# Amazon Kendra vs Vespa

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** Vespa

| Attribute | Amazon Kendra | Vespa |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 52.4 (55% (medium)) | 58 (75% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | - | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | - | 7 |
| adoption.github_stars | - | 7,129 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"An AWS-managed service that uses ML and natural language processing to deliver accurate search results and instant answers across structured and unstructured enterprise data. Integrates with generative AI and LLMs for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications. It is indexed under AI Enterprise Search.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"What is Amazon Kendra?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Amazon Kendra offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"Is Amazon Kendra free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Amazon Kendra supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"What platforms does Amazon Kendra support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have only confirmed a cloud / SaaS deployment for Amazon Kendra, so it appears to be vendor-hosted. If a self-hosted option exists we have not found it documented publicly.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"Can Amazon Kendra be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 14 integrations for Amazon Kendra, including Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon FSx, Amazon Aurora, Box, Confluence Cloud, Atlassian Confluence Server and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), plus 6 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","question":"What does Amazon Kendra integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed HIPAA and GDPR for Amazon Kendra. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Amazon Kendra not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://aws.amazon.com/security/?nc2=h_dsc_aa_sec","question":"What security certifications does Amazon Kendra have?","confidence":0.7}]` | `[{"answer":"A distributed serving engine that unifies retrieval, ranking, machine learning inference, and real-time serving for business-critical AI applications. It is indexed under Search Engines.","source":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","question":"What is Vespa?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Vespa offers a free tier, so you can start without paying. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","question":"Is Vespa free?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Vespa supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","question":"What platforms does Vespa support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Vespa can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","question":"Can Vespa be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 12 integrations for Vespa, including Python, Cohere, TwelveLabs, Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Google Gemini, Cursor and VSCode, plus 4 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","question":"What does Vespa integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 and GDPR for Vespa. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as Vespa not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://trust.vespa.ai","question":"What security certifications does Vespa have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. Vespa is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa","question":"Is Vespa open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"Vespa is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in Norway.","source":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","question":"Where is Vespa available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A managed machine learning service that enables organizations to create intelligent search experiences across enterprise data sources. It integrates with generative AI models to provide conversational question-answering capabilities through retrieval augmented generation. | A distributed search and AI platform that handles vectors, tensors, text, and structured data at scale, delivering sub-100ms query latency with continuous data updates and machine-learned relevance ranking. |
| features.capabilities | `{"deployment_model":"managed_cloud_saas","generative_ai_answer_synthesis_rag":true,"bring_your_own_llm_byo_model_support":true,"multi_lingual_semantic_understanding":false,"source_system_rbac_permissions_mirroring":true,"hybrid_dense_and_sparse_lexical_reranking":false,"optical_character_recognition_ocr_for_pdfs":false,"admin_dashboard_for_search_analytics_and_gaps":true,"personalization_based_on_user_department_context":true,"pre_built_native_crawlers_for_100_plus_saas_apps":true}` | `{"deployment":"self_hosted","distributed":"sharded","index_engine":"custom","licence_class":"permissive_oss","vector_search":"hybrid_fusion","typo_tolerance":"configurable","deployment_model":"hybrid","relevance_tuning":"ranking_rules","realtime_indexing":"near_real_time","generative_ai_answer_synthesis_rag":true,"multi_lingual_semantic_understanding":true,"hybrid_dense_and_sparse_lexical_reranking":true}` |
| integrations.count | 14 | 12 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Amazon S3"},{"name":"Amazon RDS"},{"name":"Amazon FSx"},{"name":"Amazon Aurora"},{"name":"Box"},{"name":"Confluence Cloud"},{"name":"Atlassian Confluence Server"},{"name":"Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)"},{"name":"Alfresco On-Prem"},{"name":"Alfresco One"},{"name":"Microsoft SharePoint"},{"name":"Salesforce"},{"name":"ServiceNow"},{"name":"Google Drive"},{"name":"Confluence","native":true,"direction":"inbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Python"},{"name":"Cohere"},{"name":"TwelveLabs"},{"name":"Claude Code"},{"name":"OpenAI Codex"},{"name":"Google Gemini"},{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"VSCode"},{"name":"IntelliJ"},{"name":"PyCharm"},{"name":"AWS"},{"name":"GCP"}]` |
| language.primary | - | Java |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"NO","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"usage","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?nc2=h_pr_ec2","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T11:09:58.587Z"}` | `{"type":"free","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://vespa.ai","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T11:26:49.809Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | freemium | free |
| pricing.price_level | low | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | - | 3 |
| release.history | - | `[{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/lsp-v2.6.1","date":"2026-10-06T14:56:06Z","type":"stable","version":"lsp-v2.6.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.763.13","date":"2026-10-05T02:26:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.763.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.753.16","date":"2026-09-16T23:24:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.753.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/lsp-v2.6.0","date":"2026-09-16T09:27:29Z","type":"stable","version":"lsp-v2.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.751.13","date":"2026-09-07T02:23:38Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.751.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.750.13","date":"2026-09-03T05:43:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.750.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.748.3","date":"2026-09-01T07:14:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.748.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.746.22","date":"2026-09-01T07:14:22Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.746.22"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/lsp-v2.5.0","date":"2026-08-24T08:45:45Z","type":"stable","version":"lsp-v2.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.738.17","date":"2026-08-13T04:51:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.738.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.736.12","date":"2026-08-10T02:24:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.736.12"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.733.3","date":"2026-08-05T09:03:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.733.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.730.36","date":"2026-07-28T04:47:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.730.36"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.719.5","date":"2026-07-07T02:30:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.719.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.709.19","date":"2026-06-18T18:42:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.709.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.708.30","date":"2026-06-18T04:26:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.708.30"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.707.16","date":"2026-06-16T14:15:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.707.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.703.17","date":"2026-06-09T16:31:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.703.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.702.91","date":"2026-06-09T02:20:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.702.91"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/lsp-v2.4.10","date":"2026-06-08T04:18:37Z","type":"stable","version":"lsp-v2.4.10"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.fedramp | yes | - |
| security.gdpr | yes | yes |
| security.hipaa | yes | - |
| security.pci | yes | - |
| security.scorecard | - | 5.9 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.trust_center | https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/?nc2=h_dsc_aa_cmp | - |
| security.vulnerabilities | - | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=com.yahoo.vespa%3Acontainer-test&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (AI Enterprise Search)

| Capability | Amazon Kendra | Vespa |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Deployment model | Managed cloud saas | Hybrid |
| Source system RBAC permissions mirroring | ✓ | - |
| Generative AI answer synthesis rag | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hybrid dense and sparse lexical reranking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pre built native crawlers for 100 plus saas apps | ✓ | - |
| Multi lingual semantic understanding | ✗ | ✓ |
| Personalization based on user department context | ✓ | - |
| Optical character recognition OCR for pdfs | ✗ | - |
| Admin dashboard for search analytics and gaps | ✓ | - |
| Bring your own LLM byo model support | ✓ | - |
| SOC2 type ii | - | - |
| HIPAA compliance for medical records | - | - |
| Pricing model | - | - |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T17:47:40.088Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*