Meilisearch: Open-Source Fast Search Engine for Websites and Applications

What is Meilisearch?

Meilisearch is an open-source search engine designed to provide ultra-fast, typo-tolerant search results for websites and applications. Built with Rust for performance and designed with developer experience as priority, Meilisearch enables adding powerful search functionality without complex configuration. Over 100,000 developers use Meilisearch to improve application search and user discovery.

Unlike Elasticsearch ($0 complex to $thousands/month managed) which requires extensive configuration and expertise, Meilisearch provides powerful search that works out-of-the-box with minimal configuration. Organizations deploy Meilisearch on-premises or managed cloud for reliable search infrastructure.

Meilisearch serves as the search engine powering application discovery. E-commerce sites enable product search. Documentation sites enable content search. SaaS applications enable data search. Users find what they’re looking for quickly.

Key Features and Capabilities

Search Capabilities

Typo Tolerance: Find results even with spelling mistakes
Instant Search: Results delivered instantly with every keystroke
Multi-language: Support for 100+ languages
Synonyms: Define word synonyms for better matching
Stop Words: Ignore common words in searches
Faceting: Filter results by categories and attributes

Indexing and Performance

Real-Time Indexing: Index updates appear instantly
Sub-Second Latency: Ultra-fast search results
Incremental Indexing: Efficient updates to existing indexes
Memory Efficient: Minimal memory footprint
Caching: Intelligent result caching

Ranking and Relevance

Customizable Ranking: Configure ranking criteria
Custom Ranking Rules: Define ranking preferences
Distinct Attribute: Ensure result diversity
Searchable Attributes: Control which fields are searchable

System Requirements

Server Requirements

OS: Linux, macOS, Windows
Runtime: Rust binary, no runtime needed
RAM: 256MB minimum, 1GB+ recommended
Storage: 1GB+ for indexes

Installation

Docker Installation

docker run -d 
  --name meilisearch 
  -p 7700:7700 
  -v meilisearch_data:/data.ms 
  getmeili/meilisearch

# Access at http://localhost:7700

Use Cases

E-Commerce Search

Online retailers use Meilisearch for product search. Typo tolerance helps users find products despite misspellings. Faceting enables filtering by price, category, rating.

Documentation Search

Documentation sites use Meilisearch for content search. Fast results enable users to find documentation quickly. Instant search shows results with every keystroke.