After three years of hard work and dedication, we are thrilled to announce **the launch of Meilisearch 1.0**. With this release, Meilisearch has taken a stride forward in its mission to help developers create fast, powerful, and reliable search experiences.

With more than 32,000 GitHub stargazers and 100,000 launches per month, Meilisearch is already well-loved by its community. Now, after countless hours spent polishing the API and architecture to perfection, we are confident and happy to release the first completely stable version of Meilisearch, with guaranteed compatibility through future versions.

Creating a seamless search experience for your users can be a daunting task, but it is crucial to help your business **elevate user satisfaction, drive conversions, and increase retention**. Enter **Meilisearch v1**: the most performant search engine on the market with zero setup required.

What is Meilisearch?
====================

**Meilisearch is an open-source, user-focused search engine** that easily integrates with any website or application. It features powerful built-in capabilities such as [search-as-you-type](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/features.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=search-as-you-type#search-as-you-type), [typo tolerance](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/features.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=typo-tolerant#typo-tolerant), [faceted search](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/features.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=faceted-search#faceting), [geo search](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/advanced/geosearch.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=geosearch), and [multi-tenancy](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/security/tenant_tokens.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=multitenancy). A suite of [SDKs and libraries](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/sdks.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=integrations) makes it easy to connect with popular coding languages and web tools. When it comes to languages, Meilisearch supports them all, with special optimizations for any language that uses whitespace to separate words, plus Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Thai, and Korean.

> We found that, with our prior search engine (**Elasticsearch**), **14%** of searches resulted in a purchase, and with _**Meilisearch**, **20%**_ of searches were resulting in a purchase. That's a **huge improvement** without a lot of development time: 1 out of 5 customers found the book they were looking for and purchased it.  
> \- Andy Hunter, CEO of [Bookshop.org](https://Bookshop.org)

<Callout>
  Check [Bookshop.org full customer story](/blog/bookshop-increases-search-based-purchases/)
 </Callout>

From e-commerce to SaaS, media, and beyond, businesses from all industries trust Meilisearch to power their search needs. Don't let lackluster search hold you back any longer: [try Meilisearch today](https://www.meilisearch.com/?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=landing).

Why do companies love Meilisearch?
==================================

Simplicity
----------

We're a team of developers who understand the importance of a great developer experience. Even if you have the most flexible and powerful tool in the world, it doesn’t count for much if it’s painful to use and understand. That's why we made Meilisearch: to give developers the tool they need to create awesome search experiences, without provoking headaches or gray hairs.

The **consistency** and **predictability** of Meilisearch’s design make it easy to integrate into your chosen technical stack. Our comprehensive [documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com/?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=docs) and [developer tools](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/sdks.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=integrations2) are designed to help you from start to success.

**Meilisearch works out of the box with no configuration needed**. But we understand that every project is different, so we've made customization easy. You can tailor it to your needs in just a few minutes, so you don't have to be a search expert to get the most out of Meilisearch.

Relevancy
---------

Relevancy, meaning the quality and accuracy of the search results, is a crucial aspect of any search engine. Irrelevant or poor-quality results can lead to a poor user experience, reducing sales, and causing users to lose trust in your brand. Conversely, users are more likely to return to, trust, and engage with brands that provide relevant search experiences.

> As a user, it felt like magic compared to other solutions I've tried. I'm not sure whether it's related to how typo tolerance works or if it's related to the default settings. Still, right after setting up Meilisearch with no particular tweak, I've got fantastically relevant results.  
> \- Anthony Catel, Co-founder of [minipouce](https://www.minipouce.fr/)

Meilisearch provides a **pre-configured set of ranking rules** that enable you to achieve **high relevancy right out of the box**, while also accepting customization to meet individual needs. These default settings were developed iteratively by working directly with our users, and are sure to satisfy almost all use cases.

Performance
-----------

In today's fast-paced digital world, search plays a crucial role in user experience. Being able to deliver relevant results quickly is key to the success of almost any product.

One [report from Deloitte](https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/ie/Documents/Consulting/Milliseconds_Make_Millions_report.pdf) shows that a mere 0.1s change in load time can have a noticeable influence on the user journey, increasing conversions by 8% for retail sites and 10% for travel sites.

**Meilisearch returns results in as little as 0.05s**. It is designed from the ground up for performance, making it an essential addition to your technical stack.

