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Algolia vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Amazon OpenSearch Service comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Algolia is 10.7%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is 7.2%, down from 10.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon OpenSearch Service is 4.6%, down from 15.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Search as a Service Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Algolia10.7%
Amazon OpenSearch Service4.6%
Amazon AWS CloudSearch7.2%
Other77.5%
Search as a Service
 

Featured Reviews

Alejandro Salazar - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers extensive customization options, allowing users to tailor search results to their specific needs
There are two problems. Number one, it's a bit pricey, especially when there are similar algorithms. There's one called Typesense, which we considered to lower our bill. Algolia is good for a startup because it allows you to bootstrap powerful functionalities quickly. But if that startup ends up growing and becomes quite successful, the cost of Algolia will balloon with it. So, I could imagine that Algolia might have difficulty retaining clients. The other problem I had to deal with as the lead software engineer is the documentation. I was basically assigned a guy who had no idea how Algolia works, and I had to get it to work, which I did. But the documentation for the service is not as good as it could be. You can still figure it out, but Algolia has a lot of functionalities, not just the search engine. They have built-in components for different UI libraries. In our case, we were using React, and they have a third-party library that you can import to use Algolia services as React components. It's great, but they have very little documentation for those kinds of third-party things. It's tough to use them if you don't explain to your potential developers how they're supposed to be used. I eventually had to call them directly and sit down with their engineers, and I realized that it's a great product, but they need to explain it better.
AmrIssa - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable and fully managed search service with diverse data type support and robust security
We use it as our hosting solution, serving as the backbone for our systems, which include Rubrik and SAP It is remarkably efficient and beneficial. A reboot should be enhanced. There are issues with the VBC collection. I have been working with it for four years. I would rate the stability ten…
Johnny Suleiman - PeerSpot reviewer
Scalability is a key feature as it allows easy scaling of the platform without downtime
OpenSearch is used as a search engine for specific logs, mainly in e-commerce and monitoring the logs themselves. It is very valuable for e-commerce, enabling data analysis on application logs and customer behavior, and can be integrated with other services, including AI and machine learning…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Since Algolia is a SaaS solution, we didn't have to maintain servers, look at the indexes, and monitor services."
"The Algolia solution really helped us to improve our conversion rate and click through rate."
"The tool is worth the money, and I have seen an ROI."
"Algolia provides some cool functionalities like filtering, indexing, and searching."
"We were working with search products, brands, and different attributes specific to the product; it's faster and easier. The implementation is easy."
"It has many fine-tuning configurations. Essentially, every single piece of information you pass through it is a free document you can tailor."
"The tool is easy to use, but you need to know how it works."
"It's scalable. It can be scaled massively."
"AWS CloudSearch's best features are good performance under high CPU and memory use, and ease of deployment and scaling."
"Document indexing, text-based search API, and Geospatial searches are all good features."
"The best feature is its scalability in that Cloud is always on the fly."
"CDN service reduces latency when accessing our web application."
"I've found the solution to be very scalable."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is the cloud aspect. I do not need to have the physical infrastructure, everything is in the cloud."
"The most valuable feature of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is its ability to receive data quickly. You can access your data easily in a short time."
"It will remain alive in the market. The solution will be stable in the market."
"The most valuable features of Amazon Elasticsearch are ease of use, native JSON, and efficiency. Additionally, handles many use cases and search grammar was useful."
"We retrieve historical data with just a click of a button to move it from cold to hot or warm because it's already stored in the backend storage"
"The initial set up is very easy...We really appreciate Amazon!"
"It's a good log management platform. In terms of infrastructure management, it's good."
"It enables us to efficiently search and retrieve our event data, offering us a versatile approach to locate specific information within these logs."
"I would definitely recommend Amazon OpenSearch Service to other professionals due to its fast and reliable search capabilities."
"The stability of the product is good."
"They have the good documentation in the help text and that is the reason the Amazon is the perfect solution in the current market."
 

