Keeping data organized at your company is often downright overwhelming. And finding the information you’re searching for is like finding a needle in a corporate haystack. 🤔
Search and analytics platforms, like Elasticsearch, make finding information considerably more manageable. Elasticsearch transforms your company database into a search engine so individuals can easily find information in seconds (versus hours, days, or weeks sifting through company files).
If one of your company goals is to find a better way to search through and analyze data, keep reading. Below, we dive into the top ten best Elasticsearch alternatives to easily navigate through company information. 🤩
What is an Elasticsearch?
Elasticsearch is a distributed, RESTful open-source search platform that lets users search for and find information. Like a search engine—think Google or Microsoft Bing—Elasticsearch allows users to log, store, search, and analyze large quantities of data in a very short amount of time.
Elasticsearch works by indexing seemingly unrelated data from different locations. Then, a user types in a search query and Elasticsearch finds relevant information in real time.
The enterprise search platform sifts through virtually any type of data, including documents, emails, products, numbers, and even geographic locations.
What Should You Look for in Elasticsearch Alternatives?
The right Elasticsearch alternative should allow you to search through, analyze, ingest, and visualize all types of data. If you’re looking for a platform to replace Elasticsearch, choose one with the functionality on the list below.
- Searches multiple types of data: The right search engine and search analytics platform should allow you to filter through multiple types of data, including textual, numerical, and geospatial
- Offers visual dashboards: The right platform shouldn’t just display results for a search query. Instead, it should offer data aggregation and reporting visuals so you’ll better understand and interpret data
- Quick search results: The right Elasticsearch alternative will filter through data sources in real-time, delivering accurate search results in seconds
- AI-powered search: The most powerful search engines and analytics engine platforms run algorithms using machine learning
- Open API: Elasticsearch first became popular in 2010 as a free, open-source search engine platform. Many corporations and developers like the freedom an open API offers, like the ability to customize a solution to fit their unique needs
The 10 Best ElasticSearch Alternatives to Use in 2024
Looking for a platform to replace ElasticSearch? The platforms below will interpret data while providing top-tier search experiences:
1. Algolia
Founded in 2012, Algolia is a proprietary search engine platform. In essence, the company acts as a search engine within a client’s website and crawls the website to provide fast and relevant results to visitors’ search queries.
Some of its major features rely use A/B testing, faceted search tools, and full-text search engine capabilities.
Algolia best features
- Leverage Algolia NeuralSearch, which uses AI adaptive learning to develop and suggest more relevant search queries
- Connect buyers to relevant products through B2B and B2C ecommerce solutions
- Increase web traffic by enabling search capabilities across different types of data
- Launch A/B testing to discover the best high-performance search strategies
Algolia limitations
- Some search results can be misleading across its search engine
- The solution is a plug-and-play platform, and you will need to do upfront work on the implementation process
Algolia pricing
- Build: Free
- Grow: $0.50/month
- Premium: Contact for pricing
- Elevate: Contact for pricing
Algolia ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (300+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (70 reviews)
2. Typesense
Typesense is a modern, open-source search engine platform. This Elasticsearch alternative comes complete with search-as-you-type, geo-search, semantic search, and vector search.
Simply use Typsense Cloud to provision a cluster, create a collection, add documents, and your search server is good to go.
Typesense best features
- Don’t worry about typos in your search query, thanks to Typo Tolerance
- Pin, position, or merchandise-specific results within search results
- Use dynamic sorting to filter results by custom fields
- Search and sort results within a specific region through geo-search
Typesense limitations
- The platform isn’t reviewed on G2 or Capterra, so it’s not clear how satisfied customers are with the product
Typesense pricing
- Pricing is based on memory and starts at $0.03/hr ($21.60/month) and $0.09/GB for 0.5 MB
Typesense ratings and reviews
- G2: Not reviewed
- Capterra: Not listed
3. Meilisearch
Meilisearch is a lightning-fast, open-source platform that returns search results in just 50 milliseconds. As a plug-and-play platform, it lets you start searching through your data with zero configuration.
