Introducing OpenSearch® for Scalingo : Fully managed, Open-Source search and analytics
We’re excited to announce the launch of Scalingo for OpenSearch®, a fully managed, open-source service for real-time search, log analysis, and data exploration. Whether you want to build a search engine, centralize logs across your apps, or monitor system health with custom dashboards, OpenSearch® does the heavy work, while Scalingo keeps it out of your way.
In just a few clicks, you’ll be able to deploy a production-ready OpenSearch® cluster, along with a full set of plugins for search, analytics and observability. You’ll also be able to add the OpenSearch® Dashboards app to visualize and explore your data in real time.
If you've been looking for the best open-source alternative to Elasticsearch®, free from licensing headaches and infrastructure burden, this is for you.
OpenSearch® vs Elasticsearch®: Why we're making the switch
For years, Elasticsearch® was the go-to engine for search and log analytics, and at Scalingo, it has played an important role in helping our users build fast, data-driven applications. But in 2021, Elastic®, the company behind Elasticsearch®, introduced a more restrictive license (SSPL), making it harder for cloud providers like us to offer a fully managed version in a way that aligns with our values.
As a platform committed to openness, developer freedom, and simplicity, this was a turning point. We wanted to keep offering a powerful, flexible search solution...without the licensing limitations.
That’s why we decided to support OpenSearch®, a fully open-source Elasticsearch® alternative, backed by a growing community and licensed under Apache 2.0.
Originally forked from the last open version of Elasticsearch® (7.10), OpenSearch® has kept the core features developers rely on, like full-text search, real-time analytics, and dashboards, while continuing to evolve with new capabilities: alerting, anomaly detection and more.
As part of this shift, we’ll be gradually phasing out our managed Elasticsearch® offering, and focusing on delivering the best possible experience with OpenSearch®.
For Scalingo, it’s a natural evolution and one we believe will better serve our users, and the open ecosystem, in the long run.
Common use cases for OpenSearch®
What’s great about OpenSearch® is that it’s much more than just a search engine, it’s a versatile platform that powers a wide range of use cases across industries. These are some of the most common ways developers are using OpenSearch® today :
Search & indexing
Whether you're building an e-commerce store requiring fast product search, a SaaS app with complex filtering, or a knowledge base for your support center, OpenSearch® makes it easy to ingest, index, and query large volumes of data. Its powerful full-text search capabilities and built-in features, make it ideal for building fast & simple search experiences!
Log analysis & observability
Centralize logs from your applications, services, and databases to gain real-time visibility into your systems. With integrations like Scalingo’s own log drain, Logstash and others, OpenSearch® helps you collect, parse, and analyze logs efficiently. Paired with OpenSearch® Dashboards, it gives developers, DevOps, and SREs a clear view of system health and performance, making it easier to troubleshoot issues and improve observability.
Alerting & anomaly detection
OpenSearch® also makes it easy to detect unusual behavior across logs, metrics, and business indicators, both automatically and in real time. Its built-in alerting and anomaly detection features let you monitor key signals, trigger actions, and get notified when something goes wrong, from traffic spikes to failed login attempts.
Going one step further : RAG-ready search with the k-NN plugin
OpenSearch® on Scalingo includes the k-NN plugin, adding support for vector-based search, which is essential for AI-powered use cases like semantic search and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
With vector search, you’re no longer limited to keywords or exact matches. You can search by meaning, using vector representations of content and queries to surface results based on semantic similarity, even when the wording is different.
This makes OpenSearch® a solid foundation for building smarter, more intuitive search experiences where context matters. Whether you’re working on internal tools, documentation search, or integrating with frameworks like LangChain or LlamaIndex, the k-NN plugin lets you combine full-text search with semantic relevance in a single, unified system.
And since it’s available on Scalingo, you don’t have to worry about setup, infrastructure, or compliance. Everything is fully managed, secure, and hosted in France, so you can focus on building smarter search experiences, without added complexity.
Benefits of OpenSearch® on Scalingo
Choosing Scalingo for OpenSearch® means you get all the power of this modern search and analytics engine without the operational overhead. We've made it simple to deploy, scale, and integrate OpenSearch® into your existing workflows, so you can focus on building, not managing infrastructure. Key features & benefits include:
- Full management: No servers to maintain, no manual setup. You get your connection info, and you're ready to go
- Security and compliance: Scalingo and its services are certified ISO 27001 and HDS, with optional deployment in a SecNumCloud IaaS environment
- Fast deployment: Meaning you can launch a production-ready OpenSearch® cluster in under 5 minutes
- Scalable to fit your needs: Start small with a Starter plan and upgrade to a multi-node Business cluster as needed
- High availability: Business clusters offer a 99.96% SLA with automatic data redistribution in case of node failure
- Customizable replication: Business plans let you customize your index configuration (shards and replicas) across 3 nodes, allowing you to fine-tune performance, availability, and storage to meet your specific needs
- Seamless Scalingo integration: Use log drains to centralize and analyze logs from your Scalingo-hosted apps and databases
- OpenSearch® Dashboards: Add the OpenSearch® Dashboards app to start visualizing your data instantly
- Ready-to-use plugins: OpenSearch® for Scalingo offers built-in support for advanced use cases like AI, SQL queries, alerting, and anomaly detection. See the full list in our documentation
- End-to-end encryption: With TLS-secured communication (including between nodes) and encryption at rest to protect your data from unauthorized access
- Automatic backups: Encrypted, external backups are performed daily, with retention from 1 to 12 months depending on your plan
- Always up to date: Apply minor and major OpenSearch® updates with one click. Depending on your plan, minor updates can also be applied automatically, without downtime!
Get started
Whether you're starting a new project or thinking of migrating an existing one, getting up and running with OpenSearch® for Scalingo is quick and straightforward. Our documentation will guide you every step of the way:
Need a hand? Our support team is here to help if you have any questions or hit a bump along the way. And as always, your feedback is more than welcome. We’re continuously improving based on what you share with us. Let us know what you think!
