# Milvus vector database

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/milvus/

6 people recommended Milvus vector database in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 5 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

3 of the 6 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “7 Years, 2 Rebuilds, 40K+ Stars: Milvus Recap and Roadmap”.

**Verdict:** Open-source vector database recommended for hybrid search, RAG and billions of vectors. Critics point to recent security flaws.

Summary written by Claude from 14 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 13 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Hybrid and BM25 search support (3 comments in the sample): "The hybrid search (combine dense search and sparse search) is native supported in the Milvus could help us to do better retrieve." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46630166)) "got lots of new features to support RAG, Agent development, features like BM25, hybrid search etc.." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498341)) "Purpose built vector db such as Milvus has mature full-text search / BM25 / Sparse vector support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45806693))
- Popular and mature vector database (2 comments in the sample): "Milvus is an incredibly cool product and a staple in my daily stack." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47004958)) "Milvus is the most popular vector database in the world." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46286688))

## What people warn about

- Recent security vulnerabilities (2 comments in the sample): "Milvus alone had two nasty CVEs recently, one was a full auth bypass on the proxy component" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47868969)) "Those recent Milvus CVEs just prove that the perimeter always fails eventually" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47869022))

## Other vector databases people recommend

- [Qdrant](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qdrant/): 15 recommend, 4 mixed, 3 criticize
- [sqlite-vec](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sqlite-vec/): 14 recommend, 2 mixed, 2 criticize
- [turbopuffer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/turbopuffer/): 11 recommend, 0 mixed, 2 criticize
- [Chroma](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chroma/): 9 recommend, 4 mixed, 3 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Milvus vector database", https://hackerapproved.com/p/milvus/ (6 recommend, 1 mixed, 5 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.