What’s included?
================

Search-as-you-type
------------------

For a long time, users were accustomed to typing search queries, pressing enter, and waiting for a page to load to view results. Those days are over, as technological improvements have ushered in the age of “search-as-you-type.”

By providing results instantly as the user types their query, **Meilisearch helps users make more precise searches and quickly find what they are looking for.** In today’s internet, “search-as-you-type” is a must-have feature that greatly improves overall satisfaction and retention.

Typo tolerance
--------------

Typos happen. [According to the VP of Search at Google](https://blog.google/products/search/abcs-spelling-google-search/), as many as 1 in 10 searches are misspelled. [A Baymard Institute UX study](https://baymard.com/research/ecommerce-search) also reports that out of 185 major e-commerce sites, 34% don’t return useful results when users misspell even a single character in a product title.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/where2watch_1_a98051676f.gif)

[See Meilisearch in action here](https://where2watch.meilisearch.com/?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=where2watch)

These statistics highlight the importance of using a search solution that can effectively handle spelling mistakes. **Meilisearch’s customizable typo tolerance allows for more accurate and relevant search results** even when users don’t type perfectly. Even better, it isn’t limited to Latin-based languages.

Faceted search
--------------

E-commerce merchants with large catalogs have a particular challenge to overcome. Potential buyers can get [overwhelmed by possibilities](https://neilpatel.com/blog/too-many-choices/), becoming less likely to make a purchase simply due to the effort of making a decision.

Fortunately, faceted search interfaces solve this problem.

Faceted search is a powerful tool that gives customers the power to apply filters and narrow down search results based on their needs and desires. By helping shoppers view the products they’re looking for based on criteria such as size, color, and style, the likelihood of a purchase is increased.

**Meilisearch makes it easy to integrate faceted search into any e-commerce storefront**. With just a few lines of code, you can upgrade your store's search capabilities, increasing sales and customer satisfaction.

Geo search
----------

Geo search, also known as location-based search or local search, is becoming increasingly important for modern web applications. With the fast-paced nature of today's world, people are constantly on the move and looking for quick and easy ways to find the information they need, such as **nearby businesses, services, or other points of interest**.

Meilisearch meets this need, providing simple methods to [sort search results by their location or filter results based on a geographic radius](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/advanced/geosearch.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=geosearch2). This helps developers build more personalized and modern applications.

API keys and multi-tenant indexes
---------------------------------

Thanks to [fine-grained API key management](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/security/master_api_keys.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=API-key-management), you can personalize **Meilisearch to comply with your organization’s security requirements**. Create API keys with custom permissions and expiration dates to ensure secure and flexible access to your data.

If your application is storing sensitive data from multiple users in the same index, it's very important that each user can only search for their own documents. You can trust Meilisearch’s many SDKs to provide methods to generate [tenant tokens](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/security/tenant_tokens.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=multitenancy2).

What’s next?
============

We will stay devoted to our core concepts of simplicity, speed, and relevance to keep empowering all builders.

We’ll keep collaborating with the open-source community and focusing on the Developer Experience to ensure **Meilisearch users can provide the best search experience in their websites and applications**.

Start building with Meilisearch v1.0
====================================

You can **get started with Meilisearch in just a few minutes**—everything works out of the box, no configuration required! All you need to do is choose the hosting solution that fits your business requirements, add documents, and you’re off.

### Try our solution: Meilisearch Cloud

Need to build fast, be compliant, or save resources? [Meilisearch Cloud](https://www.meilisearch.com/pricing?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=cloud) takes care of everything, so you can focus on the most important thing: making your users happy.

### Build your own solution: self-hosting

Since Meilisearch is open-source, you can host your own Meilisearch instance. Run Meilisearch and start searching through your data in less than five minutes by following our [quick start guide](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/getting_started/quick_start.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=quick-start).

🧰 For both solutions, we provide a large number of [developer tools](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/sdks.html?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=integrations3) and [reliable documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com/?utm_source=release-post&utm_id=v1-announcement&utm_content=docs2) to help you connect your code base with Meilisearch.

Meilisearch 1.0: the next stage in search

Hi, I’m [Quentin de Quelen](/blog/author/quentin/)he CEO of Meilisearch, an open-source search engine API built in Rust. At Meilisearch, we are committed to the open-source community and believe in the power of collaboration to drive innovation. This year, we made significant strides in delivering the best possible search experience to our users and customers, including raising funds, launching new products in beta, and continuing to optimize our engine and improve our API.

This article will highlight some of the major improvements that we made in 2022.

