Stork 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?
Stork
Fast, accessible static site search in WebAssembly
VS
Vespa
Open-source big data serving engine for search and recommendation
| Feature | Stork | Vespa |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,758 | ★ 7,043 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Algolia | Elasticsearch, Algolia |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Stork or Vespa better?
Neither is universally better. Vespa has the larger community, while Stork is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Stork and Vespa free and open-source?
Yes. Stork is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Vespa under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Stork and Vespa with Docker?
Stork: check the project docs for container support. Vespa: yes.