Our take
Pick Elasticsearch if search / logs teams who will self-host Basic at $0 — or take Cloud Hosted Standard from $99/month (120 GB / 2 zones) — while they open a first Discover, then Gold $114 only when they need reporting and Watcher. Pick Meilisearch if app teams who will stay on MIT self-host $0 while they index a first catalog, then start the 14-day Cloud trial (no card) and land on Cloud from $20/month when they
Best for
Elasticsearch A Discover table you start at a printed $
Meilisearch Search you start at MIT $0 or Cloud from $20
Free plan
Elasticsearch No free plan
Meilisearch $0 · mIT license. No usage cap on the engine. You run the binary
Lowest paid
Elasticsearch Synthetics (footnote) $0.0123/mo
Meilisearch Not published by the vendor
Next step up
Elasticsearch Cloud Hosted Standard $99/mo
Meilisearch
Runs where
Elasticsearch Hosted
Meilisearch Local; you host it
Watch out
Elasticsearch $99 is “as low as” for 120 GB / 2 zones
Meilisearch The hero says $20
Last checked
Elasticsearch 2026-10-23 · elastic.co/pricing/cloud-hosted
Meilisearch 2026-10-22 · meilisearch.com/pricing
search / logs teams who will self-host Basic at $0 — or take Cloud Hosted Standard from $99/month (120 GB / 2 zones) — while they open a first Discover, then Gold $114 only when they need reporting and Watcher.
Read the Elasticsearch pageapp teams who will stay on MIT self-host $0 while they index a first catalog, then start the 14-day Cloud trial (no card) and land on Cloud from $20/month when they do not want to run the engine.
Read the Meilisearch page
