bleve vs lnx
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | bleve | lnx |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 34 · At risk |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,228 | ★ 1,454 |
| First released | 2014 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Elasticsearch, Algolia | Elasticsearch, Algolia |
What are bleve and lnx?
bleve
An embeddable modern full-text search and indexing library that lets developers add search to applications without running a separate server. It supports analyzers, faceting, and scoring out of the box.
- Embeddable index
- Text analyzers
- Faceted search
- Pluggable storage
lnx
lnx is an open-source search engine server built on top of the Tantivy library that exposes a simple REST API for indexing and querying documents. It aims to be a fast, easy-to-deploy alternative for full-text search.
- Built on Tantivy
- Simple REST API
- Fast full-text search
- Typo-tolerant queries
bleve vs lnx: key differences
Bleve is written in Go, while lnx is built with Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for bleve versus MIT for lnx. Bleve is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for lnx. Bleve is the more established project (first released 2014), while lnx arrived in 2021. Bleve has the considerably larger community, at 11,228 GitHub stars versus 1,454. Lnx lists first-class Docker deployment; bleve does not.
Why pick each one
Choose bleve if…
- No separate server
- Pure Go integration
Watch out for
- Library not turnkey app
- Manual scaling
Choose lnx if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is bleve or lnx better?
Neither is universally better. bleve has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are bleve and lnx free and open-source?
Yes. bleve is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lnx under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bleve and lnx with Docker?
bleve: check the project docs for container support. lnx: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, bleve or lnx?
bleve has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for lnx. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.