Quickwit vs Tantivy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Quickwit
Cloud-native search engine for logs and traces
VS
Tantivy
Full-text search engine library written in Rust
| Feature | Quickwit | Tantivy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,670 | ★ 16,133 |
| First released | 2021 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Splunk, Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch |
What are Quickwit and Tantivy?
Quickwit
Quickwit is an open-source, cloud-native search engine optimized for log management, distributed tracing and analytics on large datasets stored in object storage. It is designed to be cost efficient at scale.
- Search directly on object storage
- Optimized for logs and traces
- Decoupled compute and storage
- Elasticsearch-compatible API
Tantivy
Tantivy is a full-text search engine library inspired by Apache Lucene and written in Rust. It is the foundation for several search engines and can be embedded directly into applications.
- Lucene-like full-text indexing
- Embeddable search library
- Fast and memory efficient
- Powers Quickwit and others
Quickwit vs Tantivy: key differences
Both projects are written in Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Quickwit versus MIT for Tantivy. Tantivy is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Quickwit. Tantivy is the more established project (first released 2016), while Quickwit arrived in 2021. Quickwit lists first-class Docker deployment; Tantivy does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Quickwit if…
- Very cost effective at scale
- Modern Rust codebase
Watch out for
- Focused on append-only data
Choose Tantivy if…
- Very fast
- Embeddable in apps
Watch out for
- Library, not a turnkey server
Frequently asked questions
Is Quickwit or Tantivy better?
Neither is universally better. Tantivy has the larger community, while Quickwit is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Quickwit and Tantivy free and open-source?
Yes. Quickwit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tantivy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Quickwit and Tantivy with Docker?
Quickwit: yes. Tantivy: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Quickwit or Tantivy?
Tantivy has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Quickwit. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.