# Elasticsearch vs Vespa

| Attribute | Elasticsearch | Vespa |
|---|---|---|
| **Vioscale score** | 60 (50% (medium)) | 56.1 (77% (high)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 18,551 | 7 |
| adoption.github_stars | 77,862 | 7,069 |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"on_prem":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"hybrid":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A search and analytics platform that ingests, stores, and searches structured, unstructured, and vector data in real time. Supports full-text search, vector search, observability analytics, and security event analysis through a unified REST API and query language. | A distributed serving engine that unifies retrieval, ranking, machine learning inference, and real-time serving for business-critical AI applications. |
| features.capabilities | `{"faceting":"yes","query_dsl":"ES|QL","deployment":"self_hosted","geo_search":true,"distributed":"sharded","index_engine":"lucene","licence_class":"source_available","log_analytics":true,"multi_tenancy":true,"vector_search":"hybrid_fusion","typo_tolerance":"built_in","relevance_tuning":"ltr","realtime_indexing":"near_real_time"}` | `{"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 | 25 | 12 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Slack"},{"name":"Jira"},{"name":"ServiceNow"},{"name":"PagerDuty"},{"name":"Microsoft Teams"},{"name":"IBM Resilient"},{"name":"xMatters"},{"name":"GitHub"},{"name":"Jina AI"},{"name":"NVIDIA AI"},{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"AWS Bedrock"},{"name":"Sarvam AI"},{"name":"Google ADK"},{"name":"LlamaParse"},{"name":"Mistral"},{"name":"Elastic Agent"},{"name":"Beats"},{"name":"Logstash"},{"name":"Filebeat"},{"name":"Metricbeat"},{"name":"Heartbeat"},{"name":"Webhooks"},{"name":"S3"}]` | `[{"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 | Java |
| license.spdx | - | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"NO","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"free|open_source|quote","plans":[{"free":true,"name":"Free and Open","features":["Distributed vector and search engine","Full-text, semantic, and vector search","Kibana interface for querying and visualization","Native authentication and TLS encryption","Basic monitoring via Stack Monitoring","Data ingestion via Logstash, Beats, Elastic Agent","Out-of-the-box threat detection with alerting","APM, logging, metrics collection"],"description":"Full Elasticsearch Stack with core search, analytics, and basic security. Self-hosted or via Elastic Cloud.","contactSales":false},{"free":false,"name":"Platinum","features":["Everything in Free plus:","Single sign-on (SSO), LDAP/Active Directory","Field and document-level security","Audit logging","Machine learning anomaly detection","ELSER semantic search models","Cross-cluster replication for high availability","Automated threat discovery","24/7/365 support with 1-hour critical SLA"],"description":"Advanced security, machine learning, and high availability capabilities","contactSales":true},{"free":false,"name":"Enterprise","features":["Everything in Platinum plus:","Searchable snapshots on low-cost object storage (up to 80% cost reduction)","Attack Discovery (GenAI security)","Universal Profiling for application performance","Cross-cluster search with advanced API-key security","Elastic Agent Builder for RAG and search development","Jina AI and third-party LLM integration","Semantic reranking and Learn-to-Rank personalization","DiskBBQ vector indexing optimization","Elastic Workflows for automated incident response","Endpoint and cloud workload protection"],"description":"Maximum capabilities including AI orchestration, advanced security, and infrastructure optimization","contactSales":true}],"summary":"Free open-source tier; Platinum and Enterprise tiers available on request","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://www.elastic.co/pricing/self-managed","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T21:53:02.120Z","freeTrialDays":14}` | `{"type":"subscription","summary":"Free trial available; contact sales for paid plan pricing","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://vespa.ai/pricing/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-21T12:45:29.228Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | commercial | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | low | low |
| pricing.transparent | no | no |
| release.cadence_days | - | 3 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.5.2","date":"2026-08-20T16:44:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.5.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.5.1","date":"2026-08-11T17:58:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.5.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.4.5","date":"2026-08-11T17:57:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v8.19.20","date":"2026-08-11T18:24:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.19.20"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.5.0","date":"2026-08-04T11:46:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.4.4","date":"2026-07-21T12:56:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.3.8","date":"2026-07-21T12:56:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.3.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v8.19.19","date":"2026-07-21T13:28:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.19.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v8.19.18","date":"2026-06-30T16:43:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.19.18"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.3.7","date":"2026-06-30T16:47:02Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.3.7"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.4.3","date":"2026-06-30T14:30:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v8.19.17","date":"2026-06-23T13:59:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.19.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.3.6","date":"2026-06-23T14:09:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.3.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.4.2","date":"2026-05-28T14:59:44Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.3.5","date":"2026-05-28T14:59:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.3.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v8.19.16","date":"2026-05-28T14:59:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.19.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.4.1","date":"2026-05-12T18:02:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.4.0","date":"2026-05-05T15:15:40Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v8.19.15","date":"2026-04-30T15:24:27Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.19.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/releases/tag/v9.3.4","date":"2026-04-30T15:24:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v9.3.4"}]` | `[{"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"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.700.24","date":"2026-06-04T11:28:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.700.24"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.699.8","date":"2026-06-03T02:24:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.699.8"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.696.20","date":"2026-05-28T17:58:23Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.696.20"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.695.32","date":"2026-05-28T02:25:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.695.32"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.694.53","date":"2026-05-27T02:20:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.694.53"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.692.16","date":"2026-05-21T08:17:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.692.16"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.691.19","date":"2026-05-19T18:07:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.691.19"},{"url":"https://github.com/vespa-engine/vespa/releases/tag/v8.687.75","date":"2026-05-12T02:27:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v8.687.75"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | yes | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.gdpr | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 6.9 | 5.8 |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":45,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=org.elasticsearch%3Aelasticsearch&per_page=100","last_12m":2,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"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 (Search Engines)

| Capability | Elasticsearch | Vespa |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Deployment** |  |  |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| **Architecture** |  |  |
| Index engine | Lucene | Custom |
| **Query** |  |  |
| Query DSL (JSON / SQL / params / GraphQL) | ES|QL | - |
| Faceting & filtering | Yes | - |
| Geo search | ✓ | - |
| **Relevance** |  |  |
| Typo tolerance / fuzzy | Built-in | Configurable |
| Relevance tuning | Learning-to-rank | Ranking rules |
| **Vector** |  |  |
| Vector / hybrid search | Dense + lexical fusion | Dense + lexical fusion |
| **Scale** |  |  |
| Distributed / horizontal scale | Sharded | Sharded |
| Multi-tenancy (indexes / collections / tenants) | ✓ | - |
| **Ingest** |  |  |
| Real-time indexing | Near-real-time | Near-real-time |
| **Workload** |  |  |
| Log / analytics workload | ✓ | - |
| **Licensing** |  |  |
| Licence class | Source-available (SSPL / Elastic) | Permissive OSS |

*Source: Vioscale. Generated 2026-09-01T15:20:16.622Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*