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Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Azure AI Search 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 October 2025, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is 7.0%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon OpenSearch Service is 4.5%, down from 14.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure AI Search is 10.2%, down from 13.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Search as a Service Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Amazon OpenSearch Service4.5%
Azure AI Search10.2%
Amazon AWS CloudSearch7.0%
Other78.3%
Search as a Service
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Sandeep Srirangam - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer engagement & documentation about APIs are great, but it would be good if the UI is a bit more intuitive for search experience
I use the solution mainly to search the logs and to search for VMs by their names or subscription names. I wouldn't rate it great since the logs are a bit complicated The solution was really pretty good. The customer engagement was good. The presented documentation or exposure to the APIs to get…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Document indexing, text-based search API, and Geospatial searches are all good features."
"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."
"AWS CloudSearch's best features are good performance under high CPU and memory use, and ease of deployment and scaling."
"It's the best solution for any company. It has a hosting ERP system for any task. AWS is stable. AWS is more flexible and its elastic concept is a new concept. AWS is also very secure. It has many layers of security, like hardware security and software security. This is a big issue."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"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."
"I've found the solution to be very scalable."
"It is remarkably efficient and beneficial."
"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."
"They have the good documentation in the help text and that is the reason the Amazon is the perfect solution in the current market."
"It's a good log management platform. In terms of infrastructure management, it's good."
"Our customers have seen tangible benefits from Amazon OpenSearch Service, especially in terms of their applications running smoothly, so they do get a return on investment."
"This service already sorts data like vectors. They have classified the storage pre-defined."
"Amazon OpenSearch Service has enhanced our organization's ability to store and search large amounts of data efficiently."
"The business analytics capabilities are the most important feature it provides."
"I would definitely recommend Amazon OpenSearch Service to other professionals due to its fast and reliable search capabilities."
"Creates indexers to get data from different data sources."
"The amount of flexibility and agility is really assuring."
"The product is pretty resilient."
"The solution's initial setup is straightforward."
"It provides good access capabilities to various platforms."
"Azure Search is well-documented, making it easy to understand and implement."
"The search functionality time has been reduced to a few milliseconds."
"Offers a tremendous amount of flexibility and scalability when integrating with applications."
 

Cons

"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."
"I do not have any suggestions for improvements at this time."
"The price of the solution can be expensive."
"A reboot should be enhanced."
"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."
"AWS CloudSearch's documentation isn't very clear. Also, the on-premise version of the solution is less stable than the cloud version."
"Security is a concern but they're working on it."
"We'd like to see more database features."
"I want to see a new feature in Amazon Elasticsearch Service that allows users to create default filters for filtered levels."
"One glaring issue was with our mapping configuration as the system accepted the data we posted, but after a few months, when we attempted complex queries, we realized the date formatting had become problematic."
"They can enhance data visualization."
"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."
"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."
"The configuration should be more straightforward because we had to select a lot of things."
"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."
"One improvement I would like to see is support for auto-scaling."
"They should add an API for third-party vendors, like a security operating center or reporting system, that would be a big improvement."
"Adding items to Azure Search using its .NET APIs sometimes throws exceptions."
"The solution's stability could be better."
"It would be good if the site found a better way to filter things based on subscription."
"For SDKs, Azure Search currently offers solutions for .NET and Python. Additional platforms would be welcomed, especially native iOS and Android solutions for mobile development."
"For availability, expanding its use to all Azure datacenters would be helpful in increasing awareness and usage of the product.​"
"The after-hour services are slow."
"The initial setup is not as easy as it should be."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Our license costs around $4,000 per month."
"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."
"In comparison to IBM and Microsoft, the pricing is more favorable."
"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."
"You only pay for what you use."
"Compared to other cloud platforms, it is manageable and not very expensive."
"For the actual costs, I encourage users to view the pricing page on the Azure site for details.​"
"​When telling people about the product, I always encourage them to set up a new service using the free pricing tier. This allows them to learn about the product and its capabilities in a risk-free environment. Depending on their needs, the free tier may be suitable for their projects, however enterprise applications will most likely required a higher, paid tier."
"The cost is comparable."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, where one is the low price, and ten is the high price."
"The solution is affordable."
"I think the solution's pricing is ok compared to other cloud devices."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
11%
University
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Retailer
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with Azure Search?
The after-hour services are slow. It could be better.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Amazon Elasticsearch Service
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SmugMug
VIDCOIN, Wyng, Yellow New Zealand, zipMoney, Cimri, Siemens, Unbabel
XOMNI, Real Madrid C.F., Weichert Realtors, JLL, NAV CANADA, Medihoo, autoTrader Corporation, Gjirafa
Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic, Algolia, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others in Search as a Service. Updated: August 2025.
868,654 professionals have used our research since 2012.