COMPARISON MATRIX
Hybrid Search vs. Dense Vector Search
Evaluating single-stage vector matching against multi-stage hybrid retrieval pipelines.
Option A
Hybrid Search (BM25 + Vector)
Option B
Dense Vector Search
| Capability / Dimension | Hybrid Search (BM25 + Vector) | Dense Vector Search |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword Precision | High (captures serial numbers, acronyms, code identifiers) | Low (vector embeddings blur exact rare token matches) |
| Conceptual Intent | High (via vector branch) | High (excels at natural language intent) |
| Fusion Method | Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF) or weighted score normalization | Single distance metric sorting |
| Production Standard | Industry best practice for enterprise RAG | Good baseline for simple semantic lookups |