Self-hosted alternatives to Elasticsearch
Need full-text search but want something lighter, simpler to run, or under a different license than Elasticsearch? These 5 self-hosted search engines run on your own server.
About Elasticsearch: Distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine developed by Elastic. It can be self-hosted too; the dataset lists its license as SSPL, which is why many teams look for lighter or more permissively licensed engines.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manticore Search direct | Active | 12.1k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| MeiliSearch | Active | 59.9k | MIT | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Typesense | Active | 27.1k | GPL-3.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| OpenSearch | Active | 14k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 4 GB | $20/mo |
| Apache Solr | Active | 1.7k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 2 GB | $10/mo |
The options in detail
1. Manticore Search
Full-text search and data analytics, with fast response time for small, medium and big data (alternative to Elasticsearch).
Active Last commit 2026-11-08. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release release-29.9.0 (2026-09-11). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM incl. elasticsearch. How to run it →
2. MeiliSearch
Ultra relevant, instant and typo-tolerant full-text search API.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v1.56.2 (2026-11-09). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. Typesense
Blazing fast, typo-tolerant search engine optimized for developer happiness and ease of use.
Active Last commit 2026-11-06. Latest release v30.2 (2026-04-19). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
4. OpenSearch
Distributed and RESTful search engine.
Active Last commit 2026-11-10. 9 releases in the past year. Latest release 2.19.7 (2026-10-20). Needs roughly 4 GB RAM. How to run it →
5. Apache Solr
Enterprise search platform featuring full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, real-time indexing, dynamic clustering, and rich document (e.g., Word, PDF) handling.
Active Last commit 2026-11-09. 4 releases in the past year. Latest release releases/solr/10.1.0 (2026-10-27). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
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Other alternatives guides
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