New product: Meilisearch Cloud
------------------------------

Back in March of 2022, we communicated for the first time about [Meilisearch Cloud](https://cloud.meilisearch.com/), our fully-managed search engine solution for organizations of all sizes. This new offering makes it easy and fast to set up a search engine without technical expertise or infrastructure management.

After almost a full year of closed beta, [we opened Meilisearch Cloud](/blog/the-history-of-meilisearch-cloud/)o the world at the end of 2022. While there are still a few improvements coming before we officially release the product—such as usage-based price which aims to give users the flexibility to scale their search engine as needed—we’re tremendously proud of the progress we made in 2022.

We believe Meilisearch Cloud will revolutionize the search industry and are dedicated to continuously improving and evolving the product. We would love to hear your feedback on this new offering and are excited to see how it can benefit our users and customers.

Strengthening the search engine
-------------------------------

In 2022, we released six major versions of the Meilisearch engine: [v0.25](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-25/)[v0.26](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-26/) [v0.27](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-27/) [v0.28](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-28/) [v0.29](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-29/) and [v0.30](/blog/whats-new-in-v0-30/)ach release brought significant new features, performance improvements, and quality-of-life changes. This resulted in a **fivefold increase** in the number of Meilisearch users in only one year.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/monthly_active_databases_9dfee93d83.png)

Usage of Meilisearch over 2022

### New features

********************************Nested documents********************************  
This year, Meilisearch gained full support for [nested document fields](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/advanced/datatypes.html#objects). This feature allows users to access and use nested fields in any API parameter that accepts document attributes, simply by using dot notation. We want users to be able to take advantage of Meilisearch's capabilities without ever having to format their data.

******************API keys and tenant tokens******************  
We introduced API key management in Meilisearch in 2022. With [tenant tokens](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/security/tenant_tokens.html#multitenancy-and-tenant-tokens), developers can now create JWTs (JSON Web Tokens) on the fly that restrict access to specific documents based on the end user making the search request. This allows for multi-tenant indexes and gives developers more control over the search experience for their users.

**************New filter operations**************  
We've added two new operators to the [existing filtering capabilities](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/advanced/filtering): `EXISTS` and `IN`. When combined with the `NOT` (`!`) operator, they provide greater flexibility and precision in search results. This makes it easier for users to find what they're looking for and get the most out of Meilisearch's powerful search capabilities.

************************************Configuration file************************************  
Meilisearch now accepts a [configuration file](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/configuration/instance_options.html#configuration-file) in the `.toml` format as an alternative to command-line options and environment variables. Configuration files can be easily shared, versioned, and allow for the definition of multiple options.

************************************Full pagination support************************************  
Pagination is critical for some applications, but for a long time Meilisearch was not well equipped for [pagination-based navigation](/blog/pagination-vs-infinite-scroll-vs-load-more/)o address this, we introduced two new search parameters: `page` and `hitsPerPage`. Queries with these parameters return the exhaustive number of `totalHits` and `totalPages`, which can be used to create UI elements such as numbered page selectors.

### Performance improvements

Coming into 2022, we knew that indexation performance was one of the biggest issues with Meilisearch. While we were incredibly fast on search, this brought with it a tradeoff on indexing.

A few months ago, we recommended to people with more than 10M documents not to use Meilisearch, as the time to index their documents would be absurd. I'm proud to say that this is no longer the case!

********************************************Optimized task manager********************************************  
This year, we introduced [auto-batching](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/core_concepts/documents.html#auto-batching) of tasks, which has greatly improved performance. This was accompanied by a completely rewritten task manager that adds a lot of intelligence to task queue management. It can recognize different tasks, reorganize them, and even delete unnecessary ones. This new task manager also enabled us to add features like task [cancellation](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/tasks.html#cancel-tasks) and deletion, and [index swapping](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/indexes.html#swap-indexes) for zero downtime deployments.

****************Optimized indexation****************  
Our team has also worked hard to improve indexation speed. In brief, we added a soft deletion mechanism that improves both deletion and document update, optimized all aspects of filtering and sorting, and optimized RAM and CPU consumption during indexation.

This work is not yet complete; we have many more ideas to improve indexation performance. Nonetheless, we believe that the progress we made this year was significant! If you are still having issues with indexation speed, please reach out to us on [Discord](https://discord.meilisearch.com).

