Azure Search vs Solr comparison

Microsoft and Apache are both solutions in the Search as a Service category. Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 6.8, while Apache is ranked #8. Microsoft holds a 14.3% mindshare in SS, compared to Apache’s 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 62% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Apache users who would recommend it.

Azure Search

Read 8 Azure Search reviews

1,425 Views
1,212 Comparison Views

62% willing to recommend

Solr

Read 4 Solr reviews

747 Views
577 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Azure Search

Solr

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure Search and Solr 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 Azure Search vs. Solr Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Search vs. Solr

April 2025

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Helped 849,686 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

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

Solr

Ranking in Search as a Service

8th

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Azure Search is 14.3%, up from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Solr is 6.2%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Search as a Service

Featured Reviews

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…

Read full review

reviewer1368636

Data Scientist at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Good indexing and decent stability, but requires more documentation

The solution's grammar and syntax should be easier. It does take a little bit of effort to use and understand the solution. It would help us a lot if the solution offered up more documentation or tutorials to help with training or troubleshooting. MongoDB can realize more complex operations than Solr can. Solr should add some more complex operations to the database to at least bring it up to MondoDB's level of functionality. It would make it more competitive. There might be some compatibility issues between the data types within Solr. This needs to be improved. Solr has a schema that we have to load the schema as an HTML, or SML file. This usually needs to be done by our engineers. It should be easier to do without needing too much technical background.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

"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."

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

"Azure Search is well-documented, making it easy to understand and implement."

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

"It provides good access capabilities to various platforms."

"Creates indexers to get data from different data sources."

More Azure Search pros

"The most valuable feature is the ability to perform a natural language search."

"One of the best aspects of the solution is the indexing. It's already indexed to all the fields in the category. We don't need to spend so much extra effort to do the indexing. It's great."

"It has improved our search ranking, relevancy, search performance, and user retention."

"Sharding data, Faceting, Hit Highlighting, parent-child Block Join and Grouping, and multi-mode platform are all valuable features."

Cons

"The initial setup is not as easy as it should be."

"They should add an API for third-party vendors, like a security operating center or reporting system, that would be a big improvement."

"The pricing is room for improvement."

"The solution's stability could be better."

"The after-hour services are slow."

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

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

"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."

More Azure Search cons

"SolrCloud stability, indexing and commit speed, and real-time Indexing need improvement."

"Encountered issues with both master-slave and SolrCloud. Indexing and serving traffic from same collection has very poor performance. Some components are slow for searching."

"With increased sharding, performance degrades. Merger, when present, is a bottle-neck. Peer-to-peer sync has issues in SolrCloud when index is incrementally updated."

"The performance for this solution, in terms of queries, could be improved."

"It does take a little bit of effort to use and understand the solution. It would help us a lot if the solution offered up more documentation or tutorials to help with training or troubleshooting."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is affordable."

"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."

"For the actual costs, I encourage users to view the pricing page on the Azure site for details."

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

"The only costs in addition to the standard licensing fees are related to the hardware, depending on whether it is cloud-based, or on-premise."

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849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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

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Comparisons

Amazon Kendra vs Azure Search

Compared 55% of the time

Elastic Search vs Azure Search

Compared 29% of the time

Algolia vs Azure Search

Compared 5% of the time

Xapien vs Azure Search

Compared 4% of the time

More Azure Search Competitors

Elastic Search vs Solr

Compared 26% of the time

Algolia vs Solr

Compared 20% of the time

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Solr

Compared 18% of the time

Amazon Kendra vs Solr

Compared 18% of the time

More Solr Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

April 2025

Download Azure Search product report

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

April 2025

Download Solr product report

Overview

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

Solr is highly reliable, scalable and fault tolerant, providing distributed indexing, replication and load-balanced querying, automated failover and recovery, centralized configuration and more. Solr powers the search and navigation features of many of the world's largest internet sites.

Apache

Sample Customers

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

eHarmony, Sears, StubHub, Best Buy, Instagram, Netflix, Disney, AT&T, eBay, AOL, Bloomberg, Comcast, Ticketmaster, Travelocity, MTV Networks

Buyer's Guide

Azure Search vs. Solr

April 2025

Free Report: Azure Search vs. Solr

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Search vs. Solr and other solutions. Updated: April 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.