tinysearch 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?
tinysearch
Tiny WebAssembly-powered static site search
VS
Vespa
Open-source big data serving engine for search and recommendation
| Feature | tinysearch | Vespa |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,953 | ★ 7,043 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Algolia | Elasticsearch, Algolia |
Why pick each one
Choose tinysearch if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is tinysearch or Vespa better?
Neither is universally better. Vespa has the larger community, while tinysearch is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are tinysearch and Vespa free and open-source?
Yes. tinysearch is licensed under MIT and Vespa under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run tinysearch and Vespa with Docker?
tinysearch: check the project docs for container support. Vespa: yes.