manticoresoftware/manticoresearch

Open-source search database for full-text, vector, and hybrid search with real-time indexing and SQL.

What it solves

Manticore Search is a high-performance, open-source search database designed to be a fast and cost-efficient alternative to Elasticsearch. It provides a unified system for full-text search, vector retrieval, and structured data filtering, reducing the need for multiple separate databases for different search modalities.

How it works

Built in C++ for a small footprint and high speed, the system uses multi-threaded query execution and cost-based query optimization to maximize CPU usage. It offers two primary storage engines: row-wise storage for maximum performance on smaller to medium datasets and columnar storage for datasets that exceed available RAM. It supports SQL as its native syntax and is compatible with MySQL clients, while also providing an HTTP JSON API.

Who it’s for

Developers and organizations needing a scalable, fast search engine for large datasets, particularly those looking for an alternative to Elasticsearch or those who want to integrate vector search and full-text search into a single database.

Highlights

  • Hybrid Search: Combines full-text and vector retrieval in a single query.
  • AI-Ready Features: Includes auto-embeddings with automatic chunking and conversational search (via CALL CHAT) for LLM-backed responses.
  • High Performance: Benchmarked as significantly faster than MySQL and Elasticsearch in various workloads.
  • Enterprise-Ready: Supports sharded tables, synchronous multi-master replication, and built-in authentication/authorization.
  • Broad Integration: Official clients for Python, Go, Rust, Java, and more, with synchronization support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Kafka.

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