### Better developer experience

Our engine is built on three pillars: relevancy, speed, and developer experience, or DX. We have always prioritized DX as we made changes to the engine, but this came with the trade-off of introducing many breaking changes as we pursued an intuitive HTTP API.

Many API endpoints changed in 2022. The first is the search endpoint; we have completely reimplemented the [cropping](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/search.html#attributes-to-crop) of fields, with something smarter that looks at the field context to crop in the best place. We also, as mentioned before, changed the task management system entirely with a new API that allows canceling and deleting tasks.

The good news is that the breaking changes are almost over: **stability is coming to Meilisearch’s API**. You won't have to wait long for [v1](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/milestone/37), as it's planned for February 2023!

### Overall improvements

In 2022, our team implemented several enhancements to make Meilisearch more customizable and user-friendly.

****************************Typo tolerance****************************  
In v0.27, we added the ability to [customize the typo tolerance](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/configuration/typo_tolerance.html#configuring-typo-tolerance) applied to search queries. This allows users to set the level of tolerance they desire for misspellings, making it easier to find relevant results even if the query is not perfectly accurate.

**********************************************Improved cropping and highlighting**********************************************  
In addition, Meilisearch now allows users to customize how search results are displayed, including the level of [cropping](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/search.html#crop-marker) and [highlighting](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/search.html#highlight-tags) applied to the results. You can now choose your own highlight tags and put the HTML ones you need, or [select the number of words](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/search.html#crop-length) you want to keep while cropping.

******************************************Search result limits******************************************  
Meilisearch has been improved to allow for [customizable limits](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/settings.html#pagination) on the number of search results returned. This can help optimize search performance and limit the amount of data returned, as well as improve security practices.

**********************Matching strategy**********************  
Finally, Meilisearch has added the ability to customize the [matching strategy](https://docs.meilisearch.com/reference/api/search.html#sort) used to match search queries to documents. You can now choose between two different strategies: one that requires all words present in the query to be present in matches, and one that accepts results that contain only some of those words.

**************************New language optimizations**************************  
Meilisearch has recently added Japanese, Hebrew, and Thai to its already extensive [list of supported languages](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/language.html#language). Contributors can now more easily propose new languages to support, helping the Meilisearch team to continue expanding its language offerings.

A growing toolbox
-----------------

I could not be more proud to showcase the accomplishments of our integration team, the team at Meilisearch responsible for creating new integrations and diligently updating existing ones.

In 2022, our integration team:

*   Developed three major integrations: [Firebase](/blog/firebase-meilisearch/)Gatsby](/blog/add-a-search-bar-to-your-gatsby-project-using-meilisearch/ and [Strapi](/blog/strapi-v4-plugin-meilisearch/)   Kept our 10 officially supported SDKs up to date: [JavaScript,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-js) [PHP,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-php) [Python,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-python) [Ruby,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-ruby) [.Net,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-dotnet) [Dart,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-dart) [Golang,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-go) [Java,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-java) [Rust,](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-rust) [Swift](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-swift)
*   Updated integrations for three frameworks: [Laravel Scout](https://github.com/laravel/scout), [Symfony](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-symfony), [Ruby on Rails](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-rails)
*   Updated five frontend integrations: [Angular](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-angular), [React](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-react), [Vue](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-vue), [instant-meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-js-plugins/tree/main/packages/instant-meilisearch), [doc-searchbar.js](https://github.com/meilisearch/docs-searchbar.js)

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/integrations_meilisearch_2e28ef98ef.png)

Meilisearch integrations

These achievements demonstrate our dedication to providing our users and customers with smooth integration options for their search needs. With the upcoming release of Meilisearch v1, our integration team will be able to focus even more on new integrations and projects. So, don't forget to give us [feedback](https://roadmap.meilisearch.com/tabs/1-under-consideration) on which integrations you'd like to see next!

A constant focus on the community
---------------------------------

2022 has been an exciting year for the Meilisearch community. We saw tremendous growth in engagement and contributions, resulting in significant improvements to our search engine.

This year, the number of stars on our main repository reached an impressive 31.5k. We had approximately 500 external contributors, who together merged over 1000 pull requests. This level of participation and collaboration has been instrumental in driving innovation and enhancing the Meilisearch experience for our users and customers.

### Special events

In addition to our regular contributions, we had a successful [Hacktoberfest](/blog/hacktoberfest-2022-recap/)his year. This global event brings together developers to work on open-source projects, and we were delighted to be one of them. The influx of talent and energy from Hacktoberfest resulted in improvements to our SDKs, integrations, and engine.

