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DataStax Enterprise vs Elastic Search comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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

DataStax Enterprise
Ranking in Vector Databases
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
NoSQL Databases (14th)
Elastic Search
Ranking in Vector Databases
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Indexing and Search (1st), Cloud Data Integration (5th), Search as a Service (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Vector Databases category, the mindshare of DataStax Enterprise is 1.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Elastic Search is 4.0%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vector Databases Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Elastic Search4.0%
DataStax Enterprise1.4%
Other94.6%
Vector Databases
 

Featured Reviews

Suzanne  Kimono - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Deloitte
Continuous data access has ensured high uptime and has supported real-time transactional processing
The best features DataStax Enterprise offers include scaling, speed of data access, and ease of use for those familiar with traditional SQL. The scaling and speed of data access have benefited my team because the scaling and the speeding of data provide linear scale as well as multi-data centers' real-time replication of data such that we can maintain uptime even with the loss of multiple data centers. It enables us to maintain our uptime, which is very crucial for our clients. DataStax Enterprise has positively impacted my organization by providing the ability to have our services up and running even with a total outage at one of our data centers. There is no need to maintain windows since we can turn off data centers while doing maintenance and then put them back in the rotation and move on. I can share specific outcomes or metrics that show this positive impact, such as improvements in performance of about 60% and a reduction in downtime of about 40 to 45%, which is very great.
Anurag Pal - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Search and aggregations have transformed how I manage and visualize complex real estate data
Elastic Search consumes lots of memory. You have to provide the heap size a lot if you want the best out of it. The major problem is when a company wants to use Elastic Search but it is at a startup stage. At a startup stage, there is a lot of funds to consider. However, their use case is that they have to use a pretty significant amount of data. For that, it is very expensive. For example, if you take OLTP-based databases in the current scenario, such as ClickHouse or Iceberg, you can do it on 4GB RAM also. Elastic Search is for analytical records. You have to do the analytics on it. According to me, as far as I have seen, people will start moving from Elastic Search sooner or later. Why? Because it is expensive. Another thing is that there is an open source available for that, such as ClickHouse. Around 2014 and 2012, there was only one competitor at that time, which was Solr. But now, not only is Solr there, but you can take ClickHouse and you have Iceberg also. How are we going to compete with them? There is also a fork of Elastic Search that is OpenSearch. As far as I have seen in lots of articles I am reading, users are using it as the ELK stack for logs and analyzing logs. That is not the exact use case. It can do more than that if used correctly. But as it involves lots of cost, people are shifting from Elastic Search to other sources. When I am talking about pricing, it is not only the server pricing. It is the amount of memory it is using. The pricing is basically the heap Java, which is taking memory. That is the major problem happening here. If we have to run an MVP, a client comes to me and says, "Anurag, we need to do a proof of concept. Can we do it if I can pay a 4GB or 16GB expense?" How can I suggest to them that a minimum of 16GB is needed for Elastic Search so that your proof of concept will be proved? In that case, what I have to suggest from the beginning is to go with Cassandra or at the initial stage, go with PostgreSQL. The problem is the memory it is taking. That is the only thing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I can share specific outcomes or metrics that show this positive impact, such as improvements in performance of about 60% and a reduction in downtime of about 40 to 45%, which is very great."
"The ability to aggregate log and machine data into a searchable index reduces time to identify and isolate issues for an application."
"My favorite feature is always aggregations and aggregators; you do not have to do multiple queries and it is always optimized for me, and I always got the perfect results because I am using full text search with aliases and keyword search, everything I am performing it, and it always performs out of the box."
"Elasticsearch helps us to store the data in key value pairs and, based on that, we can produce visualisations in Kibana."
"X-Pack provides good features, like authorization and alerts."
"It helps us to analyse the logs based on the location, user, and other log parameters."
"A good use case is saving metadata of your systems for data cataloging. Various systems, like those opened in metadata and similar applications, use Elasticsearch to store their text data."
"ELK being an open source certainly provided a platform for our organization to get involved."
"The best feature of Elastic Search that I appreciate is its monitoring capability."
 

Cons

"If not keeping current with updates, updating from an older major version to a newer major version can be a bit complicated and time-consuming, but DataStax Enterprise support will help us with this."
"The setup is somewhat complicated due to multiple dependencies and relations with different systems."
"Machine learning on search needs improvement."
"I have not explored Elastic Search at the most. Searching from vector DB is available in Elastic Search, and there is one more concept of graph searching or graph database searching. I have not explored it, but if it is not there, that would be an improvement area where Elastic Search can improve."
"To do what we want to do with Elastic Search, the queries can get complex and require a fuller understanding of the DSL."
"Elasticsearch should have simpler commands for window filtering."
"The pricing of this product needs to be more clear because I cannot understand it when I review the website."
"I think the biggest issue we had with Elastic Search was regarding integrations with our multi-factor authentication tool."
"The GUI is the part of the program which has the most room for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"ELK has been considered as an alternative to Splunk to reduce licensing costs."
"The tool is not expensive. Its licensing costs are yearly."
"Although the ELK Elasticsearch software is open-source, we buy the hardware."
"The price could be better."
"The solution is not expensive because users have the option of choosing the managed or the subscription model."
"The pricing structure depends on the scalability steps."
"This is a free, open source software (FOSS) tool, which means no cost on the front-end. There are no free lunches in this world though. Technical skill to implement and support are costly on the back-end with ELK, whether you train/hire internally or go for premium services from Elastic."
"We use the free version for some logs, but not extensive use."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Retailer
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise45
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DataStax Enterprise?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that the cost is a bit affordable, especially for my organization. However, for smaller organizations working under a tight budget, i...
What needs improvement with DataStax Enterprise?
I think DataStax Enterprise can be improved by having a hybrid on-prem and cloud solution with Astra. Better compatibility with prior versions in terms of codebases should also be improved. More wa...
What is your primary use case for DataStax Enterprise?
DataStax Enterprise serves as the primary database for all transactional processing in my organization. DataStax Enterprise provides linear scale as well as multi-data center real-time replication ...
What do you like most about ELK Elasticsearch?
Logsign provides us with the capability to execute multiple queries according to our requirements. The indexing is very high, making it effective for storing and retrieving logs. The real-time anal...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ELK Elasticsearch?
On the subject of pricing, Elastic Search is very cost-efficient. You can host it on-premises, which would incur zero cost, or take it as a SaaS-based service, where the expenses remain minimal.
What needs improvement with ELK Elasticsearch?
From the UI point of view, we are using most probably Kibana, and I think they can do much better than that. That is something they can fine-tune a little bit, and then it will definitely be a good...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Elastic Enterprise Search, Swiftype, Elastic Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ING, Netflix, UBS, eBay, Constant Contact, Aeris, Arise, ClearCapital, Dyn, Engine, Noble Group, Pantheon, Target
T-Mobile, Adobe, Booking.com, BMW, Telegraph Media Group, Cisco, Karbon, Deezer, NORBr, Labelbox, Fingerprint, Relativity, NHS Hospital, Met Office, Proximus, Go1, Mentat, Bluestone Analytics, Humanz, Hutch, Auchan, Sitecore, Linklaters, Socren, Infotrack, Pfizer, Engadget, Airbus, Grab, Vimeo, Ticketmaster, Asana, Twilio, Blizzard, Comcast, RWE and many others.
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