Elasticsearch vs Groonga
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?
Elasticsearch
Distributed search and analytics engine
VS
Groonga
Open-source full-text search engine and column store
| Feature | Elasticsearch | Groonga |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Elastic-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Language | Java | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 77,808 | ★ 854 |
| First released | 2010 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Splunk | Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Elasticsearch or Groonga better?
Neither is universally better. Elasticsearch has the larger community, while Groonga is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Elasticsearch and Groonga free and open-source?
Yes. Elasticsearch is licensed under Elastic-2.0 and Groonga under LGPL-2.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Elasticsearch and Groonga with Docker?
Elasticsearch: yes. Groonga: check the project docs for container support.