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Apache Lucene VS Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Compare Apache Lucene VS Amazon Elasticsearch Service and see what are their differences

Apache Lucene logo Apache Lucene

High-performance, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java.

Amazon Elasticsearch Service logo Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Amazon Elasticsearch Service is a managed service that makes it easy to deploy, operate, and scale Elasticsearch in the AWS Cloud.
  • Apache Lucene Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-20
  • Amazon Elasticsearch Service Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-03-13

Apache Lucene features and specs

  • High Performance
    Lucene is known for its high-performance indexing and searching capabilities, which makes it suitable for handling large volumes of data efficiently.
  • Scalability
    Lucene can scale effectively to handle large datasets and accommodate growing data needs without significant performance degradation.
  • Flexible Querying
    It offers a rich query language and supports complex queries, allowing developers to perform precise and advanced searches.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Lucene is free to use and has a supportive community, which enhances its features through contributions and plugins.
  • Extensive Ecosystem
    Lucene is part of a larger ecosystem with tools like Apache Solr and Elasticsearch, which provide additional functionalities and easier management.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Lucene

  • Complexity
    Lucene can be complex to set up and configure, requiring a good understanding of indexing and search concepts.
  • Limited Out-of-the-box Features
    Lucene is a low-level library and lacks some of the out-of-the-box features found in higher-level search platforms, necessitating more custom development.
  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Developers need to invest time to understand its API and functionalities fully, which can be challenging for beginners.
  • Java Dependency
    As a Java-based library, Lucene requires a Java environment, which might not suit all development stacks or teams preferring other languages.
  • No Built-in Distributed Features
    Lucene itself does not handle distributed search and indexing natively, requiring integration with other tools like Solr or Elasticsearch for distributed capabilities.

Amazon Elasticsearch Service features and specs

  • Scalability
    Amazon OpenSearch Service allows for easy scalability of clusters based on demand, without the need to manually manage infrastructure.
  • Managed Service
    The service is fully managed by AWS, including automatic backups, monitoring, and updates, reducing operational overhead for users.
  • Integration
    Seamless integration with other AWS services such as Amazon VPC, AWS Lambda, and Amazon S3 for streamlined workflows and enhanced data analysis capabilities.
  • Security
    Built-in security features such as VPC support, IAM policies, and data encryption at rest and in transit ensure data is well-protected.
  • High Availability
    The service offers multiple availability zones for high availability and durability of data.
  • Cost Efficiency
    Comes with a pay-as-you-go pricing model which allows users to efficiently manage costs and scale resources according to budget and usage.

Possible disadvantages of Amazon Elasticsearch Service

  • Vendor Lock-in
    Relying on Amazon for Elasticsearch service can lead to vendor lock-in, making it hard to transition to other services or platforms without significant effort.
  • Cost
    While the pricing model is flexible, the costs can accumulate quickly with large-scale deployments, potentially leading to high expenses.
  • Limited Customization
    Being a managed service, it offers less flexibility and customization options compared to self-managed solutions.
  • Version Lag
    The service may not always be in sync with the latest releases and may lag behind the open-source Elasticsearch in terms of new features.
  • Complexity
    Setting up and optimizing Amazon OpenSearch Service can be complex, requiring a good understanding of both the service and underlying Elasticsearch technology.

Apache Lucene videos

Paper Review - "Apache Lucene 4." SIGIR 2012 workshop on open source information retrieval

More videos:

  • Review - Fundamentals of Information Retrieval, Illustration with Apache Lucene

Amazon Elasticsearch Service videos

Amazon Elasticsearch Service Deep Dive - AWS Online Tech Talks

More videos:

  • Review - Moving From Self-Managed Elasticsearch to Amazon Elasticsearch Service - AWS Online Tech Talks

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Lucene and Amazon Elasticsearch Service)
Custom Search Engine
53 53%
47% 47
Custom Search
50 50%
50% 50
Search Engine
100 100%
0% 0
Stream Processing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Lucene and Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Apache Lucene Reviews

