Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Amazon OpenSearch Service comparison

Amazon AWS CloudSearch and Amazon OpenSearch Service are both solutions in the Search as a Service category. Amazon AWS CloudSearch is ranked #8, while Amazon OpenSearch Service is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.3. Amazon AWS CloudSearch holds a 5.3% mindshare in SS, compared to Amazon OpenSearch Service’s 9.6% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Amazon AWS CloudSearch users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Amazon OpenSearch Service users who would recommend it.

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Read 12 Amazon AWS CloudSearch reviews

713 Views
713 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Amazon OpenSearch Service

Read 13 Amazon OpenSearch Service reviews

5,362 Views
912 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Amazon OpenSearch Service

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 16, 2025

Amazon AWS CloudSearch and Amazon OpenSearch Service are competing products offering search and data management capabilities. Amazon OpenSearch Service appears to have the upper hand in flexibility and scalability due to its comprehensive feature set.

Features: Amazon AWS CloudSearch offers automatic scaling, simplicity in configuration, and robust search capabilities. Amazon OpenSearch Service includes advanced integrations with machine learning, flexible cluster scaling, and sophisticated analytics tools. The feature set of OpenSearch Service is broader, offering more customization and integration opportunities.

Room for Improvement: Amazon AWS CloudSearch could improve by offering more advanced analytics tools, better integration capabilities, and enhanced scalability options to compete with larger enterprises. Amazon OpenSearch Service could be improved by simplifying its deployment process, offering a more user-friendly configuration interface, and reducing the initial learning curve for new users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon AWS CloudSearch is known for its straightforward deployment process and ease of management, requiring less maintenance effort. Amazon OpenSearch Service, while slightly more complex to deploy, provides granular control over configurations and a wide array of integrations. Customer service for OpenSearch is robust, matching CloudSearch in responsiveness but with more detailed support for intricate configurations.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon AWS CloudSearch generally shows a lower setup cost, benefiting businesses with budget constraints. It promises a quick ROI due to its simplicity and low maintenance. Amazon OpenSearch Service, while potentially higher in initial expenses due to its advanced features, offers significant ROI through its scalability and deeper analytics capabilities, which could justify the cost for larger or data-centric enterprises seeking extensive functionalities.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Amazon OpenSearch Service Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Amazon OpenSearch Service

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Ranking in Search as a Service

8th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Amazon OpenSearch Service

Ranking in Search as a Service

3rd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (23rd), Log Management (19th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is 5.3%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon OpenSearch Service is 9.6%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Search as a Service Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Amazon OpenSearch Service	9.6%
Amazon AWS CloudSearch	5.3%
Other	85.1%

Search as a Service

Featured Reviews

HarishMahanta

Sr PeopleSoft Consultant at People Tech

A reasonably priced solution that provides scalability, stability, reliability, and security

In terms of what needs improvement, I would say that it needs to keep its cost competitive in the market, especially in comparison to other clouds. Let's say we have various clouds in the market, like Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and AWS Cloud. However, security-wise, I don't think AWS is bad. It's good only, especially in comparison to Oracle Cloud, if you really use Oracle, while also considering the fact that PeopleSoft is an Oracle product. AWS is a separate cloud, and Oracle has its own cloud. If you are in a new PeopleSoft and Oracle and you are using a third-party cloud, it means it is not easy since we can't think it is easy. I mean, if you are using Oracle products and you are using Oracle Cloud, it will be easier for you. However, it has a cost in comparison to AWS. Oracle Cloud is too costly. According to region, we segregate because it depends on the organization's strength. Let's say your organization has 1,000 customers. In that case, on a daily basis, let's say one customer was released or discontinued using the product. Then, you have to remove the solution. However, if you use Oracle Cloud, that space will remain there. In the case of AWS, they will immediately cut down their space, meaning in terms of reuse ability, it will reduce the cost. In our case, AWS is the best in the market, actually. We have various clouds like Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure Cloud, the features of which are very different. There are a lot of features in AWS Cloud since I am not in the market providing service on the products. I am just using that tool to access our clients' database and deliver our day-to-day service. I interact with the clients regarding their issues, whatever they are facing. There is this one kind of interface we use to access things because they are in AWS Cloud. If your customer is in Oracle Cloud, then there will be a different approach to accessing it. In our case, we can use AWS or Oracle, so it doesn't matter to us.

