Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Solr comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Apache are both solutions in the Search as a Service category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #9, while Apache is ranked #10. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 5.3% mindshare in SS, compared to Apache’s 5.1% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Apache users who would recommend it.

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Read 12 Amazon AWS CloudSearch reviews

934 Views
934 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Solr

Read 4 Solr reviews

845 Views
845 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Solr

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon AWS CloudSearch and Solr based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Search as a Service solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Solr Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Solr

April 2026

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Helped 892,776 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Ranking in Search as a Service

9th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Solr

Ranking in Search as a Service

10th

Average Rating

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is 5.3%, down from 8.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Solr is 5.1%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Search as a Service Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Amazon AWS CloudSearch	5.3%
Solr	5.1%
Other	89.6%

Search as a Service

Featured Reviews

HarishMahanta

Sr PeopleSoft Consultant at People Tech

A reasonably priced solution that provides scalability, stability, reliability, and security

In terms of what needs improvement, I would say that it needs to keep its cost competitive in the market, especially in comparison to other clouds. Let's say we have various clouds in the market, like Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and AWS Cloud. However, security-wise, I don't think AWS is bad. It's good only, especially in comparison to Oracle Cloud, if you really use Oracle, while also considering the fact that PeopleSoft is an Oracle product. AWS is a separate cloud, and Oracle has its own cloud. If you are in a new PeopleSoft and Oracle and you are using a third-party cloud, it means it is not easy since we can't think it is easy. I mean, if you are using Oracle products and you are using Oracle Cloud, it will be easier for you. However, it has a cost in comparison to AWS. Oracle Cloud is too costly. According to region, we segregate because it depends on the organization's strength. Let's say your organization has 1,000 customers. In that case, on a daily basis, let's say one customer was released or discontinued using the product. Then, you have to remove the solution. However, if you use Oracle Cloud, that space will remain there. In the case of AWS, they will immediately cut down their space, meaning in terms of reuse ability, it will reduce the cost. In our case, AWS is the best in the market, actually. We have various clouds like Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure Cloud, the features of which are very different. There are a lot of features in AWS Cloud since I am not in the market providing service on the products. I am just using that tool to access our clients' database and deliver our day-to-day service. I interact with the clients regarding their issues, whatever they are facing. There is this one kind of interface we use to access things because they are in AWS Cloud. If your customer is in Oracle Cloud, then there will be a different approach to accessing it. In our case, we can use AWS or Oracle, so it doesn't matter to us.

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it_user823641

Senior Search Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

The Natural Language Search capability is helpful and intuitive for our users

The initial setup is complex because this is a distributed system, and you have to make sure that every individual node is aware of every other node in existence. This search engine has a large capacity, so you need to make sure that there is enough buffer space. We took one month to deploy and perform a fresh setup. Our strategy was to start with a local data center, before venturing into cross data center replicas. A staff size of two to four people is suitable for deploying and maintaining the solution, depending upon the scale. They would set up the solution and put monitoring in place for the indexing jobs, as well as design the schema so that the data can feed well.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"There are plenty of services from the database, with many valuable features, good scalability and agility, okay pricing, good solution quality, strong optimization, and customization that can work with any other cloud platforms."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is the cloud aspect. I do not need to have the physical infrastructure, everything is in the cloud."

"Document indexing, text-based search API, and Geospatial searches are all good features."

"In our case, AWS is the best in the market, actually."

"AWS CloudSearch's best features are good performance under high CPU and memory use, and ease of deployment and scaling."

"The best feature is its scalability in that Cloud is always on the fly."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is its ability to receive data quickly, and you can access your data easily in a short time."

"It's the best solution for any company; it has a hosting ERP system for any task, AWS is stable, more flexible with its elastic concept, and also very secure with many layers of hardware and software security."

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch pros

"Sharding data, Faceting, Hit Highlighting, parent-child Block Join and Grouping, and multi-mode platform are all valuable features."

"We use Solr to index over 600k documents; it's very fast, flexible to use, and the speed of indexing individual documents has been great."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to perform a natural language search."

"It has improved our search ranking, relevancy, search performance, and user retention."

"One of the best aspects of the solution is the indexing; it's already indexed to all the fields in the category, so we don't need to spend so much extra effort to do the indexing, which is great."

"It has improved our search ranking, relevancy, search performance, and user retention."

"One of the best aspects of the solution is the indexing. It's already indexed to all the fields in the category. We don't need to spend so much extra effort to do the indexing. It's great."

"This is an infinitely scalable product with state-of-the-art technology, and the value of Natural Language Search is tremendous."

Cons

"Maybe they are common in Egypt, but you should make a request on Amazon to create a function to monitor CPU performance, memory, and files. It is very difficult in AWS."

"Amazon AWS CloudSearch is highly stable. However, the speed depends on your internet connection."

"A reboot should be enhanced."

"Regarding the period of propagation on CDN servers, sometimes we update photos or files and we don't see the update instantly. We need to wait for sometime."

"Amazon's technical support needs to improve as they only solve about half our problems."

"AWS CloudSearch's documentation isn't very clear. Also, the on-premise version of the solution is less stable than the cloud version."

"The solution should improve the recovery aspects that it has on offer."

"I do not have any suggestions for improvements at this time."

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch cons

"The solution's grammar and syntax should be easier."