Plus, the full-text search engine retrieves relevant results for every use case.
Meilisearch best features
- Increase conversions and online sales by sorting through e-commerce products, media, and documents
- Increase user retention through App Search, creating an excellent search experience through SaaS and mobile platforms
- Detect multiple languages automatically
- Create your own default ranking rules to determine which results appear first
Meilisearch limitations
- There is a limit of 10 words per search query
- Indexing large batches of documents can cause an internal error
Meilisearch ratings and reviews
- G2: 5/5 (1 review)
- Capterra: Not listed
4. Solr
Solr (also known as Apache Solr) is a versatile Elasticsearch alternative built on the Apache Lucene platform that provides indexing, replication, and querying. Optimized for high-volume traffic, Solr comes complete with full-text search capabilities, a responsive administrative interface, and near real-time indexing.
Solr best features
- Take advantage of an open-source plugin architecture to customize the search engines’ platform to your needs
- Place documents on the server using a number of programming languages, including JSON, XML, CSV, or HTTP
- Learn more about Solr and get up and running through an advanced resource library
Solr limitations
- Some users claim it needs more documentation on how to use the platform
- The query language can be confusing at first
Solr pricing
- Free
Solr ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.1/5 (25 reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (13 reviews)
5. Vespa
Vespa is an open-source search engine and vector database. The AI-powered platform supports vector search, lexical search, and structured data search in a single query.
Compared to other search engines on this list, Vespa groups data dynamically for ecommerce platforms and other web services.
Vespa best features
- Recommend and personalize search results for each user or situation
- Scale to any amount of data and/or traffic
- Use Vespa’s grouping language to determine how query matches should be grouped or aggregated
Vespa limitations
- The documentation on how to get up and running could be improved
- There are no reviews on G2, Capterra, or Stackshare
Vespa pricing
Searches on Vespa are free, but Vespa Cloud is priced as follows:
- Per vCPU hour: $.011
- Per memory GB hour: $.011
- Per disk GB hour: $.0004
- Per GPU-memory GB hour: $.075
Vespa ratings and reviews
- G2: No reviews
- Capterra: Not listed
6. Manticore Search
In 2017, Manticore Search began as an alternative to the formerly popular search engine Sphinx Search. Supposedly 4X faster than Elasticsearch, Manticore is known for its performance and ease of use. With Manticore Search, prepare virtually any type of search query using SQL and JSON.
Manticore Search best features
- In certain tests, Manticore Search has been shown to be up to 15X faster than Elasticsearch on small data, 4X faster in big data, and 29X faster for log analytics
- Take advantage of full-text capabilities that have over 20 full-text operators and 20 ranking factors
- Easily integrate Manticore Search into your existing stack, as it can read data from MySQL, Postgres, MSSQL, ODBC, XML, CSV, and TSV
Manticore limitations
- There have been some reports of the index crashing
Manticore pricing
- Free
Manticore ratings and reviews
- G2: Not reviewed
- Capterra: Not listed
7. Xapian
Xapian is a search engine library written in C++. It has bindings that allow individuals to use Perl, Python 2, Python 3, PHP, Java, Tcl, Ruby, Lua, Node.js, and other languages. The highly adaptable platform provides ranked search results and suggests relevant index terms or related documents.
Xapian best features
- Supports searching for synonyms or stemming of search terms (e.g., search for “footballs” instead of football)
- The platform suggests spelling corrections for search queries
- It also generates dynamic snippets, including matching words, phrases, or wildcard queries
Xapian limitations
- Not reviewed on Capterra, G2, or Stackshare compared to other search engines platforms
- There’s little documentation to get up and running
Xapian pricing
- Free
Xapian ratings and reviews
- G2: Not listed
- Capterra: Not listed
8. Sphinx Search
Sphinx Search is an open-source, full-text search server. The platform provides extensive cross-references, looking up related classes, citations, and similar pieces of information. Its output formats include HTML, Windows HTML Help, LaTex, ePub, Texinfo, manual pages, and plain text.