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Md. Shahariar Hossen

Senior Software Engineer at Cefalo

Event tracking has become smoother and data analytics provide clear insights for user actions

Amazon OpenSearch Service is not providing the processing feature directly. From Amazon OpenSearch Service, we are actually maintaining the AWS SQS, the queue service, which is responsible for providing information about what data has to be modified. So using that SQS, we're actually providing it, but we're not directly using Amazon OpenSearch Service for keeping data to other data pipeline thing. So far we didn't use it for any machine learning purposes, but in future, we have plans to extend or implement this feature. Since AWS itself is secure and Amazon OpenSearch Service is a part of this entire ecosystem, it becomes much easier for security purposes. From the validation point of view, Amazon OpenSearch Service itself provides easy to communicate APIs and up-to-date documents, which is much beneficial. For example, if I'm missing anything, I can directly go and check the documentation. That is actually much easier. I would rate it as really good so far. It's much faster. For our local machine, we can also use a kind of replica of Amazon OpenSearch Service just for development purposes. That is another good feature. I would say for the encryption thing and also the user access control management, it's much faster. For some of these hashing algorithms, it also worked really well so far. To be honest, I didn't find any places where it can be improved. However, I think they could provide more abstraction. For example, still for searching, we have to write down the queries in a specific manner, such as for a specific JSON structure or in a specific way. Otherwise, they don't provide us the actual results. For at least this purpose, I think abstraction could be a bit easier or a bit improved. Other than that, right now there is the age of AI, so some kind of prompting could also work, but I'm not sure how it could be integrated. As a user, lower prices or reasonable pricing is always better. Those can be improved as well. However, it is good that most of the services including Amazon OpenSearch Service actually provide pay as you go pricing. So if there were a bit lower version or a bit less payment methodology, it might be much better.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is the cloud aspect. I do not need to have the physical infrastructure, everything is in the cloud."

"Document indexing, text-based search API, and Geospatial searches are all good features."

"I've found the solution to be very scalable."

"AWS CloudSearch's best features are good performance under high CPU and memory use, and ease of deployment and scaling."

"It will remain alive in the market. The solution will be stable in the market."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon AWS CloudSearch is its ability to receive data quickly. You can access your data easily in a short time."

"The best feature is its scalability in that Cloud is always on the fly."

"The quality of the solution is good."

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch pros

"It's a good log management platform. In terms of infrastructure management, it's good."

"Our customers have seen tangible benefits from Amazon OpenSearch Service, especially in terms of their applications running smoothly, so they do get a return on investment."

"This service already sorts data like vectors. They have classified the storage pre-defined."

"Amazon OpenSearch Service provides a managed database solution, so we don't need to manage everything ourselves."

"The initial set up is very easy...We really appreciate Amazon!"

"It enables us to efficiently search and retrieve our event data, offering us a versatile approach to locate specific information within these logs."

"It's actually easier to collaborate since it is already deployed in the AWS cloud itself."

"Amazon OpenSearch Service has enhanced our organization's ability to store and search large amounts of data efficiently."

More Amazon OpenSearch Service pros

Cons

"Amazon AWS CloudSearch is highly stable. However, the speed depends on your internet connection."

"AWS CloudSearch's documentation isn't very clear. Also, the on-premise version of the solution is less stable than the cloud version."

"The solution should improve the recovery aspects that it has on offer."

"The price of the solution can be expensive."

"Regarding the period of propagation on CDN servers, sometimes we update photos or files and we don't see the update instantly. We need to wait for sometime."

"We'd like to see more database features."

"Maybe they are common in Egypt, but you should make a request on Amazon to create a function to monitor CPU performance, memory, and files. It is very difficult in AWS. I would tell them it should be simple, just drag and drop. I think they could develop this option so we can drag and drop to monitor performance of the processor and memory."

"Index cleanup is sometimes painful. No easy way to clean indexes or a bulk of documents. Full indexing or regeneration of entire indexes sometimes gets stuck. In one instance, we had to delete the entire index and re-create it."

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch cons

"It would be beneficial to have some level of customization available in the managed service, tailored to the specific use cases of the end users."

"They can enhance data visualization."

"One improvement I would like to see is support for auto-scaling."

"In terms of data handling capabilities with Amazon OpenSearch Service, they can be complex and managing data in comparison to other SIM solutions is a major drawback, as it is very hard to handle the data."

"We faced documentation challenges during integration after migrating from Elasticsearch to Amazon OpenSearch Service. Better documentation on integration, query handling, and a more user-friendly UI could enhance the product."

"There is a problem with the database. Amazon only provides the hosting to run our applications bias, but there is no option to manage the database within the Elasticsearch product."

