Search APIs · Comparison
Algolia vs Typesense vs Meilisearch: Typesense leads at 7.6; 500,000 searches from $21.60
We read the pricing, security and docs pages of three hosted search APIs on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. How each one bills, what 100,000 records and 500,000 searches a month cost, and who should pick which.
On this page8 sections
On six indicators read from each vendor's public pages, Typesense Cloud scores 7.6, Meilisearch Cloud 6.2 and Algolia 5.8 out of 10. For our reference scenario, 100,000 records of about 1 KB and 500,000 searches a month, Typesense Cloud's configurator shows $21.60 for a 0.5 GB cluster, Meilisearch's estimator shows $23 for an XS instance, and Algolia's Grow plan comes to $245 at its listed rates, because it bills every search request. Algolia leads on pricing clarity, the free tier and compliance; Typesense Cloud leads on price, AI search and control, with SAML SSO at no extra charge and an open-source engine.
The three bill on different models, so the scenario figures are not like for like: the two cluster prices rest on a sizing assumption, and the scenario has many searches for its amount of data, which favours billing by cluster size. The scores measure what the public pages commit to, not relevance quality or how a product feels to use, and we did not sign up for any of the three.
At a glance
| Algolia | Typesense Cloud | Meilisearch Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Hosted search, nothing to size | A dedicated cluster of open-source search | Open-source search, by usage or by instance |
| Billing units | Search requests and records | Cluster hours (RAM and vCPU) and bandwidth | Searches and documents, or instance hours, disk and bandwidth |
| Free option | Free plan: 10,000 searches and 50,000 records/mo, no card | 720 cluster hours and 10 GB once | 14-day trial, no card |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $245 (Grow, listed rates) | $21.60 (0.5 GB, one node) | $23 (XS, estimator) |
| Vector or hybrid search | NeuralSearch on Elevate (annual contract) | Every cluster | Documented, no plan limit stated |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both | SOC 2 Type II (report with Business support) | SOC 2 Type II |
| HIPAA BAA | Not stated | With Business support ($400 per 28 days) | Not stated |
| SAML SSO | Elevate | Every account, no extra charge | Enterprise |
| Open-source engine | No | Yes, GPL-3.0 | Yes, MIT (Enterprise Edition parts under BUSL) |
| Score (public pages) | 5.8 Fair | 7.6 Good | 6.2 Good |
What the public pages show
Algolia bills search requests and records. The free plan covers 10,000 requests and 50,000 records a month with no card. Grow and Grow Plus include 10,000 requests and 100,000 records, then charge $0.50 or $1.75 per 1,000 requests and $0.40 per 1,000 records, billed monthly with no contract; Grow Plus adds AI Ranking, AI Synonyms and Advanced Personalization. NeuralSearch, which combines semantic and keyword search, and SSO are on Elevate, with an annual contract. Its docs count each keystroke sent to an index as one search request. Every plan can be hosted in the US, the UK or EU West, and Algolia lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 27017.
Typesense Cloud runs the open-source Typesense engine on a dedicated cluster, with no limits on records or operations. You pick RAM, vCPUs and the number of nodes in a configurator and pay a fixed hourly fee plus outbound bandwidth; 0.5 GB on one node is $0.03 an hour. The configuration assistant on the pricing page recommends 0.5 GB for our scenario, and the page recommends high availability (three nodes, $64.80 for 0.5 GB) for production. SAML SSO costs nothing extra; the SOC 2 Type II report and a HIPAA BAA are for customers who intend to buy the Business support plan.
Meilisearch Cloud lets each project choose usage-based billing (Build: $30 a month for 50,000 searches and 100,000 documents, then $0.40 per 1,000 searches) or a resource-based instance billed hourly by tier, plus disk and bandwidth. The pricing page's estimator recommends XS (0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) for our scenario; the docs' tier table lists XS for development and testing and points to M for 100,000 small documents. The trust center lists a SOC 2 Type 2 report, and SAML SSO is an enterprise feature.
Strengths and things to know
Algolia. Strengths: nothing to size, the only permanent free plan here, AI relevance features on a monthly plan, ISO 27001 as well as SOC 2, UK and EU hosting on every plan. Things to know: each keystroke sent counts as a billed request, cost grows with search volume, NeuralSearch and SSO need an annual Elevate contract, and the pages we read do not mention a HIPAA BAA.
Typesense Cloud. Strengths: searches and records are not billed, the lowest price at our scenario, SAML SSO at no extra charge, vector, hybrid and conversational search on every cluster, an open-source engine. Things to know: you size the cluster, high availability triples the fee, the free hours are granted once, and the SOC 2 report and BAA need a support plan.
