Elasticsearch vs Meilisearch
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
Meilisearch
Fast, typo-tolerant search engine for applications
| Feature | Elasticsearch | Meilisearch |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Elastic-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Java | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 77,808 | ★ 58,904 |
| First released | 2010 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Splunk | Algolia, Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Elasticsearch or Meilisearch better?
Neither is universally better. Elasticsearch has the larger community, while Meilisearch is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Elasticsearch and Meilisearch free and open-source?
Yes. Elasticsearch is licensed under Elastic-2.0 and Meilisearch under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Elasticsearch and Meilisearch with Docker?
Elasticsearch: yes. Meilisearch: yes.