head to head · open source
Meilisearch vs OpenSearch
Meilisearch has 59,758 GitHub stars, 2,786 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenSearch has 13,951 stars, 3,117 forks, 3,167 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Meilisearch leads on adoption by 328% (59,758 vs 13,951 stars). Meilisearch is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; OpenSearch is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Meilisearch has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, OpenSearch 22%. OpenSearch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (search), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Meilisearch | OpenSearch | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 14K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Meilisearch if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 Meilisearch
Website Roadmap Meilisearch Cloud Blog Documentation FAQ Discord ⚡ A lightning fast search engine that fits effortlessly into your apps, websites, and workflow 🔍 Meilisearch helps you shape a delightful search experience in a snap, offering features that work out of the box to speed up your workflow. 🖥 Examples Movies — An application to help you find streaming platforms to watch movies using hybrid search. Flickr — Search and explore one hundred million Flickr images with semantic search. Ecommerce — Ecommerce website using disjunctive facets, range and rating filtering, and pagination. Home Booking A…
read the full Meilisearch 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 →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Search Engines projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Search Engines field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Meilisearch or OpenSearch more popular?
Meilisearch has 59,758 GitHub stars and OpenSearch has 13,951. Meilisearch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Meilisearch and OpenSearch free?
Both are open source. Meilisearch 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 Meilisearch and OpenSearch?
Meilisearch is written in Rust 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, Meilisearch or OpenSearch?
Choose Meilisearch if you want the larger community (59,758 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.