Meilisearch Cloud. Strengths: a choice of usage or resource billing per project, an estimator that shows both, hybrid search with many embedding providers, no per-seat fees, an open-source engine. Things to know: the estimator and the docs size instances differently, SSO, personalization and chat are listed on Enterprise, and there is a 14-day trial rather than a free plan.
Pricing reality
The three bill on different models: Algolia by search requests and records, Typesense Cloud by cluster hours, Meilisearch Cloud by either. So we state one scenario and show the arithmetic. Reference scenario: 100,000 records of about 1 KB and 500,000 searches a month, on the cheapest self-serve option each vendor's pages give for it.
| Service | Plan | Monthly cost | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typesense Cloud | 0.5 GB RAM, one node | $21.60 | Configurator: $0.03 an hour × 720 hours |
| Meilisearch Cloud | XS, resource-based | $23 | Pricing-page estimator: XS $18 plus 32 GiB disk $5, Frankfurt prices |
| Algolia | Grow | $245 | Computed from listed rates: 490 × $0.50 per 1,000 requests above the 10,000 included; records included |
Two of these figures rest on a sizing assumption the pricing pages cannot settle. Typesense Cloud's $21.60 assumes 0.5 GB holds the index, as its configuration assistant recommends for 100,000 records of 1 KB of indexed fields, on one node. Meilisearch's $23 assumes the XS instance its estimator picks is enough; following the docs' tier table instead, M costs $69.48 plus $5.28 of disk, or $74.76 (our arithmetic). Algolia's figure assumes one request per search; as-you-type search sends one per keystroke unless debounced.
Other figures from the same pages, all our arithmetic: Typesense Cloud with high availability is $64.80; Meilisearch usage-based Build is $30 plus 450 × $0.40, or $210; Algolia Grow Plus is 490 × $1.75, or $857.50. Typesense ($0.09 per GB) and Meilisearch resource-based ($0.15 per GB) also bill outbound bandwidth, so 5 GB of responses would add $0.45 or $0.75. At small volumes the order changes: 10,000 searches and 50,000 records a month fit Algolia's free plan at $0.
How we scored them
Every product in this category is scored on the same six indicators, read from the vendor's own pricing, security or docs pages, with fixed formulas. The overall score is the plain mean. Our methodology page explains how these scores work.
| Indicator | Algolia | Typesense Cloud | Meilisearch Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing clarity | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Free tier | 9 | 4 | 3.4 |
| Price for 100,000 records and 500,000 searches | 3.6 | 9.8 | 9.6 |
| AI and vector search on self-serve plans | 3 | 8 | 7 |
| Compliance and data residency | 8 | 7.5 | 6 |
| Team, control and portability | 3 | 10 | 7 |
| Overall | 5.8 | 7.6 | 6.2 |
Algolia loses most on the scenario price, because 500,000 searches are 500,000 billed requests, and on the AI and control items, because NeuralSearch and SSO are on Elevate and the engine is not open source. It leads on pricing clarity (two listed rates, nothing to size), the free tier and compliance. Typesense Cloud loses on the free tier, which is granted once, and on clarity, because you size the cluster in a configurator. Meilisearch Cloud loses most on clarity, because its estimator and docs size instances differently and list different disk rates, then on the free tier and on SSO.
The rubric rewards what a buyer can confirm before signing up. It has no item for relevance quality, merchandising and analytics tools, or how much operating work each service takes on, where Algolia's nothing-to-size model counts for a lot. Hands-on runs will add that later.
Who should choose which
- Choose Typesense Cloud if you expect a steady or high number of searches, want vector search and SAML SSO without a contract, and can estimate your data size. Look elsewhere if you need the SOC 2 report without buying a support plan.
- Choose Meilisearch Cloud if you want to start on usage billing with nothing to size and move to a fixed instance price as volume grows, or need hybrid search with your own embedding provider. Look elsewhere if you need SAML SSO without an enterprise plan.
- Choose Algolia if you want hosted search with nothing to size, a permanent free plan, ISO 27001 and AI ranking on a monthly plan, and your search volume stays moderate.
Bottom line
From public pages alone, Typesense Cloud includes the most on a self-serve plan and lists the lowest price at our scenario, and Meilisearch Cloud is close on price with more billing flexibility. Algolia's lower score reflects per-request billing and features held for Elevate; for a small project, its permanent free plan and nothing-to-size model are the simplest start here.
How we checked
We read the vendors' pricing, security or trust, and documentation pages on Oct 15, 2026, and used Typesense Cloud's configurator and configuration assistant and Meilisearch's cost estimator for the scenario prices. We did not sign up, create an index or send a search. Facts the pages did not state, such as whether Typesense Cloud asks for a card before the free hours or whether Algolia signs a HIPAA BAA, are left out rather than guessed. Every figure is on the vendors' pages as of that date or, where marked, computed from them.
