Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Elasticlunr VS Apache Solr

Compare Elasticlunr VS Apache Solr and see what are their differences

Elasticlunr logo Elasticlunr

Lightweight full-text search engine in Javascript for browser search and offline search.

Apache Solr logo Apache Solr

Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on Lucene search library, with XML/HTTP and...
  • Elasticlunr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-27
  • Apache Solr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-28

Elasticlunr features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Elasticlunr is a lightweight full-text search library that can be easily integrated into client-side applications without requiring a separate server or heavy backend processing.
  • Client-Side Operation
    Since Elasticlunr operates entirely on the client side, it reduces the need for server-side search operations, lowering server load and allowing for offline search capabilities.
  • Simple API
    Elasticlunr provides a simple, easy-to-use API which makes implementing search features straightforward, even for developers without specialized search technology expertise.
  • Customizable
    It offers the ability to customize the indexing and search process, allowing developers to tailor it to their needs, such as by configuring stop words or adjusting scoring algorithms.

Possible disadvantages of Elasticlunr

  • Limited Scalability
    Elasticlunr is designed for small datasets and may not perform well with very large data sets due to client-side processing limitations.
  • Memory Consumption
    As Elasticlunr operates in the browser, it relies on the device's memory, which can become a constraint with larger datasets, potentially impacting performance.
  • Minimal Features
    Compared to more robust search solutions like Elasticsearch, Elasticlunr offers a more limited set of features, which may not satisfy applications requiring advanced search functionalities.
  • Browser Dependency
    Being a client-side library, its functionality and performance depend heavily on the user's browser capabilities and the device's processing power.

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.

Elasticlunr videos

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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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Elasticlunr and Apache Solr)
Custom Search Engine
11 11%
89% 89
Custom Search
11 11%
89% 89
Search Engine
11 11%
89% 89
Search API
12 12%
88% 88

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Elasticlunr and Apache Solr

Elasticlunr Reviews

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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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Solr should be more popular than Elasticlunr. 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.

Elasticlunr mentions (8)

  • Mozilla launching "Thundermail" email service to take on Gmail, Microsoft 365
    I do agree that it is a bad choice, though the reason for this is historical; after quite some testing and comparisons, the best JS-based index I could find at the time was elasticlunr [0]. It may very well be the case that there are better wasm alternatives available currently. Over time I then added a non-JS, external index. Since I already had an ES cluster running elsewhere anyway and the querying of... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Show HN: A fast, accurate and multilingual fuzzy search lib for the front end
    When I did my static site search function some time ago, I used Elasticlunr. I was able to pregenerate the index file as a big json file that is loaded at the client. http://elasticlunr.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What's the best way to add search to my website?
    If your content is mostly static, you might want to consider pre-building an index and shipping it as a whole. You could look into something like * https://stork-search.net/ (Rust/WASM) * tinysearch: https://github.com/tinysearch/tinysearch (JS, simple, stable) * http://elasticlunr.com/ - based on the former, slightly more sophisticated tuning options. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Self-Contained Search for Archived Static Site?
    There are a few client-side libraries like Lunr [1] or Elasticlunr [2]. For my recent project I went with a server-side approach using Stork [3]. It also provides a script to be used on the client. [1] https://lunrjs.com/ [2] http://elasticlunr.com/ [3] https://stork-search.net/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Writing a Fuzzy Search Component With Preact and Fuse for Astro
    Very nice! Seems to perform very well. I'm curious, have you compared Fuse with other search engines? Like flex search or elasticlunr? Why did you choose fuse ? Source: almost 3 years ago
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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
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What are some alternatives?

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

Stork Search - Full-text, WASM-powered search for static sites

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

Sphinx (search engine) - Sphinx is a fulltext FLOSS search engine that provides text search functionality to client applications. Sphinx (search engine) - WikiMili, The Free Encyclopedia - WikiMili, The Free Encyclopedia

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.

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

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