We also participated in [Advent of Code](https://aoc.meilisearch.com) for the first time. This programming challenge is a great way to engage with the community and encourage problem-solving and collaboration. We are always looking for ways to foster a strong and engaged community, and Advent of Code was a great opportunity to do so.

Finally, we recently migrated our community from [Slack to Discord](/blog/from-slack-to-discord-our-migration/)his move has been highly anticipated, and we are excited about the potential for increased communication and collaboration. We believe Discord will be a great place for our community to share ideas, get help, and work on projects.

### Documentation

In addition to our work in the community, we also made significant strides forward in our [documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com/) in 2022.

Besides keeping the Meilisearch documentation up to date, this year our documentation team published many new guides and tutorials, including the [Meilisearch 101](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/getting_started/filtering_and_sorting.html), a brief overview of everything you need to know to create with Meilisearch. We also released a guide on [migrating from Algolia](https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/update_and_migration/algolia_migration), a [benchmark](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/comparison_to_alternatives.html#comparison-table) of how Meilisearch stacks up against the competition, and tons of guides related to new features such as [API keys](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/security/master_api_keys.html), [tenant tokens](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/security/tenant_tokens.html), and [pagination](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/advanced/pagination.html). All of these resources are designed to help our users and customers get the most out of Meilisearch.

Our documentation team also undertook a major review and reorganization of our documentation, with the goal of making it even more user-friendly and comprehensive. This is just the start of our efforts in this area, and we are committed to continuously improving the quality and accessibility of our documentation.

### Blog

Throughout 2022, we continued to release high-quality articles on our blog. It’s impossible to choose just one post, but some highlights include [a comparison of different types of pagination](/blog/pagination-vs-infinite-scroll-vs-load-more/)the announcement of our $15M Series A](/blog/meilisearch-series-a/ an explanation of [how we implemented a salary grid at Meilisearch](/blog/our-approach-to-salaries/)nd [a lovely series of interviews](/blog/tag/meet-the-team/)ith Meilisearch employees. We also published numerous [demos, guides, and tutorials](/blog/tag/using-meilisearch/)!

We love creating content for our blog and sharing stories from within the company. If you enjoyed one of our blog posts this year, [let us know](https://twitter.com/meilisearch) which one!

Being a better company
----------------------

This year, we focused on our employees' well-being. First of all, we implemented a transparent salary grid to ensure fair pay for all team members. Additionally, we established a comprehensive mental health support program with resources and assistance for those who need it.

Inclusivity is a core value at Meilisearch. We've placed great emphasis on creating an inclusive work environment and culture. This is evident in our recruitment process, which includes scorecards to reduce bias and aims to select candidates with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skills.

At Meilisearch, we believe that by investing in the growth and development of our employees, we can create a stronger and more successful company. To support this growth, this year we implemented an improved feedback loop that allows for ongoing communication and coaching between employees and their managers. By understanding our employees' aspirations better, we can provide them with the support and resources they need to succeed, both at Meilisearch and in the rest of their careers.

Conclusion
----------

To wrap this up, it has been an outstanding year for Meilisearch. I am grateful to every single member of the team for the work they put in to make our search engine a success. I also want to thank the community for their invaluable support and contributions. I think I speak for everyone at Meilisearch when I say that we look forward to bringing this forward momentum with us into 2023 and continuing to provide our users and customers with the best possible search experience.

Looking ahead to the coming year, we are excited to continue delivering new and improved features to our users and customers. If you have any feedback or suggestions for our [roadmap](https://roadmap.meilisearch.com), we encourage you to reach out and let us know what you need. We are always looking for ways to improve and evolve, and your input is an important part of that process. Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to continuing to work with you in 2023!

Meilisearch in 2022

We are happy to announce that Meilisearch has raised a 15M$ Series A. This round was led by [Felicis](https://www.felicis.com/news/meili) with the participation of [Guillermo Rauch](https://twitter.com/rauchg), CEO of Vercel, and our existing investors [CRV](https://www.crv.com/), [Mango Capital](https://www.mangocapitalinc.com/), [LocalGlobe](https://localglobe.vc/), and [Seedcamp](https://seedcamp.com/). This new financing will help us to fulfill our mission—making search more accessible and more efficient for everyone—while allowing us to bring Meilisearch to an even larger audience worldwide.

A brief history of Meilisearch
------------------------------

We founded Meilisearch in 2019 because we were dissatisfied with the search solutions available on the market. We noticed how slow and irrelevant search results could degrade user experience in apps and websites. There had to be a better way.

