Meilisearch vs Tally
Open-source fast search engine — Rust-based, built-in typo tolerance
vs. Free, unlimited online forms — the Notion-style form builder
Pricing tiers
Meilisearch
Self-Hosted (OSS)
MIT license. Single Rust binary. Run anywhere.
$0 base (usage-based)
Cloud — Resource-Based
$23/mo. Pay by CPU/RAM/storage. For high-traffic + vector workloads.
$23/mo
Cloud — Usage-Based
$30/mo. Pre-set search + document limits. 14-day trial. For MVPs/mid-scale.
$30/mo
Cloud — Enterprise
Custom. Self-hosting option + premier support + SLA + compliance.
Custom
Tally
Free
$0. Unlimited forms, unlimited responses, unlimited fields. Tally branding. Basic question types.
Free
Pro
$29/mo. Remove branding, custom domain, conditional logic, calculations, form logic, file uploads, Stripe integration, webhooks.
$29/mo
Business
$89/mo. Workspaces, custom email domain, priority support, team collaboration.
$89/mo
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing oss on Meilisearch vs free on Tally.
| Metric | Meilisearch | Tally |
|---|---|---|
| No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers. | ||
Features
Meilisearch · 15 features
- AI-Powered Search (experimental) — Semantic search, embedders.
- API Keys — Scoped keys with action + index + expiration.
- Custom Ranking Rules — Order ranking rules per index.
- Dumps & Snapshots — Full-DB export + snapshot backups.
- Faceted Search — Dynamic facets with counts.
- Federated Search — Multi-index search in one query with normalization.
- Filters — Filter by boolean / range / string conditions.
- Geo Search — Radius + bounding box geo queries.
- instant-meilisearch — Adapter to use Algolia InstantSearch UI libs with Meilisearch.
- Search — Full-text search with typo + prefix handling.
- Sortable Fields — Sort results by any attribute.
- Stop Words — Ignored common words.
- Synonyms — Configure synonym groups per index.
- Tenant Tokens — Short-lived multi-tenant auth tokens.
- Vector / Hybrid Search — Vector search with keyword hybrid mode.
Tally · 13 features
- Calculator + Variables — Formulas + variables in questions (Pro).
- Conditional Logic — Show/hide, skip logic (Pro).
- Custom Domain — forms.yoursite.com (Pro).
- Embed Anywhere — Inline, popup, slider — any site.
- E-Signatures — Signature capture block.
- File Uploads — Accept file attachments (Pro).
- Notion-like UX — Block-based editor with slash commands.
- Question Types — 20+ field types (text, choice, file, rating, signature).
- Stripe Payments — Accept payments via Stripe (Pro).
- Template Library — 1,000+ community templates.
- Unlimited Free Plan — Unlimited forms + responses on Free.
- Webhooks — Real-time submission events (Pro).
- Workspaces — Team collaboration (Business).
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Meilisearch | Tally |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | meilisearch CLI | — |
| SDK | instant-meilisearch (Algolia UI adapter), meilisearch-go, meilisearch-js, meilisearch-php, meilisearch-python, meilisearch-ruby, meilisearch-rust, meilisearch-swift | Popup / Slider API |
| REST | Meilisearch REST API | Tally API |
| OTHER | — | Form Embed Script, Tally Web Editor, Tally Webhooks |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Meilisearch and Tally may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.