Elasticsearch has long been a popular open source search and analytics engine. However, as technology evolves, new open source alternatives have emerged that aim to improve upon or replace Elasticsearch. This article explores the top 15 open source alternatives to Elasticsearch in 2024.
Best Open Source Elasticsearch Alternatives
1. MeiliSearch
MeiliSearch is an ultra fast open source search engine optimized for voice and textual search. Key strengths include:
- Instant search with sub second latency
- Simple REST APIs
- Lightweight and easy to deploy
- Sortable search results
- Filtering and faceted search
- Synonym matching
Ideal for digital assistants, ecommerce, and search apps. MeiliSearch is built in Rust.
2. Jina AI
Jina AI is the leading open source platform for neural search, using state-of-the-art AI to match queries with results. Key features:
- Vector database for text, images, audio, and video
- Content based neural search algorithms
- Manager for distributed indexing and querying
- Customizable over HTTP/GRPC APIs
Jina excels for semantic search across apps and devices. It also handles multilingual data well. Core support is in Python.
3. Vespa
Originally created by Yahoo, Vespa is a big data search engine. Strengths include:
- Handles web size and machine generated data at scale
- Optimized for ad-hoc analytics queries
- Supports text, structured, temporal, spatial search
- In memory indexes for speed
- Built as a containerized application
Vespa works great for recommender systems. C++ APIs give versatility.
4. Weaviate
Weaviate bills itself as a “data first semantic graph platform”. Benefits cover:
- Vector search for accuracy
- Graph models for relationships
- Schema management and custom data models
- Kubernetes native and cloud deployments
- Run machine learning models directly
Weaviate fits semantic search, question answering, and contextual recommendations. The stack utilizes Go and Python.
5. Pinecone
From Pinecone Systems comes an eponymous vector database for embedding powered search. Perks include:
- Optimized architecture for vector similarity search
- Cloud managed service with usage based pricing
- Vector indexing speeds up ML applications
- Horizontal scalability to billions of items
- Interoperability with popular data science tools
Great for production model serving. Managed via REST API or Python/Node SDKs.
6. Typesense
Typesense offers blazing fast open source search with rich features. Benefits include:
- Typo tolerant fuzzy search
- Filtering, faceting, pagination
- Support for multi tenancy
- Zero config scaling within Nodes
- Simple data schema
Shines for personalized content discovery and merchandising search. Typesense uses Rust, Go, and Node.js.
7. Tantivy
Tantivy serves similarity and full text search at high speed. Plus:
- Pure Rust implementation
- Own query language
- Multi threaded indexing and search
- Tunable relevance scoring
- Stored fields for hit highlighting
Tantivy delivers blazing text search for apps and websites. Customization via Rust.
8. Sphinx Search
A longtime open source leader, Sphinx Search remains capable and customizable. Benefits cover:
- Mature SQL and API integrations
- Real time indexes and incremental updates
- Result relevance tuning
- Multi threaded distributed searching
- Plugins extend functionality
Sphinx Search succeeds at traditional document retrieval. Modified via C++ or PHP APIs.
9. Lucene + Solr
Lucene powers search for many Java apps. For production use, Solr adds enterprise capabilities:
- Vast document support with minimal hardware
- Distributed, fault tolerant architecture
- Optimized for ad-hoc text analytics
- Real time indexing and causal updates
- Tiered relevance tuning
Together, Lucene + Solr provide versatile full text search and analytics. Control via Java and REST APIs.
10. Elastic App Search
An Elastic product built on Elasticsearch, App Search offers managed search services. Strengths include:
- Developer friendly APIs
- Secure access with authentication
- Optimized UI components and SDKs
- Usage based pricing, no servers to manage
- Fully managed deployment
App Search delivers hosted Elasticsearch capabilities. Managed via REST API or client libraries.
11. Coveo
Coveo offers a full range of insights solutions. For search, it boasts:
- Broad unified indexing connectors
- AI for relevance tuning
- Usage analytics dashboard
- Omnichannel query routing
- Easy administrator controls
Coveo excels at insights across customer touchpoints. Control happens via .NET APIs.
