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OpenSearch vs Quickwit

OpenSearch: Apache-licensed, foundation-governed fork of Elasticsearch for search, vectors and observability. Quickwit: Cloud-native search engine on object storage for logs and traces, built on Tantivy.

key differences

  • Transactions: OpenSearch offers limited ACID; Quickwit offers none.
  • Only OpenSearch has secondary indexes, vector search, geospatial, encryption at rest, role-based access.
  • Only Quickwit has ttl / expiry, columnar storage.

choose opensearch for

  • +Log analytics and observability
  • +Application and e-commerce search
  • +Vector and hybrid search for RAG on AWS
  • +Security event analytics

best at · Search, Vector search, RAG

choose quickwit for

  • +Log search and retention at large scale
  • +Distributed tracing backend
  • +Security and audit event search
  • +Cheap replacement for Elasticsearch hot-warm logging clusters

best at · Observability, Search, Time-series

OpenSearchApache-licensed, foundation-governed fork of Elasticsearch for search, vectors and observability.
QuickwitCloud-native search engine on object storage for logs and traces, built on Tantivy.
overview
Primary model
Search Engine
Search Engine
Also supports
Document, Vector, Spatial, Time-Series
Document, Time-Series
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
OpenSearch Software Foundation (Linux Foundation)
Quickwit (Datadog)
First release
2021
2021
Latest version
3.9.0 (Sep 29, 2026)
0.9.3 (Oct 22, 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
56.6
11.9
Rank
#18
#275
GitHub stars
13.9K
11.7K
Stack Overflow questions
1.1K
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
None
ACID
Limited
None
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Flexible
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Oracle Cloud, Aiven, DigitalOcean
–
capabilities
Transactions
—
—
Joins
—
—
Secondary indexes
✓
—
Full-text search
✓
✓
Vector search
✓
—
Geospatial
✓
—
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
—
TTL / expiry
—
✓
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
✓
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
—
Role-based access
✓
—
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
✓
—
Streaming ingest
✓
✓
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
Query DSL, PPL, SQL
Quickwit query language, Elasticsearch Query DSL (subset)
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, .NET, Ruby, PHP, Rust
Any HTTP client
Best for
Search, Vector search, RAG, Observability
Observability, Search, Time-series
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

OpenSearch vs Quickwit: FAQ

What is the difference between OpenSearch and Quickwit?

OpenSearch: Apache-licensed, foundation-governed fork of Elasticsearch for search, vectors and observability. Quickwit: Cloud-native search engine on object storage for logs and traces, built on Tantivy. Transactions: OpenSearch offers limited ACID; Quickwit offers none. Only OpenSearch has secondary indexes, vector search, geospatial, encryption at rest, role-based access. Only Quickwit has ttl / expiry, columnar storage.

When should I choose OpenSearch over Quickwit?

Choose OpenSearch for log analytics and observability; application and e-commerce search; and vector and hybrid search for RAG on AWS. Choose Quickwit for log search and retention at large scale; distributed tracing backend; and security and audit event search.

Is OpenSearch or Quickwit more popular?

OpenSearch ranks #18 on the WhichDB Score (56.6/100) and Quickwit ranks #275 (11.9/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are OpenSearch and Quickwit open source?

Yes. OpenSearch is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. Yes. Quickwit is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.