4get vs Elasticsearch

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
Feature4getElasticsearch
CategorySearch EnginesSearch Engines
LicenseAGPL-3.0Elastic-2.0
LanguagePHPJava
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM128 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 800★ 77,808
First released20222010
ReplacesGoogle Search, BingAlgolia, Splunk

Why pick each one

Choose 4get if…

  • Very lightweight
  • No JavaScript needed
4get details

Choose Elasticsearch if…

  • Extremely powerful and mature
  • Huge ecosystem
Elasticsearch details

Frequently asked questions

Is 4get or Elasticsearch better?

Neither is universally better. Elasticsearch has the larger community, while 4get is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are 4get and Elasticsearch free and open-source?

Yes. 4get is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Elasticsearch under Elastic-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run 4get and Elasticsearch with Docker?

4get: yes. Elasticsearch: yes.

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