Pagefind vs Qdrant
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?
Pagefind
Static-site search that runs fully in the browser
VS
Qdrant
High-performance open-source vector search engine
| Feature | Pagefind | Qdrant |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,390 | ★ 33,837 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Elasticsearch | Pinecone, Algolia |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Pagefind or Qdrant better?
Neither is universally better. Qdrant has the larger community, while Pagefind is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pagefind and Qdrant free and open-source?
Yes. Pagefind is licensed under MIT and Qdrant under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pagefind and Qdrant with Docker?
Pagefind: check the project docs for container support. Qdrant: yes.