
Manticore Search
by Manticore Search · Open source search database with SQL and JSON interfaces
44.9 — BenchRank score out of 100
Screenshots of Manticore Search
Homepage
Overview
Manticore Search is an open source database for search, covering full-text, vector and log analytics workloads. It can be queried over SQL through the MySQL protocol, over HTTP JSON, or via clients for PHP, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Java, Rust and C#. It installs with a single shell command on Linux or macOS and integrates with Logstash, Beats and Kibana.
- Best for
- Teams replacing Elasticsearch for full-text, log or vector search on modest hardware
- Pricing
- The software is free and open source; the page shows no prices for the consulting, fine-tuning and feature development services offered alongside it.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Free to use under OSI-approved open source licences
- Runs on small setups, down to 1 core and 1GB of memory
- Query over SQL, MySQL protocol or HTTP JSON
- Clients for PHP, Python, JS/TS, Go, Java, Rust and C#
Trade-offs
- Reviewers describe a learning curve needing close study of the manual
- Strongly SQL-oriented; reviewers say some features lag over HTTP
- Reviewers find docs thin on faceted and prefix search
- All speed comparisons shown are the vendor's own benchmarks
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
- MCP support
- 0 out of 100
- API quality
- 10 out of 100
- Documentation
- 80 out of 100
- Agent friendliness
- 98 out of 100
- Changelog
- 100 out of 100
- Marketing site structure
- 50 out of 100
- Operational trust
- 0 out of 100
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
- Openness
- 65 out of 100
- Maintenance
- 100 out of 100
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