Tantivy vs Toshi
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Tantivy | Toshi |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 79 · Good |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,133 | ★ 4,256 |
| First released | 2016 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch |
What are Tantivy and Toshi?
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
Toshi
Toshi is a self-hosted full-text search server that exposes an Elasticsearch-like JSON REST API on top of the Tantivy search engine. It targets developers who want a simple, fast search service in Rust.
- JSON REST API
- Tantivy-backed indexing
- Fast Rust core
- Simple to run
Tantivy vs Toshi: key differences
Both projects are written in Rust. Tantivy is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Toshi. Tantivy is the more established project (first released 2016), while Toshi arrived in 2018. Tantivy has the considerably larger community, at 16,133 GitHub stars versus 4,256. Toshi lists first-class Docker deployment; Tantivy does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Tantivy if…
- Very fast
- Embeddable in apps
Watch out for
- Library, not a turnkey server
Choose Toshi if…
- Lightweight search server
- Familiar API style
Watch out for
- Less mature than ES
- Smaller feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Tantivy or Toshi better?
Neither is universally better. Tantivy has the larger community, while Toshi is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Tantivy and Toshi free and open-source?
Yes. Tantivy is licensed under MIT and Toshi under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tantivy and Toshi with Docker?
Tantivy: check the project docs for container support. Toshi: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Tantivy or Toshi?
Tantivy has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Toshi. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.