Elasticsearch vs MetaGer

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?
FeatureElasticsearchMetaGer
CategorySearch EnginesSearch Engines
LicenseElastic-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageJavaPHP
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 77,808★ 200
First released20101996
ReplacesAlgolia, SplunkGoogle Search, Bing

Why pick each one

Choose Elasticsearch if…

  • Extremely powerful and mature
  • Huge ecosystem
Elasticsearch details

Choose MetaGer if…

  • Strong privacy stance
  • Long-running project
MetaGer details

Frequently asked questions

Is Elasticsearch or MetaGer better?

Neither is universally better. Elasticsearch has the larger community, while MetaGer is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Elasticsearch and MetaGer free and open-source?

Yes. Elasticsearch is licensed under Elastic-2.0 and MetaGer under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Elasticsearch and MetaGer with Docker?

Elasticsearch: yes. MetaGer: yes.

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