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OpenSearch vs Vespa

OpenSearch: Apache-licensed, foundation-governed fork of Elasticsearch for search, vectors and observability. Vespa: Big-data serving engine for search, recommendation and RAG with tensors and ML ranking.

key differences

  • Only OpenSearch has encryption at rest, role-based access.
  • Only Vespa has ttl / expiry.

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 vespa for

  • +Large-scale hybrid search and RAG retrieval
  • +Recommendation and personalization feeds
  • +Ad serving and ranking
  • +E-commerce search with learned ranking

best at · Search, Vector search, RAG

overview
Primary model
Search Engine
Search Engine
Also supports
Document, Vector, Spatial, Time-Series
Vector, Document
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
OpenSearch Software Foundation (Linux Foundation)
Vespa.ai
First release
2021
2017
Latest version
3.9.0 (Sep 29, 2026)
8.763.13 (Oct 5, 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
56.6
23.8
Rank
#18
#127
GitHub stars
13.9K
7.1K
Stack Overflow questions
1.1K
262
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Flexible
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Oracle Cloud, Aiven, DigitalOcean
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
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
YQL
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, .NET, Ruby, PHP, Rust
Java, Python, Go
Best for
Search, Vector search, RAG, Observability
Search, Vector search, RAG, Real-time analytics

OpenSearch vs Vespa: FAQ

What is the difference between OpenSearch and Vespa?

OpenSearch: Apache-licensed, foundation-governed fork of Elasticsearch for search, vectors and observability. Vespa: Big-data serving engine for search, recommendation and RAG with tensors and ML ranking. Only OpenSearch has encryption at rest, role-based access. Only Vespa has ttl / expiry.

When should I choose OpenSearch over Vespa?

Choose OpenSearch for log analytics and observability; application and e-commerce search; and vector and hybrid search for RAG on AWS. Choose Vespa for large-scale hybrid search and RAG retrieval; recommendation and personalization feeds; and ad serving and ranking.

Is OpenSearch or Vespa more popular?

OpenSearch ranks #18 on the WhichDB Score (56.6/100) and Vespa ranks #127 (23.8/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are OpenSearch and Vespa open source?

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