Stay free if you only need 10,000 search queries/month and 10,000 recommendation requests/month. Upgrade if you need everything in grow plan and enhanced sla with 99.99% uptime guarantee. Most solo builders can start free.
Why it matters: Premium AI features (NeuralSearch, Advanced Personalization) require higher-tier plans
Available from: Grow
Why it matters: Can become expensive at high query volumes without careful optimization
Available from: Grow
Why it matters: Limited customization of core ranking algorithms compared to self-hosted solutions
Available from: Grow
Why it matters: Vendor lock-in due to proprietary APIs and data formats
Available from: Grow
Why it matters: Complex pricing structure with multiple usage dimensions
Available from: Grow
Why it matters: Some advanced features require technical expertise despite visual tools
Available from: Grow
Costs rise quickly. 1M searches/month on Grow costs $500, Grow Plus costs $750. Add NeuralSearch, recommendations ($0.60/1K), and crawler usage. Enterprise starts ~$1K/month with volume discounts.
Algolia: Managed, fast, AI features, expensive. Typesense: Self-hosted, fast, $0-400/month, no AI ranking. Meilisearch: Self-hosted, good quality, more setup work. Choose based on budget vs management preference.
Basic integration: 1 day with JavaScript SDK. Full implementation with facets and custom ranking: 1 week. AI features need 2-4 weeks of traffic data to produce meaningful results.
70+ languages supported for keyword search. NeuralSearch works best in English, other languages improving. CJK requires specific configuration. Still the strongest managed multilingual option.
Buy if: you sell products online, search drives revenue, you do 50K+ searches/month. AI ranking typically improves conversion 5-15%. Skip if: content blog, under 1K monthly searches, have DevOps skills for Typesense.
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Last verified March 2026