Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Solr VS Vast.ai

Compare Apache Solr VS Vast.ai 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...

Vast.ai logo Vast.ai

GPU Sharing Economy: One simple interface to find the best cloud GPU rentals.
  • Apache Solr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-28
  • Vast.ai Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-08

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.

Vast.ai features and specs

  • Cost-effectiveness
    Vast.ai offers competitive pricing by providing access to a large pool of GPUs from various providers, allowing users to find and select cost-effective hardware that suits their budget and computational needs.
  • Flexibility
    The platform offers a wide range of hardware options from different providers, allowing users to select the most suitable GPU configurations for their specific workloads and easily switch between them as needed.
  • Scalability
    Vast.ai enables users to scale their computational resources up or down easily, accommodating varying workload demands without the necessity to own or maintain physical hardware.
  • Ease of Use
    Vast.ai provides a user-friendly interface and straightforward setup process, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.

Possible disadvantages of Vast.ai

  • Variable Performance
    Since the GPUs are rented from a variety of providers, there can be inconsistencies in performance, reliability, and availability, which might affect workload execution.
  • Limited Control
    Users have limited control over the physical hardware as it is shared with other users, which may lead to potential security and privacy concerns.
  • Provider Dependence
    The availability and cost of resources can fluctuate based on the number of providers offering hardware on the platform, potentially leading to variability in cost and resource access over time.
  • Network Latency
    Tasks that are sensitive to latency may experience delays due to the network overhead associated with distributing workloads across remote hardware providers.

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

Vast.ai videos

Using Vast.ai to set up a machine learning server

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Solr and Vast.ai)
Custom Search Engine
86 86%
14% 14
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100
Custom Search
100 100%
0% 0
VPS
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 Vast.ai

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

Vast.ai Reviews

We have no reviews of Vast.ai yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Vast.ai seems to be a lot more popular than Apache Solr. While we know about 225 links to Vast.ai, we've tracked only 19 mentions of Apache Solr. 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

Vast.ai mentions (225)

  • Launch HN: Exa (YC S21) – The web as a database
    Right, I saw that. ChatGPT does the same. My question is how you can confirm the entity you're referencing in each source is actually the entity you're looking for? An example I ran into recently is Vast (https://www.vastspace.com/). There are a number of other notable startups named Vast (https://vast.ai/, https://www.vastdata.com/). I understand Clay, which your Websets product is clearly inspired by, does a... - Source: Hacker News / 3 days ago
  • Running Your Own LLMs in the Cloud: A Practical Guide
    Vast.ai operates as a marketplace where users can both offer and rent GPU instances. The pricing is generally quite competitive, often lower than RunPod, especially for low-end GPUs with less than 24GB of VRAM. However, it also provides access to more powerful systems, like the 4xA100 setup I used to run Llama3.1-405B. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Nvidia pursues $30B custom chip opportunity with new unit
    There are already ways to get around this. For example, renting compute from people who aren't in datacenters. Which is already a thing: https://vast.ai. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • A SETI-like project to train LLM on libgen, scihub and the likes?
    By "SETI" I assume you mean the SETI@Home distributed computing project. There's a two-way market where you can rent out your GPU here: https://vast.ai/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What's the best hardware to run small/medium models locally?
    - https://vast.ai/ (linked by gchadwick above). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Solr and Vast.ai, you can also consider the following products

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

Amazon AWS - Amazon Web Services offers reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Free to join, pay only for what you use.

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.

Golem - Golem is a global, open sourced, decentralized supercomputer that anyone can access.

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

Swiftype - The simplest way to add search to your website or application. Sign up for free.