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Weaviate VS ElasticSearch

Compare Weaviate VS ElasticSearch and see what are their differences

Weaviate logo Weaviate

Welcome to Weaviate

ElasticSearch logo ElasticSearch

Elasticsearch is an open source, distributed, RESTful search engine.
  • Weaviate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-10
  • ElasticSearch Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-10

Weaviate features and specs

  • Semantic Search
    Weaviate provides advanced semantic search capabilities, allowing users to perform searches based on meanings and concepts rather than just keyword matching, enhancing the accuracy and relevance of search results.
  • Scalability
    Weaviate is designed to handle large-scale data efficiently, making it suitable for enterprise-level applications that require processing big datasets.
  • Graph-Based
    It leverages a graph-based data model which is intuitive for representing complex relationships between entities, providing a more natural way to organize and query data.
  • Integration with AI/ML Models
    Weaviate can integrate with machine learning models to enrich data processing capabilities, such as text vectorization, which improves the precision of semantic search.
  • Open-Source Platform
    Being open-source, Weaviate encourages community-driven development and transparency, allowing users to contribute to and modify the software in accordance with their needs.

Possible disadvantages of Weaviate

  • Complexity
    The advanced features and configurations of Weaviate can introduce complexity which may require a steep learning curve for new users unfamiliar with graph databases or semantic search technologies.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Weaviate at scale can require significant computational resources, which might be a consideration for organizations with limited infrastructure capabilities.
  • Maturity and Support
    As a relatively newer technology compared to other established database systems, Weaviate might have fewer community resources and third-party integrations available.
  • Use Case Specificity
    Weaviate's focus on semantic search might make it less suitable for applications that only require simple, traditional relational database features without the added complexity of semantic layer.

ElasticSearch features and specs

  • Scalability
    ElasticSearch is highly scalable, allowing you to handle large volumes of data and distribute indexing and search tasks across multiple nodes.
  • Real-Time Data
    It provides real-time indexing and searching capabilities, making it suitable for applications that require up-to-the-minute data retrieval and analysis.
  • Full-Text Search
    ElasticSearch is well-known for its powerful full-text search capabilities, enabling complex search queries and supporting a wide range of search options.
  • Complex Query Support
    It offers a rich query language allowing for complex and nested searching with filters, aggregations, and more.
  • Distributed Architecture
    ElasticSearch is designed to be distributed by nature, making it resilient to node failures and allowing data and search requests to be distributed across a cluster.
  • Open Source
    ElasticSearch is open-source, offering flexibility and a large community of developers that contribute to its continuous improvement and support.
  • Analytics
    Besides search, it also supports powerful analytics and visualization tools, especially when integrated with Kibana, its visualization dashboard.
  • Integrations
    ElasticSearch can easily integrate with various data sources and frameworks, enhancing its usability across different applications.

Possible disadvantages of ElasticSearch

  • Complexity
    Operating ElasticSearch can be complex, particularly when dealing with large-scale deployments, requiring specialized knowledge and expertise.
  • Resource Intensive
    ElasticSearch can be resource-intensive, requiring significant amounts of RAM and CPU, which can be costly for large-scale operations.
  • Consistency
    As a distributed system, ElasticSearch can sometimes face consistency issues, especially in scenarios involving partitions or network failures.
  • Security
    Though security features are available, they often require additional configurations and are more robust in the paid versions, which can be a concern for open-source users.
  • Cost
    While the core ElasticSearch software is open-source, scaling and additional features (like security, monitoring, and machine learning) are part of the paid Elastic Stack offerings.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a steep learning curve associated with mastering ElasticSearch and its query DSL (Domain Specific Language), which can be a barrier for new users.
  • Maintenance
    Properly maintaining an ElasticSearch cluster requires ongoing management, monitoring, and tuning to ensure optimal performance.
  • Backup and Restore
    Managing backups and restores can be cumbersome and is not as straightforward as in some other databases or data storage solutions.

Weaviate videos

Introducing the Weaviate Vector Search Engine!

More videos:

  • Review - Weaviate + Haystack presented by Laura Ham (Harry Potter example!)

ElasticSearch videos

What is Elasticsearch?

More videos:

  • Review - Real world Elasticsearch Compose/Stack File Review
  • Demo - Elastic Search

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Weaviate and ElasticSearch)
Search Engine
22 22%
78% 78
Custom Search Engine
6 6%
94% 94
Utilities
100 100%
0% 0
Custom 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 Weaviate and ElasticSearch

Weaviate Reviews

We have no reviews of Weaviate yet.
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ElasticSearch Reviews

