OpenSearch vs Elasticsearch: Let’s decide that today!

The two leading search engine technologies, Elasticsearch and OpenSearch, are both top-notch options. However, when it comes to choosing the right one for your business, making a decision without comparing them on various aspects is tough. That's why we've done the comparison for you!

Aspect	Elasticsearch	OpenSearch	Which One to Choose?
Origin & Licensing	Developed by Elastic. License changed to SSPL (2021).	Forked from Elasticsearch by Amazon. Fully open-source under Apache 2.0.	Choose OpenSearch if you prefer a fully open-source option.
Performance & Speed	High-speed real-time search and analytics. Built on Apache Lucene.	Mirrors Elasticsearch in speed and performance. Built on Apache Lucene.	Both are equally fast and efficient.
Ecosystem	Mature ecosystem with tools like Kibana, Beats, Logstash.	Growing ecosystem with OpenSearch Dashboards and similar tools.	Elasticsearch offers a more feature-rich ecosystem.
Scalability	Easily scalable, designed for distributed environments.	Same scalability, with sharding and replication support.	No difference—both are highly scalable.
Cost & Licensing	SSPL restricts cloud use cases.	Open-source Apache 2.0, with more flexibility for cloud.	OpenSearch is better for fully open-source, cloud-native deployments.
AWS Integration	Runs on AWS but lacks native integration.	Seamlessly integrated with AWS for managed services.	OpenSearch is the best choice for AWS users.
AI & Machine Learning	Advanced machine learning features like anomaly detection.	Basic machine learning, still catching up to Elasticsearch.	Elasticsearch leads in AI and machine learning capabilities.
Community & Support	Larger community with extensive support from Elastic.	Growing community, backed by Amazon.	Elasticsearch has a more established community, but OpenSearch is growing rapidly.
Security Features	Advanced security features with premium options for RBAC, encryption, and auditing.	Robust security features included in the open-source version, no premium tiers required.	OpenSearch offers strong security for free, while Elasticsearch may require premium features.
Deployment Options	Offers flexibility with both on-premise and cloud deployments. Managed Elasticsearch is available via Elastic Cloud.	Designed for cloud-native environments, tightly integrated with AWS for managed deployment.	Choose Elasticsearch for hybrid environments, OpenSearch for cloud-native use cases.
Monitoring & Logging	Offers advanced logging and monitoring via Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana).	Provides monitoring with OpenSearch Dashboards and similar ingestion tools.	Elastic Stack is more mature, but OpenSearch offers similar capabilities.
Upgrades & Maintenance	Elastic provides regular updates with new features, but upgrades can be complex.	OpenSearch receives consistent updates from AWS, typically focused on cloud improvements.	OpenSearch may be easier to maintain, especially in AWS environments.
Commercial Add-Ons	Offers a variety of commercial add-ons for monitoring, security, and machine learning.	OpenSearch offers most features in open-source form, with fewer commercial dependencies.	If you need advanced, enterprise-grade features, Elasticsearch's add-ons may be necessary.
Data Visualization	Kibana provides advanced dashboards and visualizations, widely used in analytics.	OpenSearch Dashboards offer comparable data visualization tools, closely mirroring Kibana.	Elasticsearch has more mature visualization tools, though OpenSearch Dashboards is catching up.
Data Ingestion Tools	Supports data ingestion via Beats and Logstash, with advanced capabilities.	OpenSearch has similar ingestion tools but lacks the full maturity of Logstash/Beats.	Elasticsearch is better for complex data ingestion needs.

With this comparison chart, you can see that Elasticsearch delivers exceptional performance for most use cases. Therefore, we conclude that Elasticsearch is the best solution for critical business applications.