"Encountered issues with both master-slave and SolrCloud. Indexing and serving traffic from same collection has very poor performance. Some components are slow for searching."

"It does take a little bit of effort to use and understand the solution. It would help us a lot if the solution offered up more documentation or tutorials to help with training or troubleshooting."

"The performance for this solution, in terms of queries, could be improved."

"Memory utilization could be better but it is an industrial strength tool so some overhead is to be expected."

"Encountered issues with both master-slave and SolrCloud. Indexing and serving traffic from same collection has very poor performance; some components are slow for searching."

"SolrCloud stability, indexing and commit speed, and real-time Indexing need improvement."

More Solr cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm not sure how much we pay a year. It might be around $30,000 a year."

"Amazon AWS CloudSearch charging is based on how many resources you consume or and the solution is known to be a bit expensive."

"Our license costs around $4,000 per month."

"We chose AWS because of its cost and stability."

"There was no license needed to use this solution."

"In comparison to IBM and Microsoft, the pricing is more favorable."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one point is cheap, and ten points are expensive, I rate the pricing as medium or reasonable."

"The only costs in addition to the standard licensing fees are related to the hardware, depending on whether it is cloud-based, or on-premise."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

Media Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

No data available

Comparisons

Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 21% of the time

Elastic Search vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 19% of the time

Azure AI Search vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 15% of the time

Algolia vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 14% of the time

Glean Platform vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 9% of the time

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch Competitors

Elastic Search vs Solr

Compared 23% of the time

Azure AI Search vs Solr

Compared 19% of the time

Algolia vs Solr

Compared 16% of the time

Amazon OpenSearch Service vs Solr

Compared 8% of the time

Amazon Athena vs Solr

Compared 7% of the time

More Solr Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

May 2026

Download Amazon AWS CloudSearch product report

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

May 2026

Download Solr product report

Overview

Amazon AWS CloudSearch provides scalable, agile, and stable performance for organizations needing fast data access and ease of deployment through its text-based search API and geospatial searches.

Amazon AWS CloudSearch is a comprehensive search solution designed to meet the needs of modern applications with features like document indexing and language support. It eliminates the need for physical infrastructure, offering high CPU and memory performance under load. With strong security and straightforward setup, it accommodates diverse data needs including cloud backups, server migration, and database analytics. Users benefit from reliable performance and cost-effective scalability, even though some enhancements are sought in cost competitiveness, documentation, and support. E-commerce platforms, cloud applications, and businesses migrating from on-premise setups find value in AWS CloudSearch, though improved monitoring and better integration options remain areas of focus.

What are the most important features of Amazon AWS CloudSearch?

Scalability: Offers seamless growth without infrastructure concerns.
Text-Based Search API: Provides efficient and accurate data retrieval.
Geospatial Searches: Enhances search capabilities with location-based data.
Document Indexing: Facilitates quick and organized data access.
Language Support: Accommodates multiple language requirements in searching.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Ease of Deployment: Simplifies setup and reduces technical barriers.
Cost Efficiency: Offers competitive pricing without compromising performance.
High Performance: Maintains robust performance under significant load.
Security: Prioritizes data protection with strong security measures.
Flexibility: Supports diverse needs like server migration and cloud backups.

Industries leverage Amazon AWS CloudSearch for applications such as hosting e-commerce platforms where quick photo load times are critical, managing databases for enhanced cloud stability, and utilizing autocomplete or custom-managed services. Many have transitioned from on-premise setups to benefit from improved memory capabilities and reliable database hosting in the cloud.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Solr is an open-source search platform from the Apache Lucene project designed for scalability and providing high-performance search capabilities. It is widely used for its flexibility and scalability, making it ideal for various search-driven applications.

Solr is recognized for its capacity to handle large amounts of data and complex queries, offering a distributed approach to search. It enables users to perform full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, real-time indexing, and dynamic clustering. Solr's robust administration interfaces and extensive plugin architecture allow tailored configurations suited to specific applications. Its compatibility with Hadoop environments enhances big data handling, facilitating effective, high-volume search processing.

What are the most important features of Solr?

Full-text Search: Provides advanced search capabilities with support for multiple data types.
Faceting: Offers dynamic faceting that simplifies data classification.
Scalability: Allows reliable distributed search indexes that can scale horizontally.
Real-time Indexing: Supports quick updates and indexing of data for rapid search availability.
Rich Document Handling: Can manage a wide range of document formats, including PDFs and Word files.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Cost Efficiency: As an open-source platform, it reduces licensing costs.
Flexibility: Supports custom implementations and applications across different industries.
Performance: Offers high-speed searches, improving data retrieval times.
Scalability: Adapts to growing data needs while maintaining performance levels.

Solr is prominently used in e-commerce, where rapid and precise search capabilities are critical for customer satisfaction. In publishing, it powers content discovery and enhances user engagement through personalized recommendations. Finance sectors utilize Solr for analyzing large datasets, optimizing search for records and transactions. Its versatility and ability to integrate seamlessly into existing IT infrastructures make it a preferred choice across these markets.

Apache

Sample Customers

SmugMug

eHarmony, Sears, StubHub, Best Buy, Instagram, Netflix, Disney, AT&T, eBay, AOL, Bloomberg, Comcast, Ticketmaster, Travelocity, MTV Networks

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Solr

April 2026

Free Report: Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Solr

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