Meilisearch vs. Typesense
Side by side, with sources. Checked Oct 3, 2026.
Meilisearch
Open source
Typesense
Open sourcePrice
The Community Edition is free to self-host. Meilisearch Cloud starts at US$20 a month after a 14-day free trial.from $20/monthSource: meilisearch.com
Free to run on your own server. Typesense Cloud charges by the hour per cluster plus bandwidth; the smallest cluster is about US$21.60 a month.from $21.60/monthSource: cloud.typesense.org
Pricing model
Open source · Free plan available
Open source · Free plan available
License
Open core · MIT AND BUSL-1.1The Community Edition is MIT; Enterprise Edition features such as sharding are under BUSL-1.1 and need a commercial agreement in production.
Open source · GPL-3.0The server is GPL-3.0; the official client libraries are Apache-licensed.
Works on
- ✓ Windows
- ✓ Mac
- ✓ Linux
- ✓ Web browser
- ✓ Your own server
- ✓ Windows
- ✓ Mac
- ✓ Linux
- ✓ Web browser
- ✓ Your own server
Where your data lives
On your own machine or server, or in the Meilisearch Cloud region you pick when you create a project.
On your own server, or in a Typesense Cloud region you choose.
Getting started
Difficulty: Advanced The free Community Edition is a server you start from the command line or Docker; the no-code Cloud dashboard is only free for a 14-day trial.
Difficulty: Advanced Using it for free means running a server from the command line. Typesense Cloud avoids servers but is paid after a one-time free allowance, and your site still needs code to use it.
Hosted version
Meilisearch Cloud14-day free trial with no card, then from US$20 a month.
Typesense CloudPay by the hour; the first 720 hours and 10 GB of bandwidth are free once per account, not every month.