Epsilla Vector Database vs Qdrant API + MCP

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.

Qdrant API + MCP

Database keys can be read-only, limited to chosen collections and expire after 90 days by default. The MCP server has 2 tools, can't manage collections or run filtered queries, and last released on 10 December 2025.

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

Qdrant API + MCP

1. Create payload indexes on the fields you filter on, or filtered search slows on large collections
2. Use /points/query with prefetch to fuse dense and BM25 results
3. Pass wait=true on upserts when the next step reads its own writes
4. On 429, wait for the Retry-After seconds before retrying
5. Set with_vector=false unless the task needs vectors, since they dominate response size