While working on search technology at large e-commerce companies, we gained experience in building efficient search engines. So we decided to create our own search engine from scratch in Rust, and we open-sourced it to help every other developer struggling like us.

![A4 - 2.png](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/A4_2_f84c47f309.png)

Meilisearch timeline

In 2020, we introduced Meilisearch to the world. In no time at all, hundreds of developers and organizations worldwide had embraced it. After witnessing such quick user adoption, we realized that there was a significant product-market fit.

![star-history-20221013.png](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/star_history_20221013_2787264894.png)

GitHub star growth

Since then, we have experienced incredible growth in open-source adoption—one of the fastest growth rates of any COSS project. Our GitHub star traction is an indicator of how trendy Meilisearch has become, as well as how eagerly awaited our product has been by a massive community. Every month there are more than 100K users downloading Meilisearch and more than 10K applications using it.

This will remain unchanged
--------------------------

Meilisearch is and will always be open source. It’s part of our DNA and will stay in our company culture and how we think about products for as long as we exist.

Working in open source is incredibly rewarding, particularly with a community like ours. Our community members actively contribute to our codebase and our roadmap. Through their feedback, they help us consider use cases we wouldn’t have thought of. They’re our best ambassadors and introduce Meilisearch usage within their companies. I don’t know how Meilisearch could exist without the support of our community.

![Meilisearch {"<3"} Open Source](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/A4_4_56bbfc7ad3.png)

Meilisearch {"<3"} Open Source

Creating a company has one huge advantage: you can shape it as you want. Meaning that you have full power over not only the direction the product is growing in, but also the culture the company will have. I’m so proud of the fantastic team we have created at Meilisearch. Through our joint effort, we have succeeded in creating a truly remarkable place to work.

![A4 - 1.png](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/A4_1_be49eed673.png)

Meilisearch perks and benefits

Growing a company is hard. Keeping our culture is and will be hard. That’s why we spend so much time on HR-related decisions; we know the only way to keep our culture is by ensuring that employees grow with the company and carefully hiring those who fit with what we already have. We have big objectives, but we do not want to lose anyone on the road to obtaining them.

Looking forward
---------------

When we started building Meilisearch, it was with the idea to create a search solution that could fit both individual developers’ and enterprises’ needs. While we spent the last three years focusing on creating the best tool for developers and growing our open-source community, we are now entering the next phase: scaling Meilisearch’s team, product, and business for enterprises.

It’s super simple to use and put Meilisearch into production. However, most enterprises don’t want to manage software they didn’t create. Enterprises are also asking for more than just Meilisearch, the open-source search engine: they need a search solution with scalability, geo-replication, and analytics. To answer this demand, we have developed Meilisearch Cloud, a hosted version of Meilisearch that allows users to instantaneously have access to our technology in a few clicks. We would like to thank our beta testers, without whom Meilisearch Cloud would not exist as it does today!

Let me now give you a brief overview of Meilisearch’s aspirations for the future.

### Fast everywhere

We are, without a doubt, in a global world where the users and the data can be anywhere. One core principle of Meilisearch is to return an answer to any search query in a few milliseconds. But what if the service is hosted in the US and the search request originates from the EU? The experience will be degraded due to latency. That is why, especially with Meilisearch Cloud, we would love to break this barrier by creating a globally distributed search service. It’ll be a huge and very exciting challenge for our teams to make this possible.

We don't have small dreams. In the future, we would like to see Meilisearch running on the edge! We have already worked on a bunch of prototypes, and we would love to see how this technology could improve the search experience for our clients’ apps.

### Easier than ever

In the early days of Meilisearch, we understood that developer experience is key to success. Today, we are super proud to have a product so simple that it’s possible for any developer to try it in just a few minutes. Developer experience will remain a primary focus of our product and engineering team.

There are two parts to integrating Meilisearch. The first one is connecting Meilisearch to your data and making sure it’s synchronized. The second is building an interface that allows your users access to this data through our search API.

Concerning the first one, we will make sure that it’s easy for any developer to connect Meilisearch to their stacks. We already have SDKs for most languages, integrations for the most known web frameworks, plugins, and some awesome tools. But we will go even further. Being able to connect Meilisearch to your data in a few clicks will become a reality.

