Search APIs · Comparison
Algolia vs Meilisearch Cloud
2 products compared side by side: what you pay for with each one first, then the five access facts, entry prices, recorded plan limits and the bottom line of each review. The evidence note under the table says how each product was checked.
Side by side
| Metric | Algolia | Meilisearch Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Saves engineering timeHosted search with no cluster to size: pay per search request and record, starting from a permanent free plan. | Easy to adoptHosted open-source search with a choice of billing: pay per search and document, or a fixed instance price from about $20 a month. |
| Overall score | 5.8 | 6.2Best |
| Free option | Free plan | 14-day free trial |
| Card to start | No card needed | No card needed |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $0.50/1k searches | $20/mo |
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Usage-based |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing units | Search requests and records | Instance hours, disk and bandwidth; or searches and documents |
| Free option | Free plan: 10,000 searches and 50,000 records/mo, no card | 14-day trial, no card |
| 100,000 records, 500,000 searches/mo | $245 (Grow, listed rates) | $23 (XS, estimator); $210 usage-based |
| Vector or hybrid search | NeuralSearch on Elevate (annual contract) | Documented for the engine, no plan limit stated |
| SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 | Both | SOC 2 Type II |
| HIPAA BAA | Not stated | Not stated |
| EU hosting | Yes, EU West and UK on every plan | Yes, Frankfurt and Paris |
| SAML SSO | Elevate (annual contract) | Enterprise |
| Open-source engine | No | Yes, MIT (Enterprise Edition parts under BUSL) |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Algolia is the simplest to price for small volumes and the only one here with a permanent free plan. Per-request billing makes it the most expensive at our 500,000-search scenario. | From its public pages, Meilisearch Cloud gives the most billing flexibility here and a low resource-based price at our scenario. Check the instance size against the docs’ tier table, and plan on Enterprise for SSO. |
Evidence: Algolia: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Meilisearch Cloud: facts checked 2026-10-15 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
When to pick each
In the words of each review, with the date its facts were checked.
From our Algolia review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Algolia when
- You want ISO 27001 as well as SOC 2, and billing that needs no instance choice.
- Pick Meilisearch Cloud when
- You want hybrid search on a self-serve plan and a fixed monthly price at higher search volumes.
From our Meilisearch Cloud review
Checked Oct 15, 2026- Pick Meilisearch Cloud when
- You want hybrid search on a self-serve plan and a fixed instance price at higher search volumes.
- Pick Algolia when
- You want a permanent free plan, ISO 27001 and AI ranking without sizing anything.
Entry price
Baseline: each product's cheapest paid plan, per month. Included usage differs, so read the line under each price.
- AlgoliaGrow$0.50/1k searches10,000 search requests and 100,000 records included; then $0.50 per 1,000 requests and $0.40 per 1,000 records
- Billed monthly, no contract
- Keyword search, query suggestions, manual synonyms
- Rules: 10 per index
- 30-day analytics retention
- Meilisearch CloudXS (resource-based)$17.73/mo0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, Frankfurt; plus disk (32 GB minimum) and $0.15/GB bandwidth
- Billed hourly, regardless of searches or documents
- Listed in the docs for development and testing
Prices as listed on each pricing page, in USD per month, excluding tax. Observed: Algolia 2026-10-15, Meilisearch Cloud 2026-10-15.
Which one fits
- If you need to start today without a sales call
- Meilisearch CloudSelf-serve sign-up, no card needed; the highest score of the 2 self-serve products here (6.2/10).
- If you want to try it without entering a card
- AlgoliaFree plan, no card needed; scored 5.8/10.
- Lowest starter price
- Meilisearch Cloud$20/mo for the Cloud plan. Algolia lists no comparable paid price.
- Highest overall score
- Meilisearch Cloud6.2/10 (Good). The review shows the score breakdown and the run behind it.
Picked by fixed rules from the table above, not by hand. How we score
Full reviews
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