Search · decision tool
Algolia alternatives — matched to your requirements
Meilisearch, Typesense, Elasticsearch and Postgres FTS scored against your search requirements — self-hosting, open source, filtering, scale. The honest capability comparison Algolia's price-conscious switchers actually need.
Capabilities verified 2026-07-17 against official documentation · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, for this page's default requirements, Meilisearch and Typesense are effectively tied (87% vs 87% capability fit) — no clear winner; the choice is a tradeoff. This is a capability-fit decision, not a price ranking — StackSays does not invent a unified dollar comparison across these tools' incompatible billing units. Change any requirement below and the verdict recomputes.
Your requirements
The verdict updates as you change these. Share the URL to share your answers.
No clear winner
Meilisearch and Typesense tie for your requirements
The top options score within a few points — the choice comes down to preference and the tradeoffs below, not a decisive capability gap. Fit weights are our estimates.
Ranked by capability fit
This is a capability-fit decision, not a price ranking — these tools bill in incompatible units (per-search vs per-RAM cluster vs per-PB scanned) and several publish rates only in their own calculators, so StackSays does not invent a unified dollar comparison. Every score above traces to a documented capability; see Data sources below.
At a glance
| Tool | Deployment | Open source | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meilisearch | Managed or self-hosted | Yes | 2026-07-17 |
| Typesense | Managed or self-hosted | Yes | 2026-07-17 |
| Elasticsearch | Managed or self-hosted | No | 2026-07-17 |
| OpenSearch | Managed or self-hosted | Yes | 2026-07-17 |
| Postgres full-text search | Managed or self-hosted | Yes | 2026-07-17 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Meilisearch | Meilisearch documentation (capabilities) | 2026-07-17 |
| Typesense | Typesense documentation (capabilities) | 2026-07-17 |
| Elasticsearch | Elasticsearch documentation (capabilities) | 2026-07-17 |
| OpenSearch | OpenSearch documentation (capabilities) | 2026-07-17 |
| Postgres full-text search | PostgreSQL full-text search docs (capabilities) | 2026-07-17 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.