbopuffer if Teams that want vector search billed like storage rather than compute — object-storage-backed pricing tends to undercut memory-resident vector databases at rest, especially for large, cold datasets.
Pick Weaviate if Teams that want hybrid search included on every tier without an add-on, or that want an always-free cluster (not a time-limited trial) to build against before committing to a paid plan.
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