# zincsearch/zincsearch

ZincSearch . A lightweight alternative to elasticsearch that requires minimal resources, written in Go.

Repository: https://github.com/zincsearch/zincsearch
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/zincsearch
Homepage: https://zincsearch-docs.zinc.dev
Language: Go
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: go, golang, search, searchengine, modern, vuejs, elasticsearch, opensearch
Archived: true
Last push: 2026-06-09T05:30:16+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 86, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1735, "days_push": 85, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 17889, forks 775 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:20.518206+00:00)

## What it is
ZincSearch is a lightweight full-text search engine written in Go, built on the bluge indexing library, designed as a resource-efficient alternative to Elasticsearch. It ships as a single binary with an embedded Vue web UI, Elasticsearch-compatible ingestion APIs, schema-less indexing, and out-of-the-box authentication.

## Use cases
- add full-text search to my application without running Elasticsearch
- lightweight search engine for a small server or VPS
- drop-in Elasticsearch API replacement for ingesting and querying data
- self-hosted search with a built-in web UI
- schema-less document indexing with aggregations and highlighting
- run a search engine in Docker or Kubernetes with minimal resources

## When to choose
- you need full-text search with far fewer resources than Elasticsearch
- you want a single-binary, low-ops search service with a web UI
- you ingest data via Elasticsearch APIs but don't need Kibana
- you want schema-less indexing and simple setup in minutes

## When to avoid
- you need log search or observability use cases (use OpenObserve instead)
- you rely on full Elasticsearch DSL or Kibana compatibility
- you need large-scale clustered/distributed search at Elasticsearch's maturity level
- you require a fully GA/production-certified release (project is pre-1.0)

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: active
- function: search-engine, http-server, auth
- domain: databases, self-hosted, backend
- platform: windows, self-hosted, go
- tags: full-text-search, elasticsearch-compatible, lightweight, single-binary, schema-less, vue-ui, search, linux, macos, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- zincsearch/zincsearch (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:20.518206+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:02:13.737659+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/zincsearch/zincsearch (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:20.518206+00:00, sha 82a1d59a8551)
  - homepage: https://zincsearch-docs.zinc.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:29.156449+00:00, sha aaf83107f51d)
  - site_page: https://zincsearch-docs.zinc.dev/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:29.165211+00:00, sha 35e67262e7ac)
  - site_page: https://zincsearch-docs.zinc.dev/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:29.167188+00:00, sha e383e19ea79e)
  - site_page: https://zincsearch-docs.zinc.dev/installation (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:29.169101+00:00, sha 363d8460635b)
  - site_page: https://zincsearch-docs.zinc.dev/quickstart (fetched 2026-08-29T08:00:29.171171+00:00, sha 9072c31d1fe8)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.