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meilisearch

Free

A lightning-fast search engine API bringing AI-powered hybrid search to your sites and applications.

Search ToolsFreeFree tier
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Inputs: text, image, video, audio
Type
Open Source
Company
Meilisearch

About meilisearch

Meilisearch is a powerful, open-source search engine offering fast and relevant full-text searches. It enhances search capabilities with features like facet search, semantic search, hybrid search, and geosearch. It can be added to any website or application.

How to Use

Meilisearch seamlessly integrates into apps and workflows. Smart presets allow users to start searching through data with zero configuration. It offers a self-explanatory API and SDKs for various languages.

Key Features

  • Full-text search
  • Semantic search
  • Hybrid search
  • Multi-modal search
  • Filtering, faceting, and sorting
  • Vector storage
  • Federated search
  • Search analytics
  • Geosearch

Use Cases

  • Apps & sites
  • E-commerce
  • Enterprise

Key Features

Full-text search
Semantic search
Hybrid search
Multi-modal search
Filtering, faceting, and sorting
Vector storage
Federated search
Search analytics
Geosearch

Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Search-as-you-type returns results in less than 50 milliseconds
  • Plug-and-play deployment with zero configuration and smart presets
  • Out-of-the-box great relevancy for full-text search
  • Open source with a large, welcoming community and extensive SDKs
  • Supports AI-powered hybrid, semantic, and multimodal search
  • Self-hostable for full control and compliance
  • Easy integration with multiple languages and frameworks
  • Generous free tier (self-hosted) and 14-day free cloud trial
Cons
  • Cloud pricing starts at $20/month; no permanent free cloud tier beyond trial
  • Advanced features like personalization, conversational search, and dedicated SLAs are limited to Enterprise plan
  • Self-hosting requires technical knowledge for infrastructure management and scaling
  • Some AI capabilities (e.g., multimodal search) may require additional setup or custom infrastructure

Best For

Apps & sitesE-commerceEnterprise

Alternatives to meilisearch

FAQ

Should I self-host or use Cloud?
Self-hosting is free and gives you full infrastructure control, but you manage updates, backups, and scaling yourself. Cloud is fully managed with automatic upgrades and email support included. Most teams start on Cloud and never need to self-host.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, Cloud offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Can I self-host Meilisearch for free?
Yes, self-hosting Meilisearch is completely free and open source. You have full control over your infrastructure.
I need to self-host for compliance reasons. Can I still get dedicated support?
Yes, Enterprise plans offer dedicated support via Slack, custom SLAs, and dedicated resources even for self-hosted deployments.