Alternatives / Coveo
Looking for an open source Coveo alternative? We compared 10 open source search engines and enterprise search tools by license, scale, and maintenance. OpenSearch and Elasticsearch are the heavy engines, Meilisearch and Typesense suit site search, and Onyx and Swirl search across company apps.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Elasticsearch | The original, with triple licensing | AGPL-3.0, SSPL, or Elastic License 2.0 |
| Meilisearch | Typo-tolerant site search | MIT + BUSL-1.1 (Enterprise parts) |
| Onyx | Enterprise search across company apps | MIT + Onyx Enterprise License (ee) |
| Typesense | Single-binary search with vector support | GPL-3.0 |
| OpenSearch | Apache-2.0 fork of Elasticsearch | Apache-2.0 |
| Quickwit | Search for logs and big data | Apache-2.0 |
| Manticore Search | Light full-text, vector, and SQL search | GPL-3.0 |
| Orama | Search in browser or at the edge | Apache-2.0 |
| Swirl | Federated search without migration | Apache-2.0 |
| SeekStorm | Rust library and server | Apache-2.0 |
We looked for open-source tools that power site, product, and enterprise search like Coveo. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository. See our methodology for the full criteria.
OpenSearch is an Apache-2.0 fork of Elasticsearch under the Linux Foundation. Elasticsearch is available under AGPL-3.0, SSPL, or the Elastic License. Meilisearch and Typesense are fast, typo-tolerant engines, and Manticore offers full-text, vector, and SQL search with low resource use.
Orama runs in the browser or at the edge, Quickwit separates compute from storage for logs and big data, and SeekStorm is a Rust engine available as a library or server.
Onyx connects to dozens of company apps with document-level permissions, and Swirl queries 100+ tools in place without data migration. They are closer to Coveo's enterprise side.
Meilisearch has BUSL-licensed Enterprise parts and Onyx has enterprise-licensed directories. Elasticsearch's license is triple. Typesense and Manticore are GPL.
OpenSearch, Quickwit, Orama, Swirl, and SeekStorm are Apache-2.0. Typesense is GPL-3.0 and Manticore is GPL-3.0.
All ten had commits within days or weeks of this update.
Coveo is a proprietary AI search platform priced by usage, with relevance tuning and analytics built in. Open-source engines give control and no per-query pricing, but you build relevance, analytics, and connectors yourself.
Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine whose source is available under a triple license: AGPL-3.0, the Server Side Public License, and the Elastic License 2.0. AGPL-3.0 is the only one of these that is OSI open source, and it was added as an option in 2024.
Pricing: Free to self-host; Elastic Cloud is paid.
Meilisearch is a search engine API with typo tolerance, faceted search, and AI-powered hybrid search. Most of the code is MIT, while some Enterprise Edition parts are under the Business Source License 1.1.
Pricing: Free to self-host; Meilisearch Cloud is paid.
Onyx is an open-source AI platform for chat and enterprise search that connects to dozens of company apps with document-level permissions. Most of the code is MIT, while directories named ee are under the Onyx Enterprise License.
Pricing: Free self-hosted core; enterprise features are paid.
Typesense is a GPL-3.0 search engine that is fast and typo tolerant and runs as a single binary, with vector search added. It is positioned as an alternative to Algolia and Pinecone, and is a search engine more than a pure vector database.
Pricing: Free to self-host; Typesense Cloud is paid.
OpenSearch is an Apache-2.0 search and analytics suite that began as a fork of Elasticsearch and is now a Linux Foundation project. It is the most direct replacement, with similar APIs, and offers vector search, dashboards, and observability tools.
Pricing: Free and open source; managed services from cloud providers.
Manticore Search is a GPL-3.0 search database with full-text, vector, and hybrid search, real-time indexing, and a SQL interface. It is lighter than Elasticsearch, and its speed comparisons are the vendor's own.
Pricing: Free and open source.
Quickwit is an Apache-2.0 search engine for logs, traces, and other observability data that separates compute from storage and indexes in real time. It is built for large append-only datasets rather than general application search.
Pricing: Free and open source.
Orama is an Apache-2.0 search engine and RAG pipeline that runs in the browser, on a server, or at the edge with full-text, vector, and hybrid search. A hosted flat-rate service is its main commercial offering.
Pricing: Free open-source library; hosted service is paid.
Swirl is an Apache-2.0 search and RAG tool that queries your company apps in place instead of copying data into an index, supporting over 100 sources and on-premises deployment. It is a federated search layer, not a search engine.
Pricing: Free open-source edition; enterprise plans are paid.
SeekStorm is an Apache-2.0 search engine written in Rust, available as an in-process library and a multi-tenant server with vector and lexical search. A hosted search API is sold separately.
Pricing: Free open-source engine; hosted API from $19 per month.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elasticsearch | Search engine | AGPL-3.0 / SSPL / ELv2 | Yes | Mature search stacks |
| Meilisearch | Search engine | MIT + BUSL-1.1 (Enterprise) | Yes | Site search |
| Onyx | Enterprise search | MIT + Onyx Enterprise License | Yes | Closest to Coveo |
| Typesense | Search engine | GPL-3.0 | Yes | App search |
| OpenSearch | Search and analytics | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Drop-in replacement |
| Quickwit | Log search | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Logs and traces |
| Manticore Search | Search database | GPL-3.0 | Yes | Low resource use |
| Orama | Search engine | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Embedded search |
| Swirl | Enterprise search | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Many existing sources |
| SeekStorm | Search engine | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Embedded Rust search |
Want enterprise search across company tools
Onyx connects to 40+ apps with document-level permissions, with enterprise-licensed directories.
Want search without moving data
Swirl searches 100+ sources in place.
Want site search that is easy to run
Meilisearch is typo tolerant with hybrid search.
Want a fork of Elasticsearch
OpenSearch is Apache-2.0 under the Linux Foundation.