Constructor vs Manticore Search

Constructor is a cloud platform for ecommerce search and product discovery, founded in 2015. It uses shopper behavior, context and intent to personalize discovery across search, autosuggest, browse, recommendations, collections, quizzes and retail media. The AI Shopping Agent guides shoppers through natural-language product searches, while the Product Insights Agent answers personalized product questions. Merchant Intelligence Agent and Merchandiser Controls provide merchandising insights, dashboards, reports, controls and experiments. B2B capabilities cover account-segmented pricing and availability, personalization and discovery across large catalogs. Search options include hybrid, vector and faceted search, with zero-result reporting, search conversion tracking and result click analytics. Catalogs can be supplied through connectors, scheduled JSON, JSONL or CSV feeds, or REST API updates. APIs and browser or server-side client libraries support retrieving results, sending behavioral events and updating data or configurations; named client libraries include JavaScript, Swift and Kotlin. Constructor says it reduces personal data exposure using anonymous IDs, IP truncation and hashed identifiers. Pricing is not published; prospective customers are directed to book a demo.

Manticore Search is an open-source database for full-text, vector, hybrid, real-time indexing, and analytical queries. Applications can use SQL, the MySQL protocol, or JSON APIs. Full-text tools include fuzzy matching, query suggestions, filtering, faceting, stemming, lemmatization, synonyms, and highlighting. Vector search uses KNN with HNSW and supports cosine similarity, inner product, and squared L2 distance. Manticore can read from MySQL, Postgres, MSSQL, ODBC, XML, CSV, and TSV, and lists integrations such as Logstash, Apache Superset, Grafana, Fluentbit, Kibana, Vector.dev, and Elasticsearch dump. Installation options cover Linux, macOS, Windows, and Docker. The site recommends WSL2 for compatibility; native Windows binaries require Docker for Manticore Buddy and do not support replication. Authentication and authorization are opt-in. Binary API connections are not secured by SSL, and the manual advises keeping API-capable listeners off the public Internet. The free Community plan includes public support channels and a configuration review. Standard and Enterprise support plans have prices available by inquiry.