bleve vs Stork
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | bleve | Stork |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 18 · At risk |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,228 | ★ 2,760 |
| First released | 2014 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Elasticsearch, Algolia | Algolia |
What are bleve and Stork?
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
Stork
Stork is an open-source tool that builds a search index from your content and serves instant search on static sites using WebAssembly. It is small, fast, and requires no server-side component.
- WebAssembly search
- Static index files
- No backend
- Accessible UI
bleve vs Stork: key differences
Bleve is written in Go, while Stork is built with Rust. Stork 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 Stork arrived in 2019. Bleve has the considerably larger community, at 11,228 GitHub stars versus 2,760.
Why pick each one
Choose bleve if…
- No separate server
- Pure Go integration
Watch out for
- Library not turnkey app
- Manual scaling
Choose Stork if…
- Instant client-side results
- Easy integration
Watch out for
- Best for smaller sites
- Manual index builds
Frequently asked questions
Is bleve or Stork better?
Neither is universally better. bleve has the larger community, while Stork is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are bleve and Stork free and open-source?
Yes. bleve is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Stork under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run bleve and Stork with Docker?
bleve: check the project docs for container support. Stork: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, bleve or Stork?
Stork 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.