Quickwit vs Vespa

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?
FeatureQuickwitVespa
CategorySearch EnginesSearch Engines
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageRustJava
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM1,024 MB4,096 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, kubernetes, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 11,471★ 7,043
First released20212017
ReplacesSplunk, ElasticsearchElasticsearch, Algolia

Why pick each one

Choose Quickwit if…

  • Very cost effective at scale
  • Modern Rust codebase
Quickwit details

Choose Vespa if…

  • Extremely powerful and scalable
  • Built-in ML ranking
Vespa details

Frequently asked questions

Is Quickwit or Vespa better?

Quickwit is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Vespa if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Quickwit and Vespa free and open-source?

Yes. Quickwit is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Vespa under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Quickwit and Vespa with Docker?

Quickwit: yes. Vespa: yes.

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