Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Azure Search comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Search as a Service category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.0, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 8.5% mindshare in SS, compared to Microsoft’s 13.0% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 62% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Read 12 Amazon AWS CloudSearch reviews

849 Views
849 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Azure Search

Read 8 Azure Search reviews

1,178 Views
1,178 Comparison Views

62% willing to recommend

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Azure Search

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon AWS CloudSearch and Azure Search based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Search as a Service solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Azure Search Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Azure Search

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 861,803 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Ranking in Search as a Service

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Azure Search

Ranking in Search as a Service

5th

Average Rating

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is 8.5%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Search is 13.0%, down from 13.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Search as a Service

Featured Reviews

AmrIssa

Chief Information officer at Mobica Advanced

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…

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Mohamed Heikal

Responsable TUIC at MISSION LAIQUE FRANCAISE

Provides efficient documentation features, but its support services need improvement

We use the solution to link the Active Directory account to Office 365 The solution's most valuable features are Word, Excel, and documentation. The solution's stability and support could be better. We have been using the solution for three to four years. I rate the solution's stability a six…

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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 initial setup is straightforward."

"It will remain alive in the market. The solution will be stable in the market."

"It is remarkably efficient and beneficial."

"CDN service reduces latency when accessing our web application."

"The best feature is its scalability in that Cloud is always on the fly."

"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 quality of the solution is good."

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch pros

"The solution's initial setup is straightforward."

"The search functionality time has been reduced to a few milliseconds."

"The amount of flexibility and agility is really assuring."

"The product is pretty resilient."

"The product is extremely configurable, allowing you to customize the search experience to suit your needs."

"Offers a tremendous amount of flexibility and scalability when integrating with applications."

"Because all communication is done via the REST API, data is retrieved quickly in JSON format to reduce overhead and latency."

"The customer engagement was good."

More Azure Search pros

Cons

"I do not have any suggestions for improvements at this time."

"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."

"AWS CloudSearch's documentation isn't very clear. Also, the on-premise version of the solution is less stable than the cloud version."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Security is a concern but they're working on it."

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch cons

"For availability, expanding its use to all Azure datacenters would be helpful in increasing awareness and usage of the product."

"It would be good if the site found a better way to filter things based on subscription."

"The after-hour services are slow."

"Adding items to Azure Search using its .NET APIs sometimes throws exceptions."

"The pricing is room for improvement."

"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."

"The solution's stability could be better."

More Azure Search cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We chose AWS because of its cost and stability."

"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."

"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."

"I'm not sure how much we pay a year. It might be around $30,000 a year."

"There was no license needed to use this solution."

"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 solution is affordable."

"I think the solution's pricing is ok compared to other cloud devices."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, where one is the low price, and ten is the high price."

"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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861,803 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

University

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Retailer

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon AWS CloudSearch?

It is remarkably efficient and beneficial.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon AWS CloudSearch?

A reboot should be enhanced. There are issues with the VBC collection.

See all answers

What do you like most about Azure Search?

The product is pretty resilient.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Search?

The after-hour services are slow. It could be better.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azure Search?

We use the solution to link the Active Directory account to Office 365.

See all answers

Comparisons

Algolia vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 34% of the time

Elastic Search vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 25% of the time

Solr vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 14% of the time

Amazon Athena vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 9% of the time

Glean vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 7% of the time

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch Competitors

Amazon Kendra vs Azure Search

Compared 47% of the time

Elastic Search vs Azure Search

Compared 32% of the time

Solr vs Azure Search

Compared 10% of the time

Algolia vs Azure Search

Compared 5% of the time

Xapien vs Azure Search

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Search Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

July 2025

Download Amazon AWS CloudSearch product report

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

June 2025

Download Azure Search product report

Overview

Amazon CloudSearch is a managed service in the AWS Cloud that makes it simple and cost-effective to set up, manage, and scale a search solution for your website or application.
Amazon CloudSearch supports 34 languages and popular search features such as highlighting, autocomplete, and geospatial search. With Amazon CloudSearch, you can quickly add rich search capabilities to your website or application. You don't need to become a search expert or worry about hardware provisioning, setup, and maintenance. With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, you can create a search domain and upload the data that you want to make searchable, and Amazon CloudSearch will automatically provision the required resources and deploy a highly tuned search index.

You can easily change your search parameters, fine tune search relevance, and apply new settings at any time. As your volume of data and traffic fluctuates, Amazon CloudSearch seamlessly scales to meet your needs.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Azure Search is a search-as-a-service cloud solution that gives developers APIs and tools for adding a rich search experience over your data in web, mobile, and enterprise applications. Functionality is exposed through a simple REST API or .NET SDK that masks the inherent complexity of search technology. In addition to APIs, the Azure portal provides administration and prototyping support. Infrastructure and availability are managed by Microsoft.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

SmugMug

XOMNI, Real Madrid C.F., Weichert Realtors, JLL, NAV CANADA, Medihoo, autoTrader Corporation, Gjirafa

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Azure Search

July 2025

Free Report: Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Azure Search

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Azure Search and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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We monitor all Search as a Service reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.