On the frontend side, it’s already possible to create a custom search bar thanks to our SDKs and libraries, particularly [instant-meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch-js-plugins/tree/main/packages/instant-meilisearch). Again, we would go further. We want every developer to be able to install a high-quality search bar into their website or application with no effort. That is why we would like to simplify the front-end installation of Meilisearch to require only a single line of JavaScript.

### Smarter than before

Everyone is different, which means that for the same request, different people should receive different answers based on their preferences. Meilisearch already parses most languages perfectly—we are always improving this part thanks to the community. The next big milestone for us would be to bring even more logic into the comprehension of user intent and the personalization of users’ results based on their previous searches or external data.

Not only is each person different, but each company is too. Most companies have totally different use cases that require different search behavior. A Notion search and a Booking search will not have the same requirement or the same business logic. To be honest, that’s one of the biggest challenges regarding the search topic. Today, even if we accommodate most of the regular use cases, we have a clear view of how to make Meilisearch customizable depending on the business logic. This will allow enterprises to put their ML models right into the Meilisearch engine.

What’s next
-----------

These projects will take time. So I'd like to tease you a little bit about some of the exciting things coming up in the next few months.

The very first project is one that has been talked about for months. One of the most important projects started since the creation of the search engine. I'm talking about [Meilisearch Cloud](https://cloud.meilisearch.com/register). For the many people waiting in the waiting list and the companies that can't wait for the GA of Meilisearch Cloud, your wish will soon be granted! Our team is working hard to get it out as soon as possible.

We have a second big announcement, and it will make every developer super happy. We are super proud to announce that Meilisearch V1 is planned!

If you look hard enough, you will find traces of the release day. Even if Meilisearch has been technically stable for years, we made a bet not to go beyond V1 in order to be able to iterate as much as possible on our developer experience. This was a great success. Now that we have stabilized our API, it is time to make V1 a reality.

As we are constantly releasing new features and projects, I recommend you to subscribe to our newsletter or follow the specific repos that interest you on Github. If you have specific needs or ideas for us, don't hesitate to leave feedback on our [roadmap](https://roadmap.meilisearch.com/tabs/5-ideas).

**Join us**
-----------

As you may have already understood, we are ambitious at Meilisearch. Thanks to this last fundraising, we have everything we need to go further. The only thing we are missing now is you.

If you want to know more about how it is to work at Meilisearch, I invite you to read our [blog](/blog/tag/company-news/)r discuss it with the team on our [community Slack](https://slack.meilisearch.com). If you’re already convinced about joining Meilisearch, we have not released every open position, so don’t hesitate to make a spontaneous application. We will hire a lot of engineers, PM, PMM, and other roles in the months and years to come. [https://jobs.lever.co/meili](https://jobs.lever.co/meili)

Press kit
---------

**Read our Press Release below**

[Meilisearch series A PR October 2022](/blog/content/files/2022/10/Meilisearch-series-A-PR----October-2022-1.pdf)("Download")

**Media Coverage:**

*   Techcrunch - [Meilisearch lands $15M investment to grow its ‘search-as-a-service’ business](https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/10/meilisearch-lands-15m-investment-to-grow-its-search-as-a-service-business/)
*   Felicis Ventures - [Searching for the Edge: How Meilisearch Is Building the Search Engine of the Future](https://www.felicis.com/news/meili)

Meilisearch raises a $15M Series A to offer enterprise-focused products and services

When my two co-founders and I finally took the plunge, quit our day jobs, and started Meilisearch, we immediately decided to open source the code of our search engine.

We did it because it felt natural: we were accustomed to using and contributing to open source projects, and had started working on Meilisearch with the hope that it could be useful to other developers. We didn't expect that working in open source would quickly become a monumental force that now drives the company's strategy and our entire way of working.

We went from nothing to a community of almost 30k developers—with over 90k unique users every month—in less than two years.

In this article, I'll explain our vision for improving the user-facing search experience and why it can only be accomplished through open source.

**Why did we create Meilisearch?**
----------------------------------

Before creating Meilisearch, my co-founders and I worked in an innovation team at a big-name French e-commerce company. Our last mission there was to reinvent their site navigation through search.

> We were fed up with seeing second-rate search bars on the sites and products we loved.

We quickly understood the high cost and complexity of configuring and maintaining existing search solutions, all for less-than-great results. Even the most successful solution on the market, Algolia, was positioned mainly for large e-commerce accounts where a good search experience could translate directly to increased revenue. We were fed up with seeing second-rate search bars on the sites and products we loved.

