Elasticsearch vs Vespa
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
Vespa
Open-source big data serving engine for search and recommendation
| Feature | Elasticsearch | Vespa |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Elastic-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 77,808 | ★ 7,043 |
| First released | 2010 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Splunk | Elasticsearch, Algolia |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Elasticsearch or Vespa better?
Neither is universally better. Elasticsearch has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Elasticsearch and Vespa free and open-source?
Yes. Elasticsearch is licensed under Elastic-2.0 and Vespa under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Elasticsearch and Vespa with Docker?
Elasticsearch: yes. Vespa: yes.