12. Algolia
Another hosted offering, Algolia focuses on precise search at scale. It provides:
- Typo tolerance and dynamic filters
- Granular access controls
- Real time analytics
- Multi cluster redundancy
- API or dashboard management
Algolia simplifies search for consumer apps. Integrations happen over REST API.
13. SearchBlox
From Sinequa, SearchBlox enables powerful search applications via:
- Over 300 data source connectors
- Entity extraction and analytics
- Insights Studio for customization
- Usage analysis reporting
- On cloud or on-prem options
SearchBlox tackles complex search needs for large organizations. Control through web UI or APIs.
14. Bloomberg Entity Search
From business data giant Bloomberg, Entity Search enables contextual investigation. Benefits include:
- Entity centric knowledge graph
- Relationship mapping
- Relevance recommendations
- Analyst access to data scientists
- On-prem or via Bloomberg Cloud
Purpose-built for financial conduct analysis. Managed by Bloomberg engineers.
15. Azure Cognitive Search
A fully managed cloud service, Azure Cognitive Search brings Microsoft muscle. Capabilities span:
- AI enrichment pipelines
- Custom scoring profiles
- Geo search parameters
- Backed by speedy indexes
- Serves apps on Azure
Fits search heavy workloads on Microsoft Azure. Control via .NET SDKs.
| Alternative | Description | Key Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| OpenSearch | Open source Elasticsearch fork | Advanced features, open source license |
| MeiliSearch | Ultra fast open source search engine | Easy to use, typo tolerance, synonyms |
| Jina AI | Open source neural search framework | State-of-the-art AI capabilities |
Key Considerations When Evaluating Alternatives
When evaluating Elasticsearch alternatives, some key factors to consider include:
- Features needed: Ensure required capabilities like full text search, analytics, NLP, recommendations, graph capabilities, etc. are supported
- Speed and scalability: Evaluate search performance and ability to scale massive datasets
- Ease of use and adoption: Consider developer experience and learning curve
- Total cost of ownership: Factor in commercial licensing, hosting, ops, and scaling costs
- Cloud native support: If leveraging the cloud, ensure alternative fits your cloud stack
- Community and support: Assess if community and dev support meets your needs
The open source projects and commercial solutions listed here represent the top alternatives with differentiated capabilities versus Elasticsearch. Thoroughly evaluate options against your specific requirements before migrating search workloads. Test promising alternatives with production grade workloads to validate performance.
Conclusion
Elasticsearch has been the go-to open source search and analytics engine for many years. However, compelling alternatives have emerged more recently that aim to address limitations and next generation use cases. Options like OpenSearch, MeiliSearch, Jina AI, Weaviate, and Vespa offer greater speed, scale, ease of use, AI capabilities, and cloud native architectural advantages. Commercial solutions like Coveo and Algolia also provide robust capabilities.
Organizations should carefully assess their search and analytics needs, and evaluate leading alternatives against critical factors before considering moving off Elasticsearch. Testing at scale on real world data is advised before migrating production workloads. While Elasticsearch remains a strong option, competition is growing and alternatives may better meet evolving business requirements. This gives enterprises more choice to power search, recommendations, personalization, analytics, and insights leveraging modern open source platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Elasticsearch still a good option compared to alternatives?
Yes, Elasticsearch remains widely used and capable for many search workloads, especially with the launch of OpenSearch. However, organizations should evaluate if alternatives better meet their requirements.
What are some key drivers causing enterprises to migrate from Elasticsearch?
Main drivers are lower cost, greater scalability needs, desire for advanced AI capabilities, and need for easier cloud native deployments. Licensing changes also prompted adoption of the OpenSearch fork.
Which alternative is best for speed and performance at scale?
MeiliSearch, Vespa, and Pinecone are optimized to offer ultra fast search performance on massive datasets with low latency. Jina AI also leverages AI to improve search speed.
Is OpenSearch a drop in replacement for Elasticsearch?
Mostly, OpenSearch is API compatible with Elasticsearch allowing for simpler migration. Some plugins may need updates. Both options remain strong open source search engines.
What option is easiest for developers to add search?
MeiliSearch prioritizes simplicity allowing developers to add search via easy REST and SDK APIs in minutes with no infrastructure required. Algolia and Coveo also offer fast search integration.
