head to head · open source
Elasticsearch vs OpenSearch
Elasticsearch has 78,462 GitHub stars, 26,239 forks, 6,059 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenSearch has 13,951 stars, 3,117 forks, 3,167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Elasticsearch leads on adoption by 462% (78,462 vs 13,951 stars). Elasticsearch is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; OpenSearch is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Elasticsearch has attracted 33% as many forks as stars, OpenSearch 22%. Elasticsearch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (java, search-engine), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Elasticsearch | OpenSearch | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 14K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 26K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Elasticsearch if
- You weight community size — 78K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenSearch if
- You want the OpenSearch feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and OpenSearch fits your workflow better
About Elasticsearch
= Elasticsearch Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine, scalable data store and vector database optimized for speed and relevance on production scale workloads. Elasticsearch is the foundation of Elastic's open Stack platform. Search in near real time over massive datasets, perform vector searches, integrate with generative AI applications, and much more. Use cases enabled by Elasticsearch include: Augmented Generation (RAG)] search] Full text search Logs Metrics Application performance monitoring (APM) Security logs \... and more! To learn more about Elasticsearch's features and…
read the full Elasticsearch overview →
About OpenSearch
Welcome! Project Resources Code of Conduct Security License Copyright Trademark Welcome! OpenSearch is an open source, enterprise grade search and observability suite that brings order to unstructured data at scale. Project Resources Project Website Downloads Documentation Need help? Try Forums or Slack Contributing to OpenSearch Maintainer Responsibilities Release Management Admin Responsibilities Testing Security Code of Conduct The project's Code of Conduct outlines our expectations for all participants in our community, based on the OpenSearch Code of Conduct. Please contact conduct@opensearch.foundation…
read the full OpenSearch overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Elasticsearch or OpenSearch more popular?
Elasticsearch has 78,462 GitHub stars and OpenSearch has 13,951. Elasticsearch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Elasticsearch and OpenSearch free?
Both are open source. Elasticsearch has no licence declared in this registry, and OpenSearch is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Elasticsearch and OpenSearch?
Elasticsearch is written in Java and OpenSearch in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Elasticsearch or OpenSearch?
Choose Elasticsearch if you want the larger community (78,462 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose OpenSearch if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.