# Alternatives to Pinecone

> Source: https://theagentsindex.com/pinecone/alternatives/ (re-verified)
> Updated: 1 November 2026

## At a glance

| Name | Best for | Starts at | Better than Pinecone at | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Pinecone](https://theagentsindex.com/pinecone.md) | Developers and enterprises building AI agents, search, and recommendation systems | Free, then $20 a month | — | 29 October 2026 |
| [Qdrant](https://theagentsindex.com/qdrant.md) | Teams testing vector-search prototypes before production rollout | Free | Model choice, Self-hosted | 29 October 2026 |

The ones people open most here come first, then the closest matches.

## Shortlist

### 1. Qdrant

Open-source vector database with managed, hybrid, and private-cloud deployment choices.

**Where it improves on Pinecone:**
- [Model choice: yes — Cloud Inference offers Qdrant-hosted models and lets customers access embedding models through external providers.](https://qdrant.tech/documentation/cloud/inference/)
- [Self-hosted: yes — Qdrant documents self-hosted deployments and also offers fully air-gapped Private Cloud on customer Kubernetes infrastructure.](https://qdrant.tech/documentation/private-cloud/)
- [Open source: yes — Qdrant publishes its vector database source publicly in the official qdrant/qdrant repository.](https://github.com/qdrant/qdrant)

**Trade-offs against Pinecone:**
- None found.

[View Qdrant](https://theagentsindex.com/qdrant)