Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Solr VS StartPage

Compare Apache Solr VS StartPage and see what are their differences

Apache Solr logo Apache Solr

Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on Lucene search library, with XML/HTTP and...

StartPage logo StartPage

Startpage search engine, the new private way to search Google. Protect your Privacy with Startpage!
  • Apache Solr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-28
  • StartPage Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-30

Apache Solr features and specs

  • Scalability
    Apache Solr is highly scalable, capable of handling large amounts of data and numerous queries per second. It supports distributed search and indexing, which allows for horizontal scaling by adding more nodes.
  • Flexibility
    Solr provides flexible schema management, allowing for dynamic field definitions and easy handling of various data types. It supports a variety of search query types and can be customized to meet specific search requirements.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Solr comes with a wealth of features out-of-the-box, including faceted search, result highlighting, multi-index search, and advanced filtering capabilities. It also offers robust analytics and joins support.
  • Community and Documentation
    Being an open-source project, Apache Solr has a strong community and comprehensive documentation, which ensures continuous improvements, updates, and extensive support resources for developers.
  • Integrations
    Solr integrates well with a variety of databases and data sources, and it provides REST-like APIs for ease of integration with other applications. It also has strong support for popular programming languages like Java, Python, and Ruby.
  • Performance
    Solr is built on top of Apache Lucene, which provides high performance for searching and indexing. It is optimized for speed and can handle rapid data ingestion and real-time indexing.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Solr

  • Complexity
    The initial setup and configuration of Apache Solr can be complex, particularly for those not already familiar with search engines and indexing concepts. Managing a distributed Solr installation also requires considerable expertise.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Solr, especially for large datasets, can be resource-intensive in terms of both memory and CPU. It requires careful tuning and adequate hardware to maintain performance.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve for Apache Solr can be steep due to its extensive feature set and the complexity of its configuration options. New users may find it challenging to get up to speed quickly.
  • Consistency Issues
    In distributed setups, ensuring data consistency can be challenging, particularly for users unfamiliar with managing clustered environments. There may be delays or issues with synchronizing indexes across multiple nodes.
  • Maintenance
    Ongoing maintenance of a Solr instance, including monitoring, tuning, and scaling, can be labor-intensive. This requires dedicated effort to keep the system running efficiently over time.
  • Limited Real-time Capabilities
    Although Solr provides near real-time indexing, it may not be as effective as some specialized real-time search engines. For applications requiring truly real-time capabilities, additional solutions might be necessary.

StartPage features and specs

  • Privacy Protection
    StartPage emphasizes user privacy by not storing personal data, search history, or tracking users with cookies, ensuring a high level of anonymity.
  • Google Search Results
    StartPage provides search results from Google, delivering high-quality and relevant search results without compromising user privacy.
  • No Filter Bubble
    Because StartPage does not personalize search results, users are exposed to a broader range of viewpoints and information, avoiding the filter bubble effect.
  • Anonymous View
    StartPage offers a feature called Anonymous View, which allows users to visit websites through a proxy server, further protecting their identity from the websites they visit.
  • Interface Simplicity
    The interface is clean and straightforward, making it easy to use and navigate according to traditional search engine norms.

Possible disadvantages of StartPage

  • Limited Features
    Compared to other search engines like Google or Bing, StartPage may lack some advanced features, such as comprehensive news, maps, and shopping results.
  • Slower Performance
    The additional privacy protections can sometimes result in slightly slower search performance compared to directly using mainstream search engines.
  • Ad-based Revenue
    While StartPage does not track users, it still shows ads based on search queries, which may be a downside for users seeking a completely ad-free experience.
  • Dependence on Google
    Since StartPage relies on Google's search data, any changes in Google's algorithms or data access policies can directly impact StartPage's effectiveness and reliability.
  • Geographical Limitations
    Some users report that the search results are not as geographically relevant compared to using Google's localized versions, which might affect the search quality for region-specific inquiries.