5 Open-Source Search Engines For your Website
Apache Lucene is a free and open-source search engine software library, originally written completely in Java. It is supported by the Apache Software Foundation and is released under the Apache Software License. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform.
Source: vishnuch.tech

Amazon Elasticsearch Service Reviews

We have no reviews of Amazon Elasticsearch Service yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Amazon Elasticsearch Service should be more popular than Apache Lucene. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Lucene mentions (7)

  • Looking for small libraries implemented in multiple langauges
    I have to find a few examples of relatively small programming libraries that has been rewritten/ported to C++, C# and Java. Example: Lucene (it isn't that small, but still shows what I'm looking for). Source: about 2 years ago
  • HBO Max needs to stop purging its content.
    He is talking about impacting the search algorithm. Putting a “+” sounds like it is negatively impacting search quality. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Whoever worked on Steam's search engine needs a raise.
    For example Lucene is a core project common to many search engines, lots of things built ontop of it. And there are similar libraries Https://lucene.apache.org/core/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Prometheus vs Elasticsearch stack - Key concepts, features, and differences
    Full-text search Elasticsearch is built on top of Apache Lucene, an open-source information retrieval software. Apache Lucene enables Elasticsearch can perform complex full-text searches using a single or combination of word phrases against its No SQL database. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • A simple but efficient algorithm for searching a large dataset of objects?
    If I had control of the back end I would implement a full-text engine such as Lucene. Generate the lookup table as a batch job and then perform the FTS when the request comes in. If you try to do this real-time, your search will take exponentially longer the larger the data set gets. Source: about 3 years ago
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Amazon Elasticsearch Service mentions (11)

  • OpenSearch for humans
    This change triggered a response from Amazon Web Services, which offered OpenSearch (data store and search engine) and OpenSearch Dashboards (visualization and user interface) as Apache2.0 licensed open-source projects. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • OpenSearch as Vector DB: Supercharge Your LLM
    Amazon OpenSearch Service allows you to deploy a secured OpenSearch cluster in minutes. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Building Serverless Applications with AWS - Data
    If yes to these, then OpenSearch is where you are looking. I rarely ever use OpenSearch on its own but usually pair it with DynamoDB. The performance of DDB and the power of searching with OpenSearch make a nice combination. And as with most things with Serverless, pick the right tool for the job. And when it comes to Data, there are so many choices because each one of these is specific to the problem it solves. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Advice on a simple database architecture
    Have you looked into Amazon OpenSearch Service (https://aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/)? You should be able to load the log files into that service and then query it there. Should simplify things a lot. Source: about 2 years ago
  • AWS Beginner's Key Terminologies
    Elasticsearch (analytics) An open-source, real-time distributed search and analytics engine used for full-text search, structured search, and analytics. OpenSearch was developed by the Elastic company. Amazon OpenSearch Service (OpenSearch Service) is an AWS-managed service for deploying, operating and scaling OpenSearch in the AWS Cloud. Https://aws.amazon.com/opensearch-service/. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Lucene and Amazon Elasticsearch Service, you can also consider the following products

ElasticSearch - Elasticsearch is an open source, distributed, RESTful search engine.

Amazon Kinesis - Amazon Kinesis services make it easy to work with real-time streaming data in the AWS cloud.

Algolia - Algolia's Search API makes it easy to deliver a great search experience in your apps & websites. Algolia Search provides hosted full-text, numerical, faceted and geolocalized search.

PieSync - Seamless two-way sync between your CRM, marketing apps and Google in no time

OpenSearch - OpenSearch is a community-driven, open source search and analytics suite derived from Apache 2.0 licensed Elasticsearch 7.10.2 & Kibana 7.10.2. It consists of a search engine daemon, and a visualization and user interface, OpenSearch Dashboards.

Google Cloud Search - Search across all your company's content in G Suite.