Log analysis: Elasticsearch vs Apache Doris
Benchmark tests with ES Rally, the official testing tool for Elasticsearch, showed that Apache Doris was around 5 times as fast as Elasticsearch in data writing, 2.3 times as fast in queries, and it consumed only 1/5 of the storage space that Elasticsearch used. On the test dataset of HTTP logs, it achieved a writing speed of 550 MB/s and a compression ratio of 10:1.
4 Leading Enterprise Search Software to Look For in 2022
“ We’ve built some big data search and mobile desktop applications that help our customers experience fast natural language search. Some applications require this, where I need to find data, I don’t want to build some complex query, I just need to ask the system “help me search for this information, narrow my results” and I don't want to wait several seconds. We’ve built a...
Top 10 Site Search Software Tools & Plugins for 2022
Elasticsearch is built for human users, which means that it’s equipped to handle mistakes that humans often make such as typos. This helps to improve search relevance and enhance the overall search experience. It offers real-time crawling, which automatically detects changes in content and ensures that search results are fresh and relevant.
Best Elasticsearch alternatives for search
However, when it comes to dealing with synonyms (i.e. ‘smart phone’ for ‘Samsung Galaxy’), slang (i.e. ‘kicks’ for ‘Nike Air Jordans’) and context (i.e. ‘car park’ is different to ‘dog park’) – you have to set up a bunch of manual rules/definitions with Elasticsearch and co.
Source: relevance.ai
5 Open-Source Search Engines For your Website
Elasticsearch provides key features like Advanced Full-Text Search Capabilities like Data indexing, Search capabilities including phrases, wildcards, auto suggestions, filters & facets, etc... Elasticsearch can also be used for other use-cases like
Source: vishnuch.tech

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Weaviate should be more popular than ElasticSearch. It has been mentiond 35 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.

Weaviate mentions (35)

  • 6 retrieval augmented generation (RAG) techniques you should know
    The key difference lies in the retrieval mechanism. Vector databases focus on semantic similarity by comparing numerical embeddings, while graph databases emphasize relations between entities. Two solutions for graph databases are Neptune from Amazon and Neo4j. In a case where you need a solution that can accommodate both vector and graph, Weaviate fits the bill. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
  • Why You Shouldn’t Invest In Vector Databases?
    In cases where a company possesses a strong technological foundation and faces a substantial workload demanding advanced vector search capabilities, its ideal solution lies in adopting a specialized vector database. Prominent options in this domain include Chroma (having raised $20 million), Zilliz (having raised $113 million), Pinecone (having raised $138 million), Qdrant (having raised $9.8 million), Weaviate... - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • Retrieving Original Documents via Summaries with Weaviate and LangChain
    In this post, we'll explore how to achieve a similar result using Weaviate and its cross-references feature, integrated with LangChain. We'll leverage Weaviate's ability to create cross-references between data objects to efficiently retrieve original documents by querying their summaries. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2024)
    Weaviate (https://weaviate.io/)| hiring for Engineering | Remote | Full-time Weaviate is an AI-native vector database that helps customers with hybrid search, RAG, and generative feedback loops. Check out the open-source project here: https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate - Go experience required. Not afraid to work up the stack as needed Research Engineer -... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • How to build a movie recommendation app without the complexities of vector databases
    Weaviate is an AI-native database designed to help you build amazing, scalable, and production-grade AI-powered applications. It offers robust features for data storage, retrieval, and querying as well as integrations with AI models, making it an excellent choice for developers looking to integrate AI capabilities into their apps. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
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ElasticSearch mentions (17)

  • ElasticSearch from the Azure store or from Elastic.co?
    What surprised me is that on the Azure store, the only option I see is (Pay as you go), whereas on elastic.co there are the standard platinum and enterprise tiers followed by a where to deploy page and a pricing overview. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Hunspell on elastic.co cloud
    Can anyone help me how to upload custom hunspell stemmer files to elastic cloud (elastic.co)? According to elastic docs it should go under elasticsearch/config/hunspell, but according to cloud docs I should upload it via features/extension tab. So I tried zipping the hunspell folder and uploading it. I also figured out that it should be in the dictionaries folder, but after uploading it still doesn't work. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Creating a modern, SaaS website.. what am I missing?
    I can't figure out where I have to go to get more or less of a custom, premium website. I should mention that I look up to websites like elastic.co for example, would be very happy with something like that. I could really use some guidance! Source: about 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2022)
    Elastic | Multiple software engineering roles | REMOTE (EMEA) | Full-time | https://elastic.co Elastic offers solutions for security and observability that are built on a single, open technology stack that can be deployed anywhere. Elastic Security enables security teams to prevent, detect, and respond to attacks with a solution built atop the speed and reliable of the Elastic stack. The Security External... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Seeking clarification about which part of ElasticSearch to use for our website
    I have been trying to digest the elastic.co website to try to understand how we can use elastic search, but I've come to a point where I'm not sure which part of elastic, (if any) makes sense for us. In fact I am royally confused. I wonder if anyone here can help clarify? Source: almost 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Weaviate and ElasticSearch, you can also consider the following products

Qdrant - Qdrant is a high-performance, massive-scale Vector Database for the next generation of AI. Also available in the cloud https://cloud.qdrant.io/

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.

Milvus - Vector database built for scalable similarity search Open-source, highly scalable, and blazing fast.

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

pgvecto.rs - Scalable, Low-latency and Hybrid-enabled Vector Search in Postgres. Revolutionize Vector Search, not Database. - tensorchord/pgvecto.rs

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