Infinity vs Toshi
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Infinity | Toshi |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 79 · Good |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | C++ | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,717 | ★ 4,256 |
| First released | 2024 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Pinecone, Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch |
What are Infinity and Toshi?
Infinity
Infinity is an open-source AI-native database built for embedding, full-text and hybrid search with very low latency. It is self-hosted and serves as a high-performance search and retrieval backend.
- AI-native database
- Vector and full-text search
- Hybrid retrieval
- Self-hostable
Toshi
Toshi is a self-hosted full-text search server that exposes an Elasticsearch-like JSON REST API on top of the Tantivy search engine. It targets developers who want a simple, fast search service in Rust.
- JSON REST API
- Tantivy-backed indexing
- Fast Rust core
- Simple to run
Infinity vs Toshi: key differences
Infinity is written in C++, while Toshi is built with Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Infinity versus MIT for Toshi. Toshi is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Infinity. Toshi is the more established project (first released 2018), while Infinity arrived in 2024.
Why pick each one
Choose Infinity if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Choose Toshi if…
- Lightweight search server
- Familiar API style
Watch out for
- Less mature than ES
- Smaller feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Infinity or Toshi better?
Neither is universally better. Infinity has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Infinity and Toshi free and open-source?
Yes. Infinity is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Toshi under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Infinity and Toshi with Docker?
Infinity: yes. Toshi: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Infinity or Toshi?
Toshi has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Infinity. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.