Cons

"The documentation is not beginner-friendly."
"The high cost of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"I think they could improve the analytics view."
"Joining is quite complex."
"The documentation for the service is not as good as it could be."
"Algolia provides a certification, which is pretty basic, and I think it can be improved in terms of a bit more detail and more elaborative content."
"The deployment could be easier for beginners."
"When indexing the products, one may face some issues with the tool."
"AWS CloudSearch's documentation isn't very clear. Also, the on-premise version of the solution is less stable than the cloud version."
"Index cleanup is sometimes painful. No easy way to clean indexes or a bulk of documents. Full indexing or regeneration of entire indexes sometimes gets stuck. In one instance, we had to delete the entire index and re-create it."
"Security is a concern but they're working on it."
"Regarding the period of propagation on CDN servers, sometimes we update photos or files and we don't see the update instantly. We need to wait for sometime."
"Maybe they are common in Egypt, but you should make a request on Amazon to create a function to monitor CPU performance, memory, and files. It is very difficult in AWS. I would tell them it should be simple, just drag and drop. I think they could develop this option so we can drag and drop to monitor performance of the processor and memory."
"A reboot should be enhanced."
"Amazon AWS CloudSearch is highly stable. However, the speed depends on your internet connection."
"Latlon data type only supports single value per document. All other types support multiple values. We faced issues with this because we had scenarios where, for each document, we needed to store multiple latlon values for different geographical locations."
"I want to see a new feature in Amazon Elasticsearch Service that allows users to create default filters for filtered levels."
"Amazon Elasticsearch can improve the bullion in the near search and the ease of integration with Kibana. Additionally, there could be more flexibility in the configuration and documentation."
"The pricing aspect is a concern. The service is way too costly. For the past month, I used only 30 to 40 MB of data, and the cost was $500. AWS could improve pricing."
"They can enhance data visualization."
"I would say that, basically, the configuration part is an area with a shortcoming...Some upgradation is required on the configuration side so that we can get to use it."
"In terms of data handling capabilities with Amazon OpenSearch Service, they can be complex and managing data in comparison to other SIM solutions is a major drawback, as it is very hard to handle the data."
"One improvement I would like to see is support for auto-scaling."
"It would be beneficial to have some level of customization available in the managed service, tailored to the specific use cases of the end users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of the cost of Algolia, the tool is really expensive for us in Brazil since it comes to about half a million dollars."
"The product is cheap."
"For any developer starting out, it is worth it."
"Algolia is a cool, super-easy-to-use, and affordable tool."
"We are currently on a contract with Algolia for licensing and price."
"I have heard that Algolia is an expensive solution."
"Our license costs around $4,000 per month."
"In comparison to IBM and Microsoft, the pricing is more favorable."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one point is cheap, and ten points are expensive, I rate the pricing as medium or reasonable."
"We chose AWS because of its cost and stability."
"There was no license needed to use this solution."
"I'm not sure how much we pay a year. It might be around $30,000 a year."
"Amazon AWS CloudSearch charging is based on how many resources you consume or and the solution is known to be a bit expensive."
"You only pay for what you use."
"Compared to other cloud platforms, it is manageable and not very expensive."
"There is a community edition available and the price of the commercial offering is reasonable."
"The solution is not expensive, but priced averagely, I will say."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Media Company
8%
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Algolia?
Algolia is a cool, super-easy-to-use, and affordable tool. Suppose a company's customer is looking for Algolia's sear...
What needs improvement with Algolia?
There are no areas in the product where improvements are required. I believe it is one of the best products right now...
What is your primary use case for Algolia?
I use Algolia for Magento 2 e-commerce websites so that I can enhance user search functionality. Throughout Algolia, ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon AWS CloudSearch?
In comparison to IBM and Microsoft, the pricing is more favorable. I would rate it eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Amazon AWS CloudSearch?
A reboot should be enhanced. There are issues with the VBC collection.
What do you like most about Amazon OpenSearch Service?
We retrieve historical data with just a click of a button to move it from cold to hot or warm because it's already s...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon OpenSearch Service?
I would consider the pricing as a six based on how much data we are handling; if we handle minimal data, it's cheap, ...
What needs improvement with Amazon OpenSearch Service?
In terms of data handling capabilities with Amazon OpenSearch Service, they can be complex and managing data in compa...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Amazon Elasticsearch Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Birchbox, Twitch, Lacoste, Stripe, WW, Medium, Cousera, National Geographic, Zendesk, Magento
SmugMug
VIDCOIN, Wyng, Yellow New Zealand, zipMoney, Cimri, Siemens, Unbabel
Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic, Algolia, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Search as a Service. Updated: August 2025.
868,229 professionals have used our research since 2012.