Pagefind vs Tantivy
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
Tantivy
Full-text search engine library written in Rust
| Feature | Pagefind | Tantivy |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,390 | ★ 15,656 |
| First released | 2022 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Pagefind or Tantivy better?
Neither is universally better. Tantivy 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 Tantivy free and open-source?
Yes. Pagefind is licensed under MIT and Tantivy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pagefind and Tantivy with Docker?
Pagefind: check the project docs for container support. Tantivy: check the project docs for container support.