Search

Search tools are for adding fast search to an app — the kind of work every indie hacker eventually hits and would rather not build from scratch. 6 tools are listed here, each picked and written up individually rather than pulled from an affiliate feed. Algolia is usually the first one people try: the default pick for instant, typo-tolerant search-as-you-type — fast to bolt on, but cost scales with records and queries. Constructor takes a different angle — search and product discovery built specifically for ecommerce, optimized for conversion rather than generic relevance. And Elasticsearch is worth a look too: the battle-tested, do-everything search and analytics engine — powerful, but you own the cluster tuning and ops burden. Every listing below includes the actual tradeoff, not marketing copy, so you can pick based on what you're building instead of what ranks highest in a sponsored roundup elsewhere.