# Chroma API + MCP vs Epsilla Vector Database

> Chroma API + MCP has a score of 45.4 (E) against Epsilla Vector Database's 36 (F). Both do db vector. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 35 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Chroma API + MCP has a score of 45.4 (E) against Epsilla Vector Database's 36 (F). Both do db vector. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 35 points.

- Chroma API + MCP: grade E, 45.4/100, rank #400 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/chroma.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/chroma.json
- Epsilla Vector Database: grade F, 36/100, rank #439 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/epsilla.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/epsilla.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Chroma API + MCP for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+35), agent ergonomics (+26), security & auth (+13), maintenance & community (+27), transparency & trust (+10).

Pick Epsilla Vector Database for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Chroma API + MCP | Epsilla Vector Database | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 55 | Chroma API + MCP +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 36 | Chroma API + MCP +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 47 | Chroma API + MCP +26 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 25 | Chroma API + MCP +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 8 | Chroma API + MCP +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 65 | Chroma API + MCP +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -10 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **45.4 · E** | **36 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Chroma API + MCP | Epsilla Vector Database |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Chroma | Epsilla |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.trychroma.com/api/v2` | `https://dispatch.epsilla.com/api/v3` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-06-30 | 2025-11-29 |
| Popularity | 29k stars, 302k npm/wk, 1.6M PyPI/wk | 875 stars, 75 npm/wk, 125 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 1.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Chroma API + MCP.** Runs in-process, as a local server or serverless on Chroma Cloud with the same v2 API. CVE-2026-45829, CVSS 9.3, has no patched release more than four months after the advisory.

**Epsilla Vector Database.** GPL-3.0 server you can run from one Docker image. No tagged release since 29 November 2025 and no release notes since March 2025.

## Before you call either

### Chroma API + MCP

1. Don't expose a self-hosted chromadb 1.5.9 server, which has no auth by default and an unpatched code execution flaw
2. Batch writes in groups of 300 or fewer on Chroma Cloud
3. Use the Search API for hybrid ranking. The older `query()` only does dense search plus filters
4. Pass `include` without embeddings, since returned GiB are billed
5. Don't pass `ollama` to `chroma_create_collection`. The description lists it but the server can't map it

### Epsilla Vector Database

1. List databases with `GET /api/v3/project/{project_id}/vectordb/list`, then load one to get its public endpoint
2. Hybrid search is assembled client-side with `as_search_engine().add_retriever(...).set_reranker(type="rrf")`
3. If you use pyepsilla against the cloud, patch or wrap it to verify TLS
4. Ask a person to create the database in the console first. The API can't

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