Meilisearch vs PISA
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?
Meilisearch
Fast, typo-tolerant search engine for applications
VS
PISA
Performant indexes and search for large text collections
| Feature | Meilisearch | PISA |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 58,904 | ★ 1,054 |
| First released | 2018 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Choose PISA if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Meilisearch or PISA better?
Meilisearch is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider PISA if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Meilisearch and PISA free and open-source?
Yes. Meilisearch is licensed under MIT and PISA under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Meilisearch and PISA with Docker?
Meilisearch: yes. PISA: check the project docs for container support.