# LanceDB vs Qdrant API + MCP

> Qdrant API + MCP has a score of 75.3 (BB) against LanceDB's 65.4 (B). Both do db vector. The largest gap is security & auth, 39 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Qdrant API + MCP has a score of 75.3 (BB) against LanceDB's 65.4 (B). Both do db vector. The largest gap is security & auth, 39 points.

- LanceDB: grade B, 65.4/100, rank #174 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lancedb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lancedb.json
- Qdrant API + MCP: grade BB, 75.3/100, rank #37 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qdrant.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qdrant.json

## Which one, for what

Pick LanceDB for maintenance & community (+8).

Pick Qdrant API + MCP for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+6), agent ergonomics (+13), security & auth (+39), payments & pricing (+10), transparency & trust (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LanceDB | Qdrant API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 80 | Qdrant API + MCP +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 87 | Qdrant API + MCP +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 87 | Qdrant API + MCP +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 83 | Qdrant API + MCP +39 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Qdrant API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 93 | 85 | LanceDB +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 84 | Qdrant API + MCP +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **65.4 · B** | **75.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LanceDB | Qdrant API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LanceDB | Qdrant |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.cloud.qdrant.io` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 2 |
| 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 | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Popularity | 12k stars, 922k npm/wk, 1.9M PyPI/wk | 35k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 3M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.6/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**LanceDB.** Embedded, no server, and tables can live directly in S3, GCS or Azure storage. No self-serve hosted API. Enterprise is sold through a contact form.

**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.

## Before you call either

### LanceDB

1. Use it through the Python or TypeScript library. There's no public endpoint an agent can call without an Enterprise deployment
2. Build an FTS index before calling `query_type="hybrid"`, or hybrid search has no keyword side
3. Call `optimize()` after many small writes, since each write adds a new file version
4. Use `select()` to drop the vector column from results unless the task needs it
5. On object storage, set a read consistency interval if several processes write the same table

### 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

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