bleve vs Pagefind
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | bleve | Pagefind |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,228 | ★ 5,481 |
| First released | 2014 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Elasticsearch, Algolia | Algolia, Elasticsearch |
What are bleve and Pagefind?
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
Pagefind
Pagefind is a fully static search library that indexes a built website and serves search entirely from the browser without a backend. It is designed to be low-bandwidth and easy to add to any static site.
- Browser-side search index
- No backend required
- Low bandwidth
- Multilingual support
bleve vs Pagefind: key differences
Bleve is written in Go, while Pagefind is built with Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for bleve versus MIT for Pagefind. Pagefind is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for bleve. Bleve is the more established project (first released 2014), while Pagefind arrived in 2022. Bleve has the considerably larger community, at 11,228 GitHub stars versus 5,481.
Why pick each one
Choose bleve if…
- No separate server
- Pure Go integration
Watch out for
- Library not turnkey app
- Manual scaling
Choose Pagefind if…
- Zero server cost
- Trivial to deploy
Watch out for
- Static content only
- Index rebuild on changes
Frequently asked questions
Is bleve or Pagefind better?
Neither is universally better. bleve has the larger community, while Pagefind is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are bleve and Pagefind free and open-source?
Yes. bleve is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pagefind under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bleve and Pagefind with Docker?
bleve: check the project docs for container support. Pagefind: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, bleve or Pagefind?
Pagefind has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for bleve. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.