Sphinx Search best features
- Easily create a hierarchical structure for your document tree
- Leverage advanced querying tools like a text tokenizer, querying language, and different ranking models
- Take control of the search results ordering through position, grouping, and priorities
- Easily integrate with SQL and XML data sources
Sphinx Search limitations
- There is very little documentation on how to integrate the platform into your website
Sphinx pricing
- Free
Sphinx Search ratings and reviews
- G2: Not listed
- Capterra: Not listed
9. Bleve Search
Bleve Search is a simple search and metrics platform. Bleve Search will index virtually any object within your data model.
And if you want to customize how search queries return and display results, it’s possible to override the default mapping.
Bleve Search best features
- Easily aggregate data across terms facets, numeric range facets, and data range facets
- Compose search queries using terms, phrases, matches, match phrases, and prefixes
- Get up and running quickly by importing one package, developing an index with three lines of code, and writing queries with just three more lines of code
Bleve Search limitations
- No reviews listed on G2, Capterra, or Stackshare
- There’s no place on the website to submit a bug report—your only option is to create a forum discussion on GitHub
Bleve Search pricing
- Free
Bleve Search ratings and reviews
- G2: Not listed
- Capterra: Not listed
10. Unleash
Unleash provides Google-like search features that allow colleagues and customers to find information on your website. The AI-powered platform provides detailed algorithms so your site visitors enjoy a personalized experience.
Plus, it allows users to access search capabilities by embedding Unleash on your site, using the mobile or desktop app, adding a browser extension, or using a Slack bot to search through conversations and resources.
Unleash best features
- Use AI-enhanced search to take into account query synonyms or related concepts
- Leverage filters to refine results to specified criteria
- Create a wiki to organize your entire company’s knowledge library in one place
- Feature flagging tools for software development
Unleash limitations
- While it offers a free trial, Unleash requires a paid plan, unlike many of its competitors
Unleash pricing
- Contact for pricing
Unleash ratings and reviews
- G2: 5/5 (1 review)
- Capterra: Not reviewed
Other Data Analysis Tools
Looking for other tools that can help you find and interpret data? Below, we explore tools to help you quickly find files through apps or your local hard drive. 🔍
ClickUp
ClickUp is the all-in-one process automation platform that transforms the way you plan and manage tasks.
Use ClickUp to streamline project management by drawing from a library of templates, assigning tasks, setting priorities, brainstorming ideas, commenting on projects, and building engaging reports. 👏
Plus, with ClickUp Universal Search, you’ll find any file anytime—even if that file isn’t stored in ClickUp. Simply integrate your files with ClickUp, and documents within any connected app or on your hard drive will be searchable.
ClickUp best features
- AI-powered search that gets to know you and shows better results to your search queries over time
- Integrations with Slack, Dropbox, GitHub, Box, Hubspot, and more, so you find documents across platforms
- Allow anyone in your organization to search for information and files
- Access Universal Search from the Command Center, Global Action, or your desktop
ClickUp limitations
- Universal Search finds documents but not numerical or geospatial data
- The platform may be overwhelming to new users
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp AI is available on all paid plans for $5 per Workspace
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,000+ reviews)
Find the Data You’re Searching for With These Alternatives
Search and analytics platforms, like Elasticsearch, transform any website into a high-powered search engine, allowing customers and internal team members to find the information they need.
Plus, many of these alternatives are free, open-source platforms, which means it’s easy to customize search capabilities (although you’ll need a full-stack developer to make any changes).
If you’re looking for a simple search feature to find files and documents, try ClickUp.
The all-in-one platform simplifies project management and comes complete with a library of templates, Docs and Whiteboards, workflow automations, and a search feature to easily find company documents.
To get started, try ClickUp today. 🙌
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