Hosted Meilisearch with a 14-day trial, no card. Cloud from $20 a month, and the MIT engine is free to self-host.
Sniffed 17d ago14 day free trialNo card needed#search#full-text-search#open-source#self-hosted#rust#algolia-alternative#vector-search
Search you can host yourself for free or rent from $20 a month. Meilisearch Cloud is the hosted version of Meilisearch, an open-source search engine written in Rust and released under the MIT license. Cloud starts at $20 a month after a 14-day trial that needs no credit card. You can be billed by usage, where the page's estimate for 100K documents and 50K searches is $30 a month, or by resource, where an XS instance with 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB RAM plus disk comes to about $23. Running the same engine yourself costs nothing. G2 shows 4.8 from 5 reviews and Product Hunt 4.6 from 9. Reviewers praise quick setup, clear docs, responsive support and Laravel integration. One Product Hunt reviewer described repeated freezes and weak support on Cloud, and a G2 reviewer called per-search cloud pricing expensive at high traffic.
Free tier quotas
Cloud trial
14 days, no credit card
Self-hosting
Free; the engine is open source under the MIT license per the pricing FAQ
Cloud entry price
From $20 a month after the trial
Usage-based example
$30 a month for a base plan with 100K documents and 50K searches
Resource-based example
About $23 a month for an XS instance (0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, $18) plus $5 of disk
Support on Cloud
Email support included
Enterprise
Custom pricing with up to a 99.999% SLA, Slack support, SAML SSO, SOC 2, dedicated resources, sharding and replication
Last sniffed Oct 8, 2026. Always confirm on the official pricing page.
👍 Good boy
+Setup is quick. A G2 reviewer wrote that it is easy to use, the setup is straightforward and the clear documentation saved them hours.
+Support gets praise. G2's summary counts 3 mentions of responsive support, and a Product Hunt reviewer from a few years ago said the team listens to customer feedback.
+You can leave Cloud without changing engines. The pricing page says self-hosting is free, a G2 reviewer noted you can self-host if Cloud costs grow, and the Product Hunt reviewer who had trouble with Cloud recommended doing exactly that.
+Reviewers compare it well with heavier tools. A G2 reviewer called it easier than Elastic and a good replacement for Algolia, and a Product Hunt reviewer said it beat the Elasticsearch setup their company ran before.
+Indexing speed came up. A G2 reviewer said they were impressed by how fast their data indexes, even when they republish an entire asset library at once.
+Framework fit is good. A G2 reviewer cited the Laravel integration and a nice cloud dashboard.
+Vector search is a setting. A Product Hunt reviewer from about a year ago said you pick an embedding model or service, give a URL and an API key, and indexing follows with no extra pipeline. That is one reviewer's account.
+Two billing models let you choose. Resource-based pricing gives a fixed instance cost, and usage-based pricing follows documents and searches.
+The trial is easy to start. It lasts 14 days and asks for no credit card.
👎 Watch out
−One Product Hunt reviewer reported search freezes lasting about three hours on Cloud, said support could not fix them for good, and advised self-hosting. It is one of 9 reviews and about a year old, but it is the clearest warning in the evidence.
−Per-search pricing can get expensive at high traffic according to a G2 reviewer, and G2's summary also records one mention that a pricing change felt less fair for a specific project.
−The dashboard draws complaints. Two G2 reviewers wanted a more sophisticated dashboard, and one said the admin dashboard sometimes lacks clarity.
−G2's summary lists limited features as a con with 2 mentions. Another G2 reviewer said some features are still missing but named none.
−The review base is small. G2 has 5 reviews and Product Hunt 9, and my search turned up no Capterra or Trustpilot listing, so the ratings say less than they would with hundreds of reviews.
−G2 lists Build from $30 and Pro from $300 a month as the vendor's pricing, which differs from the $20 starting price on the vendor's own page. Treat the vendor page as the current one.
−Billing takes some estimating. The page shows a usage-based plan and a resource-based plan with different totals, and you have to size documents, searches or an instance to pick one.
−Service-level and compliance features sit in custom Enterprise pricing: the page ties the SLA of up to 99.999%, SAML SSO, SOC 2, sharding and replication to that tier.
The catch
There is no ongoing free plan on Cloud. You get a 14-day trial with no credit card, then a paid plan that starts at $20 a month. The page offers two ways to be billed. Usage-based billing follows documents and searches, and its example for 100K documents and 50K searches is $30 a month. Resource-based billing follows the instance you pick, and its example is an XS instance with 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB RAM at $18 plus $5 of disk, about $23 a month.
The free path is self-hosting. The pricing FAQ describes Meilisearch as open source under the MIT license, so you can run it on your own server and pay only for that server. Then you own backups, upgrades and uptime. One Product Hunt reviewer told other people to self-host after repeated freezes on Cloud, and a G2 reviewer said that if you have a lot of traffic, per-search cloud pricing can be expensive but you can still self-host.
G2's listing shows Build from $30 and Pro from $300 a month, which does not match the $20 starting price on the vendor page. I used the vendor page. I did not find a commercial-use statement for the Cloud trial, so commercial use is left as unknown.
What’s included
✓Full-text search with responses at each keystroke
✓Open source under the MIT license
✓Self-hosting at no charge
✓Usage-based or resource-based Cloud billing
✓Email support on Cloud
✓Vector and hybrid search settings
✓Client libraries including Go, Python and JavaScript
✓Laravel integration
✓Enterprise sharding and replication
✓SAML SSO and SOC 2 on Enterprise
Free tier value
Generosity
B
Estimated value
Cloud from $20 a month after a 14-day trial; self-hosting is free
Feature parity
Cloud adds hosting and email support to the open-source engine. Enterprise adds SSO, SOC 2 and SLAs.
Screenshots
HomepagePricing page
Paid plans
Cloud, usage-based, from $20 a month
Billed on documents and searches. The page's estimator example of 100K documents and 50K searches comes to $30 a month. Email support is included.
Cloud, resource-based, from about $23 a month
Billed on the instance you choose. The example is an XS instance with 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB RAM at $18 plus $5 of disk.
Enterprise, custom
Custom quote. The page lists up to a 99.999% SLA, Slack support, SAML SSO, SOC 2, dedicated resources, sharding and replication, analytics and personalization.
Common questions
Is Meilisearch free?
The open-source engine is free to self-host. Meilisearch Cloud has a 14-day trial with no credit card and then starts at $20 a month.
Do I need a credit card for the trial?
No. The pricing page says the 14-day trial needs no credit card.
What license does the engine use?
The pricing FAQ describes Meilisearch as open source under the MIT license.
How is Cloud billed?
Either by usage, based on documents and searches, or by resource, based on the instance size and disk you choose.
What do reviewers say about Cloud reliability?
Most reviews are positive about speed and support. One Product Hunt reviewer reported repeated search freezes on Cloud and recommended self-hosting. Check the current status page and test under your own load.
Is there Enterprise support?
Enterprise is custom and the page lists Slack support, an SLA of up to 99.999%, SAML SSO and SOC 2. Cloud plans include email support.
Change history
Checked October 22, 2026
Pricing page lists Cloud from $20 a month with a 14-day trial and no card. G2 shows 4.8 from 5 reviews and Product Hunt 4.6 from 9.
