Algolia vs Apache Solr
Algolia
algolia.com
Apache Solr
solr.apache.orgSide by side
| Figure | Algolia | Apache Solr |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.50/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 2 |
| Spec score · Search Databases | 9.5 (#1) | 9.0 (#3) |
| Spec score · Site Search Software | 9.5 (#1) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Documentation | Documentation includes guides for data preparation, indexing, result management, AI relevance, UI, analytics, security, scaling and production deployment. | The official reference guide covers concepts, deployment, configuration, indexing, querying and upgrades, and is written by Solr committers. |
| Founded | 2012 | 2006 |
| Intended users | Algolia says its Free plan is intended for getting started, new projects, startups, small online stores, and exploring the service. | The project describes Solr as suitable for global enterprises and weekend projects, and says it powers heavily trafficked websites and applications. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.7 out of 5 from 74 reviews | 4.3 out of 5 from 14 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 455 reviews | 4.1 out of 5 from 26 reviews |
| Rating on Gartner Peer Insights | 4.3 out of 5 from 156 ratings | 4.2 out of 5 from 47 ratings |
| Rating on TrustRadius | 8.5 out of 10 from 130 reviews and ratings | 7.9 out of 10 from 45 reviews |
| What it does | Algolia is a hosted search and discovery platform that lets companies index their own data and expose fast search through APIs and user interfaces. | Apache Solr is a Java search server for full-text, vector, geospatial, analytics and distributed indexing workloads. |
Plans
Algolia
- GrowPriced on request
- Grow PlusPriced on request
- ElevatePriced on request
- FreeFree
- Grow$0.50 a month
- Grow Plus$1.75 a month
- ElevatePrice not published
In their own words
Algolia
Algolia is an API-first search solution that combines keyword and semantic methods to return results. Its listed capabilities include NeuralSearch, AI Ranking, personalization, AI Synonyms, analytics, A/B testing, merchandising, a crawler, autocomplete, and query categorization. It is presented for site, ecommerce, and enterprise search across retail, manufacturing, media, financial services, and other use cases. Listed integrations include Adobe, BigCommerce, commercetools, Supabase, Shopify, Salesforce, Segment, and Google Tag Manager. Developers can use InstantSearch libraries for JavaScript, React, Vue, Angular, iOS, and Android, alongside API clients for multiple programming languages. Algolia reports an average search response time under 20 milliseconds and more than 1 billion queries processed every 5 seconds. The Free plan costs nothing and includes 10K search requests/month, 50K records, and allowances for recommendation requests and crawls. It has a 1 GB index size and a 20-index maximum per application. Grow and Grow Plus list 100 GB index size and 50 indices; hosting locations vary by plan.
Apache Solr
Apache Solr is a free, open-source, self-hosted search platform built on Apache Lucene. It provides full-text, vector, geospatial, and hybrid search through a REST query interface. Documents can be sent over HTTP as JSON, XML, CSV, or binary, with results returned in those formats. Matching supports phrases, wildcards, joins, and grouping; discovery tools include faceting, autocomplete, spelling suggestions, hit highlighting, and result clustering. Solr distributes indexing, replicates data, balances queries, and supports automated failover and recovery. Apache Tika integration extracts rich content such as PDF and Microsoft Word files. Its administrative interface controls instances and exposes cluster state, logs, threads, and metrics. Listed security capabilities include SSL, authentication, and role-based authorization. Solr runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with API access, and is licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0. The project describes use from weekend projects to global enterprises. Releases are not scheduled in advance, and versions below 9.10 are end of life without further updates. The Apache Solr plan is free.