Apache Solr videos

Solr Index - Learn about Inverted Indexes and Apache Solr Indexing

More videos:

  • Review - Solr Web Crawl - Crawl Websites and Search in Apache Solr

StartPage videos

Misconceptions About Private Search Engines - DuckDuckGo, StartPage, and Search Encrypt

More videos:

  • Review - Startpage Search Engine Review A Private Google Yahoo Aol Bing Alternative
  • Review - StartPage Sale to System1: Is Startpage Still Safe?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Solr and StartPage)
Custom Search Engine
100 100%
0% 0
Search Engine
38 38%
62% 62
Custom Search
100 100%
0% 0
Internet Search
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 Solr and StartPage

Apache Solr Reviews

Top 10 Site Search Software Tools & Plugins for 2022
Apache Solr is optimized to handle high-volume traffic and is easy to scale up or down depending on your changing needs. The near real-time indexing capabilities ensure that your content remains fresh and search results are always relevant and updated. For more advanced customization, Apache Solr boasts extensible plug-in architecture so you can easily plug in index and...
5 Open-Source Search Engines For your Website
Apache Solr is the popular, blazing-fast, open-source enterprise search platform built on Apache Lucene. Solr is a standalone search server with a REST-like API. You can put documents in it (called "indexing") via JSON, XML, CSV, or binary over HTTP. You query it via HTTP GET and receive JSON, XML, CSV, or binary results.
Source: vishnuch.tech
Elasticsearch vs. Solr vs. Sphinx: Best Open Source Search Platform Comparison
Solr is not as quick as Elasticsearch and works best for static data (that does not require frequent changing). The reason is due to caches. In Solr, the caches are global, which means that, when even the slightest change happens in the cache, all indexing demands a refresh. This is usually a time-consuming process. In Elastic, on the other hand, the refreshing is made by...
Source: greenice.net
Algolia Review – A Hosted Search API Reviewed
If you’re not 100% satisfied with Algolia, there are always alternative methods to accomplish similar results, such as Solr (open-source & self-hosted) or ElasticSearch (open-source or hosted). Both of these are built on Apache Lucene, and their search syntax is very similar. Amazon Elasticsearch Service provides a fully managed Elasticsearch service which makes it easy to...
Source: getstream.io

StartPage Reviews

Alternative search engines
Startpage lies at the opposite side of the spectrum from Mojeek in that it is simply a proxy for Google Search. So, Startpage lets you use Google Search without handing over any personal data to Google. If you just want Google Search with better privacy, Startpage is your best bet.
The best private search engines for secure browsing
Startpage was founded in The Netherlands and is now owned by a US company, System1. Overall, Startpage is a reliable private search engine, providing top-quality search results and innovative features to safeguard user privacy.
Source: nordvpn.com
Best DuckDuckGo Alternative: Private Search Engines in 2024
Startpage obtains its search results from Google Search, but still maintains privacy by not tracking users or storing personal information or search history. As a result of using Google’s web index, Startpage provides high-quality search results. One of its distinguishing features is its “anonymous view,” which masks your identity via a proxy while you visit websites...
The Difference Between Search Engines
Both are two new techniques of looking the web. Gigablast does sort the sub websites and websites into blocks, this way the subsites results will be split sort into directories. you can expand it and show it if you click [on more from this site] and Gigablast in Additionally it is an opensource search engine and it indexes its effects. It's not an enormous tech search engine...
No need for Google: 12 alternative search engines in 2018
Like DuckDuckGo, StartPage was founded with strict user Privacy as its USP. Again, it doesn’t track and store your data, and it doesn’t target ads based on your behaviors.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Solr seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 19 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 Solr mentions (19)

  • List of 45 databases in the world
    Solr — Open-source search platform built on Apache Lucene. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Considerations for Unicode and Searching
    I want to spend the brunt of this article talking about how to do this in Postgres, partly because it's a little more difficult there. But let me start in Apache Solr, which is where I first worked on these issues. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Swirl: An open-source search engine with LLMs and ChatGPT to provide all the answers you need 🌌
    Using the Galaxy UI, knowledge workers can systematically review the best results from all configured services including Apache Solr, ChatGPT, Elastic, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, plus generic HTTP/GET/POST with configurations for premium services like Google's Programmable Search Engine, Miro and Northern Light Research. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Looking for software
    Apache Solr can be used to index and search text-based documents. It supports a wide range of file formats including PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and plain text files. https://solr.apache.org/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • 'google-like' search engine for files on my NAS
    If so, then https://solr.apache.org/ can be a solution, though there's a bit of setup involved. Oh yea, you get to write your own "search interface" too which would end up calling solr's api to find stuff. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

StartPage mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of StartPage yet. Tracking of StartPage recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Solr and StartPage, you can also consider the following products

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

DuckDuckGo - The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

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.

Google - Google Search, also referred to as Google Web Search or simply Google, is a web search engine developed by Google. It is the most used search engine on the World Wide Web

Typesense - Typo tolerant, delightfully simple, open source search 🔍

Searx - Open source metasearch engine