Orama vs tinysearch
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?
Orama
Fast full-text and vector search engine for any runtime
VS
tinysearch
Tiny WebAssembly-powered static site search
| Feature | Orama | tinysearch |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 10,519 | ★ 2,953 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Elasticsearch | Algolia |
Why pick each one
Choose Orama if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 10.5k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Choose tinysearch if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Orama or tinysearch better?
Orama is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider tinysearch if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Orama and tinysearch free and open-source?
Yes. Orama is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tinysearch under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Orama and tinysearch with Docker?
Orama: check the project docs for container support. tinysearch: check the project docs for container support.