Typesense (self-hosted)
Open-source (GPL-3.0) in-memory typo-tolerant search engine written in C++, run on your own servers.
Self-hosting the GPL-3.0 engine suits teams comfortable running their own servers who want no licence or usage fees. Because the whole index lives in RAM at roughly 2-3 times the indexed fields, memory is the cost driver: 10k records fit on the smallest 1 GB VM, while 20M records need a 64 GB node. Production high availability means a 3-node Raft cluster, tripling that hardware, and no vendor DPA applies since data stays wherever you run it.
- Headquarters
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Parent jurisdiction
- 🇺🇸 United States
- EU self-serve plan
- Available; check eligible plans and regions
- GDPR DPA
- No / not documented
- Billing
- self-hosted
- Free tier
- Free and open source.
- Open source
- Yes · self-hostable
- Website
- typesense.org
- Source last checked
- 2026-10-06
- Pricing evidence
- Operating cost not estimated
Pricing
Operating cost not estimated · servers, licenses and engineering time are yours. See notes for software editions and license terms.
Self-hosted: budget for servers, storage and maintenance. The whole index lives in RAM, roughly 2-3 times the size of the indexed fields. At ~1 KB per record, a docs site (10k records) fits on the smallest 1 GB VM. An e-commerce catalogue (1M records, 5M searches/month) needs a 2-4 vCPU / 4 GB VM. A marketplace (20M records, 50M searches) needs a 4-8 vCPU / 64 GB node, times 3 for a HA Raft cluster. Data stays wherever you run it.
Managed alternatives
At 1M records, 5M searches / month. Adjust usage and requirements.
Typesense has no bill to estimate: you pay for the servers, storage and time to run it. The cheapest managed option here is Bonsai at $600/yr, so running Typesense yourself saves money only if hosting and upkeep stay below about $50 a month.
- Bonsai: $600/yr estimatedModeled ratesAssumes roughly 1 KB per record and checks document counts, not concurrency. Index overhead, peak traffic and availability can require a larger plan.
- Typesense Cloud: $864/yr estimatedModeled ratesSingle-node cluster with 1 KB records and modeled sizing. Production HA roughly triples cost; EU regions can cost more.
- Amazon OpenSearch Service: $1,063/yr estimatedModeled ratesSingle-node domain sized at 1 KB per record. Multi-zone availability, replicas and peak query load are not modeled.
- Elastic Cloud (Elasticsearch): $2,520/yr estimatedModeled ratesUses published example deployments and assumes 1 KB records. Real query load and resource sizing can differ.
- Vespa Cloud: $8,340/yr estimatedPublished rates
No cheaper managed estimate matches your filters. Adjust your usage or compare with your actual contract bill.
The price difference leaves out migration costs, operating costs and any features you’d need to replace.
Self-hosted options
Operating cost is not estimated. These options are not counted as savings against managed services.
Want a European-owned provider? See European alternatives to Typesense (self-hosted) among european search providers.
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Found a wrong rate or plan restriction? Report a correction with a current source.