Blast vs Meilisearch
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Meilisearch
Fast, typo-tolerant search engine for applications
| Feature | Blast | Meilisearch |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 14 · At risk | 100 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,073 | ★ 59,376 |
| First released | 2017 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Elasticsearch | Algolia, Elasticsearch |
What are Blast and Meilisearch?
Blast
Blast is a full-text search and indexing server written in Go and built on the Bleve library, with support for clustering through the Raft consensus algorithm. It exposes both gRPC and HTTP APIs for indexing and searching documents.
- Distributed clustering
- Bleve-based indexing
- gRPC and HTTP APIs
- Raft consensus
Meilisearch
Meilisearch is an open-source, lightning-fast search engine designed for instant, typo-tolerant search-as-you-type experiences. It is easy to integrate via its REST API and ships as a single binary.
- Typo-tolerant instant search
- Single binary deployment
- Faceted search and filtering
- Simple REST API
Blast vs Meilisearch: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Blast's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Meilisearch is actively maintained. Blast is written in Go, while Meilisearch is built with Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Blast versus MIT for Meilisearch. Meilisearch is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Blast. Meilisearch has the considerably larger community, at 59,376 GitHub stars versus 1,073.
Why pick each one
Choose Blast if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Choose Meilisearch if…
- Extremely easy to set up
- Fast and lightweight
Watch out for
- Fewer features than Elasticsearch
Frequently asked questions
Is Blast or Meilisearch better?
Meilisearch is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Blast if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Blast and Meilisearch free and open-source?
Yes. Blast is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Meilisearch under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Blast and Meilisearch with Docker?
Blast: yes. Meilisearch: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Blast or Meilisearch?
Meilisearch has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Blast. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.