Will this do Algolia Recommend?

No. It does fast, typo-tolerant search. Recommendations are a different job — start with search, add a ranker later.

Easy

Meilisearch

Typo-tolerant search you host. Algolia without the request meter.

The problem

Algolia Grow meters search requests and records. A catalog search does not need that bill. Meilisearch is the open-source engine you can put next to PocketBase.

Replaces

Algolia

Replace Algolia

Estimated SaaS saved

$1,200

per year, small team, before lock-in

Deploy on Railway

Sponsor this stack

Placeholder: Meilisearch as a Railway service with a volume for the index. Point the site search at MEILI_URL.

The stack

Meilisearch
Open-source search engine

Cost table

You stop paying	Typical / year	Self-host instead
Algolia Grow overage	$1,200	Meilisearch on a volume

Agent setup prompt

Replace Algolia with Meilisearch.

- One service, persist the data path on a volume, master key in env.
- Index the catalog (or the docs). Wire the existing search box to the Meilisearch HTTP API.
- Write AGENT_PROMPT.md and a note on how many documents you indexed.

Also as markdown: /stacks/meilisearch-search.md

FAQ

Will this do Algolia Recommend?: No. It does fast, typo-tolerant search. Recommendations are a different job — start with search, add a ranker later.