OpenSearch
OpenSearch is an open source search engine software project that is based on Elasticsearch and Apache 2.0 licensed. It provides RESTful search and analytics APIs suitable for building search applications.
OpenSearch: Open Source Search Engine Software
OpenSearch is an open source search engine software project based on Elasticsearch, Apache 2.0 licensed, providing RESTful search and analytics APIs for building search applications.
What is OpenSearch?
OpenSearch is an open source search engine software project that provides full text search, analytics, and other capabilities. It is based on Elasticsearch and Kibana and is developed under the Apache 2.0 license.
Some key features and capabilities of OpenSearch include:
- RESTful search API - Enables searching over structured, unstructured, geo, and time series data
- Analytics and visualizations - Plugins available for aggregations, dashboards, etc. using Kibana
- Scalability and resilience - Designed to scale horizontally across Nodes and handle failures
- Plugins - Extend functionality with a variety of plugins for security, alerting, machine learning, etc.
- Easy to operate - Simple installation, upgrades, operations suitable for developers
Overall, OpenSearch is well suited for building all types of search applications from small scale to large enterprise search systems. Its open source nature provides transparency and customizability not available in proprietary commercial offerings.
OpenSearch Features
Features
- Open source
- Based on Elasticsearch
- Supports full-text search
- Provides analytics APIs
- Scalable and distributed search engine
- Plugin architecture to extend functionality
- Works with variety of data stores
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Free and open source
Powerful search capabilities
Horizontally scalable
Easy to deploy
Extensible via plugins
Compatible with Elasticsearch APIs
Active community support
Cons
Steep learning curve
Limited documentation and guides
Not as feature rich as Elasticsearch
Lacks some advanced Elasticsearch features
Not ideal for complex search needs
Less flexible than building custom search with Elasticsearch
Official Links
Reviews & Ratings
Login to Review3.9
★
★
★
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★
37 reviews
Rating Breakdown
Ease of Use
★
★
★
★
★
3.5
Features
★
★
★
★
★
4.1
Value for Money
★
★
★
★
★
4.7
Customer Support
★
★
★
★
★
2.8
Overall Experience
★
★
★
★
★
3.8
Recent Reviews
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Lisa Martin
Apr 12, 2026
★
★
★
★
★
A solid open-source search engine with some growing pains
OpenSearch provides a powerful and capable search engine, which is great for building search applications without licensing fees. However, the documentation can be a bit scattered compared to its predecessor, and some community plugins are still catching up. It's a …
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Liam Smith
Apr 10, 2026
★
★
★
★
★
A promising open-source search solution, but support and community are still growing
OpenSearch offers a familiar and powerful search engine, especially for those already comfortable with Elasticsearch 7.10. The fact that it's fully open-source and Apache 2.0 licensed is a huge plus for my team, removing any proprietary licensing headaches. The ability …
S
Sophia Walker
Apr 10, 2026
★
★
★
★
★
A Genuine Open Source Search Solution That Delivers
As a developer needing a search engine for our internal documentation portal, OpenSearch has been a perfect fit. It was straightforward to set up using Docker, and the familiar Elasticsearch-like APIs meant our team could get productive immediately without a …
E
Emma Wilson
Apr 09, 2026
★
★
★
★
★
A Great Open Source Search Solution for Our Team
We switched to OpenSearch after the Elastic licensing changes and have been pleasantly surprised. The API compatibility made migration straightforward, and the Apache 2.0 license gives us peace of mind for our production systems. Performance has been solid for our …
E
Elena Taylor
Apr 08, 2026
★
★
★
★
★
Forked and Frustrated
We migrated to OpenSearch hoping for a clean break from Elastic's licensing changes, but it's been a constant struggle. The documentation is often outdated or incomplete compared to Elastic's, and we've encountered several compatibility issues with existing tooling that just …
Rating Distribution
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