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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

"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."
"The quality of the solution is good."
"CDN service reduces latency when accessing our web application."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It is remarkably efficient and beneficial."
"AWS CloudSearch's best features are good performance under high CPU and memory use, and ease of deployment and scaling."
"I've found the solution to be very scalable."
"The best feature is its scalability in that Cloud is always on the fly."
"The initial set up is very easy...We really appreciate Amazon!"
"The stability of the product is good."
"Amazon OpenSearch Service provides a managed database solution, so we don't need to manage everything ourselves."
"It's a good log management platform. In terms of infrastructure management, it's good."
"I would definitely recommend Amazon OpenSearch Service to other professionals due to its fast and reliable search capabilities."
"In case there is a failure, Elastic manages everything well, and there no major downtime."
"Amazon OpenSearch Service has enhanced our organization's ability to store and search large amounts of data efficiently."
"It enables us to efficiently search and retrieve our event data, offering us a versatile approach to locate specific information within these logs."
"Because all communication is done via the REST API, data is retrieved quickly in JSON format to reduce overhead and latency.​"
"The search functionality time has been reduced to a few milliseconds."
"The solution's initial setup is straightforward."
"The amount of flexibility and agility is really assuring."
"The customer engagement was good."
"Offers a tremendous amount of flexibility and scalability when integrating with applications."
"It provides good access capabilities to various platforms."
"The product is extremely configurable, allowing you to customize the search experience to suit your needs."
 

Cons

"The solution should improve the recovery aspects that it has on offer."
"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."
"The price of the solution can be expensive."
"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 would say that it needs to keep its cost competitive in the market, especially in comparison to other clouds."
"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."
"One improvement I would like to see is support for auto-scaling."
"One improvement I would like to see is support for auto-scaling."
"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 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."
"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."
"They can enhance data visualization."
"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."
"We faced documentation challenges during integration after migrating from Elasticsearch to Amazon OpenSearch Service. Better documentation on integration, query handling, and a more user-friendly UI could enhance the product."
"The initial setup is not as easy as it should be."
"Adding items to Azure Search using its .NET APIs sometimes throws exceptions."
"For availability, expanding its use to all Azure datacenters would be helpful in increasing awareness and usage of the product.​"
"The pricing is room for improvement."
"The after-hour services are slow."
"It would be good if the site found a better way to filter things based on subscription."
"They should add an API for third-party vendors, like a security operating center or reporting system, that would be a big improvement."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We chose AWS because of its cost and stability."
"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."
"Our license costs around $4,000 per month."
"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."
"The solution is not expensive, but priced averagely, I will say."
"There is a community edition available and the price of the commercial offering is reasonable."
"​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."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, where one is the low price, and ten is the high price."
"I think the solution's pricing is ok compared to other cloud devices."
"The solution is affordable."
"For the actual costs, I encourage users to view the pricing page on the Azure site for details.​"
"The cost is comparable."
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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.