You may have heard about the search engines used in different applications. For faster and accurate search results, people are using separate search engines instead of normal searching functions. Implementing normal search functions don’t work out for large applications and Enterprise Applications that deal with a lot of data. Faster data processing and searching are some of the basic needs of any Enterprise Application. Such functions can be implemented using any open-source search platform like Elasticsearch, Solr, Sphinx, DataparkSearch, etc.

Search Engine for Enterprise Application

So, if you are an enterprise owner or a large business owner and you are developing a mobile application or a portal for your business or enterprise, then you must implement a search engine inside your application so the data search becomes faster, easier, and convenient for the users. 

Different search engines have different functionalities, different throughput, and different behavior with your application. Among all the search engines, you have to pick the right one for your business application portal and run your search business search functions on it.

Elasticsearch vs Solr

There are a lot of Search Engines in the market and you become confused in choosing the right one for your business. But, here are some points that will shed some light on Elasticsearch and Solr search engines which are the most used and most loved search engines these days by most business owners and technopreneurs.

Elasticsearch Pros

Elasticsearch is a full-text search engine with the possibility of implementation of Machine Learning. Elasticsearch will also allow data visualization by using other Elastic Stack Components. Here are some pros of Elasticsearch:

• Near Real-time Indexing

Elasticsearch is able to index frequently and rapidly changing data in a very short time. Even if you have inventory that keeps updating every once in a while, Elasticsearch easily indexes all the inventory items almost instantly. So, it is a big pro for anyone having a business that updates its data very frequently. Sometimes, Elasticsearch is able to process more than a thousand queries per second, which is beyond our imagination. Such fast technology is quite helpful when you deal with data that updates very frequently. So, this is a big advantage of using Elasticsearch in your business application.

• Highly Scalable

High Scalability is a big pro of Elasticsearch is that it is highly scalable. When you database increases with more entries in the database, a typical data search query takes more time when the data to search from is very large in amount. So, it takes more time to search for any particular term from the database when the database is larger. But, when you use Elasticsearch, the data will be scalable, so it will be easy to search even when the database is larger. So, you don’t have to worry about the size of the data and search processing time when you are using Elasticsearch as your search engine for your Business Application.

• Autocomplete Search

Elasticsearch also provides you with an autocomplete search which allows the users to provide search suggestions as soon as the user enters the search term. The search term suggestions can be defined in a source or can be fetched from the product database. The autocomplete feature makes it easier for the users to search for things, and they don’t have to type the full name of the product or document or whatever they are searching for. So, it gives a great user experience to the users and makes it easy for the users to search for things on your application.

• Data Visualization

Another advantage of Elasticsearch is better data visualization. You can visualize your search and other data in better visual graphics. With the use of ELK Stack which includes Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana, you can track individual traffic on your website and represent all the visitors, their devices, their location in a better graphical way. You can keep track of active users with better analytics developed with the ELK stack and see the real-time user activities through a better visualization with the ELK Stack.

• Security Analytics

By opting for Elasticsearch, you can increase the security of your cloud data clusters. With the ELK Stack, you can keep track even on the cyber-attacks, unauthorized access, broken links, etc. You can trace the attack details and location using the ELK Stack. A lot of companies have increased their security and fastened their searches using the ELK Stack. By using the ELK Stack, you can prevent unauthorized access to your server and prevent the misuse of your organization data.

But with lots of pros, it comes with some cons as well. So, let’s have a look at its cons or disadvantages as well!

In the above example, the search term is compared with the source and the source is highlighted with the search terms. So, implementing such functions with Solr is quite easy as you just have to copy and paste the Out-of-the-box feature’s code with changed variables and class names.

Multiple Format Support

Apache Solr can support multiple file-formats, unlike Elasticsearch which only supported JSON files and can work with just JSON data only. But, Apache Solr can work on multiple file formats like PDF, XML, Word, TXT, and many more. Apache Solr can work seamlessly with any of those file-formats and provide you with faster and accurate search results.

It is also able to spell-check and suggest the right items with “Did you mean __ ?” function, which appears whenever the user enters the wrong spelling of any source file or wrong search term. So, instead of showing nothing in the result, it smartly captures what the user is searching for and provides the user with what exactly he/she is looking for.

Data Visualization

Just like Elasticsearch, Apache Solr also provides data visualization of your data. So, you can visualize your current active user base with the data visualization tools. Just like Ealsticsearch has the Kibana tool to visualize its data, Apache Solr uses the Banana tool to visualize the data. You can visualize your current users, or total sales and profit with the Banana visualization tool and get ideas of your current business in a graphical way. 

Open-source

Another big advantage of Solr is that it is open-source. You don’t have to pay the company to use the Apache Solr. You are free to use it for any of your projects, and that is the biggest advantage of Apache Solr. So, people who prefer not to spend on the licensing of software, can use this for free. So, you have to pay just for the development of your search system. This way you can build a pocket-friendly search system within your business application that serves faster and accurate search results.

But, just like Elasticsearch, this Apache Solr also has some limitations. It has some drawbacks, which are listed below:

Apache Solr Cons

• High Latency

Working with a lot of data is not an easy task. A lot of data and its processing sometimes may lead to data complexity and may cause latency. So, your application may take longer than usual to work properly. But nevertheless, it can perform upto the mark and never let your application down. 

• Load Balancing

Apache Solr is quite complex when it comes to balancing the load. Load balancing is the toughest thing to deal with when you are working with Apache Solr. Still, with enough planning and proper programming, load balancing can be handled easily, but it still requires some brainstorming to load the balance of the application.

Conclusion

So after reading about both the popular technologies, we can conclude that both technologies are good enough for any application development, but you should choose the right one according to your needs. So, if you are focusing on just textual data, then you can go for Apache Solr, but when you have to cover almost all the data in your application like textual, numerical, structured and unstructured all types of data, then you should go for Elasticsearch.

So, whatever technology you choose from Elasticsearch and Solr, you will get faster, smarter and accurate search results. You can hire a Solr Development Company or Elasticsearch Development company to develop your searching module and enable your business application with smart search results. So, if you are looking for Elasticsearch Consulting Services or Apache Solr Consulting services, you can contact us and we will help you choose the right technology that fits the best for your business application.