"One glaring issue was with our mapping configuration as the system accepted the data we posted, but after a few months, when we attempted complex queries, we realized the date formatting had become problematic."

More Amazon OpenSearch Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one point is cheap, and ten points are expensive, I rate the pricing as medium or reasonable."

"We chose AWS because of its cost and stability."

"In comparison to IBM and Microsoft, the pricing is more favorable."

"I'm not sure how much we pay a year. It might be around $30,000 a year."

"Our license costs around $4,000 per month."

"There was no license needed to use this solution."

"Amazon AWS CloudSearch charging is based on how many resources you consume or and the solution is known to be a bit expensive."

"The solution is not expensive, but priced averagely, I will say."

"Compared to other cloud platforms, it is manageable and not very expensive."

"There is a community edition available and the price of the commercial offering is reasonable."

"You only pay for what you use."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Amazon OpenSearch Service?

We retrieve historical data with just a click of a button to move it from cold to hot or warm because it's already stored in the backend storage

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon OpenSearch Service?

I would consider the pricing as a six based on how much data we are handling; if we handle minimal data, it's cheap, but for large data, it becomes costly. Our clients usually pay between $1,000 to...

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What needs improvement with Amazon OpenSearch Service?

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Comparisons

Elastic Search vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 20% of the time

Algolia vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 17% of the time

Solr vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 14% of the time

Azure AI Search vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 12% of the time

Glean Platform vs Amazon AWS CloudSearch

Compared 9% of the time

More Amazon AWS CloudSearch Competitors

Grafana Loki vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 17% of the time

Datadog vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon CloudWatch vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 6% of the time

Xapien vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon Athena vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 4% of the time

More Amazon OpenSearch Service Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch

February 2026

Download Amazon AWS CloudSearch product report

Buyer's Guide

Amazon OpenSearch Service

February 2026

Download Amazon OpenSearch Service product report

Also Known As

No data available

Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Overview

Amazon CloudSearch is a managed service in the AWS Cloud that makes it simple and cost-effective to set up, manage, and scale a search solution for your website or application.
Amazon CloudSearch supports 34 languages and popular search features such as highlighting, autocomplete, and geospatial search. With Amazon CloudSearch, you can quickly add rich search capabilities to your website or application. You don't need to become a search expert or worry about hardware provisioning, setup, and maintenance. With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, you can create a search domain and upload the data that you want to make searchable, and Amazon CloudSearch will automatically provision the required resources and deploy a highly tuned search index.

You can easily change your search parameters, fine tune search relevance, and apply new settings at any time. As your volume of data and traffic fluctuates, Amazon CloudSearch seamlessly scales to meet your needs.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon OpenSearch Service provides scalable and reliable search capabilities with efficient data processing, supporting easy domain configuration and integration with numerous systems for enhanced performance.

Amazon OpenSearch Service offers advanced features for handling JSON, diverse search grammars, quick historical data retrieval, and ultra-warm storage. It also includes customizable dashboards and seamless tool integration for large enterprises. With its managed infrastructure, OpenSearch Service supports efficient system analysis and business analytics, improving overall performance and flexibility. Despite these features, areas like configuration complexity, lack of auto-scaling, and integration with Kibana require attention. Users seek enhanced documentation, better pricing options, and more flexible data handling. Desired improvements include default filters, mapping configuration, and alerting capabilities. Enhanced data visualization and Compute Optimizer Service integration are also recommended for future updates.

What features define Amazon OpenSearch Service?

Scalable Search: Offers reliable search capabilities across vast datasets.
JSON Handling: Supports efficient management of JSON data.
Ultra-warm Storage: Enables cost-effective historical data retrieval.
Dashboard Customization: Supports tool integration and tailored visuals.
System Upgrades: Allows for seamless infrastructure upgrades.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Performance Enhancement: Significant improvement in search and data retrieval.
Cost-Effectiveness: Provides a cloud-native solution optimized for AWS environments.
Comprehensive Analytics: Delivers detailed insights for business applications.

Amazon OpenSearch Service is utilized in various industries for log management, data storage, and search capabilities. It supports infrastructure and embedded management, analyzing logs from AWS Lambda, Kubernetes, and other services. Companies use it for application debugging, monitoring security and performance, and customer behavior analysis, integrating it with tools like DynamoDB and Snowflake for a cost-effective solution.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

SmugMug

VIDCOIN, Wyng, Yellow New Zealand, zipMoney, Cimri, Siemens, Unbabel

Buyer's Guide

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Amazon OpenSearch Service

February 2026

Free Report: Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs. Amazon OpenSearch Service

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