That's why we decided to create a search engine that could suit all types of products and companies to end the mediocre search crisis. Search, welcome to the 21st century!

**Why our vision can't happen without open source**
---------------------------------------------------

### Open source attracts developers

It’s well known that search experiences on the web are often dissatisfactory. But what is a search engine in the first place?

I would argue that a search engine is, above all, a tool for developers—much like a database. And if we look at the history of databases, open-source options are among the most popular. Access to the code, ease of deployment and modification, being part of a community—these are just some of the points that attract developers to open source tools.

Thanks to our decision to go open source, developers can try out Meilisearch as a side project, as part of their education, or—if they are lucky—during their work. Moreover, if they need help, they know that thousands of other developers like them are ready to answer their questions. If they have a problem, they can easily report it and even help fix it.

### Open source generates feedback

Developers can have a **direct impact** on the direction of an open-source project by giving feedback and creating issues on GitHub.

> We don't need to go looking for feedback anymore; it comes naturally to us.

Whether coming from our many [GitHub repositories](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch), our [Slack community](https://slack.meilisearch.com), or our [public roadmap](https://roadmap.meilisearch.com), we get hundreds of bits of feedback every week—not to mention some great conversations with developers. We don't need to go looking for feedback anymore; it comes naturally to us.

This co-design process is vital to all of our product development, and it doesn’t stop with feedback: we also receive a lot of direct code contributions, helping us to improve and maintain our search engine, SDKs, and dev tools.

### Open source helps us build quickly

Using search to improve user experiences on the web is not an easy task. It is impossible for a company of our size to tackle the problem from all sides at once. On our own, we have to take the problems one by one.

However, we are not on our own. In addition to helping us prioritize our roadmap, our community also helps us tackle more problems at once—including many that are not our priority.

For example, if tomorrow several community members need an integration with Shopify, we can help them develop it and then share it with the rest of the community. Our product is able to grow gradually, procedurally, according to our user’s needs.

If today we have [20 libraries](https://github.com/meilisearch/awesome-meilisearch#integrations) updated every month, it's thanks to our community!

### Open source influences our design

Improving the search experience for all is not only about distributing a good search engine; it is also and above all about designing a good search engine. And once again, open source brings its own set of advantages. Public development naturally pushes us towards the most straightforward, intuitive solution possible so that developers can use and test it quickly.

> Today, we can confidently say that we have the most convenient search engine on the market.

Since day one, simplicity of use has been at the heart of the Meilisearch project. Step one was a massive investment in the project [documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com). Then, thanks to the community and our completely public product management, we made sure that each new feature was understandable by everyone and very easy to access. Today, we can confidently say that we have the most convenient search engine on the market.

Conclusion
----------

You will have understood by now: open source is part of our DNA. Thanks to it and with it, we intend to grow our solution and change the world of search. That's why we will continue to work hand in hand with our community and together improve the search experience for internet users across the globe.

If you also feel concerned about the state of search, please help us in our fight by [joining the community](https://slack.meilisearch.com). If you want to show your support, you can star or “watch” our [GitHub repository](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch) to receive updates.

Glad to have you with us on this journey,

Quentin de Quelen

PS: If you are already using Meilisearch and are looking for a hosted version, check out our new [Cloud offering](https://www.meilisearch.com/pricing). Don't have time for the waiting list? Reach out on our [community Slack](https://slack.meilisearch.com) and tell us about your situation so we can give you access as soon as possible.

How open source drives our strategy

We founded Meilisearch with a simple idea: what if we could take the top-of-the-line instant search experience found only in the most expensive websites and apps, make it affordable and accessible, and bring it to the rest of the internet?

Over time, this dream transformed into a mission and then into reality. We hired developers, partnered with investors, and, before we knew it, we had an effective, flexible, and—most importantly—_convenient_ search solution.

Our code was open-source from the beginning—this was an obvious decision since we were already open-source contributors. What was less obvious then was that open-source would become one of our greatest strengths as a software company and significantly accelerate Meilisearch's adoption. However, to become a truly accessible and widespread project capable of reshaping the world of search, Meilisearch needed high-quality SDK wrappers, libraries, tools, documentation, and support—all of which came with a price tag. It was clear that we needed to come up with a monetization solution, one that wouldn’t compromise the trust we’ve built with our open-source community.

There are many ways to monetize around open source software development, but one immediately stood out: **a cloud offering**. It appealed to us not just because some Meilisearch users were already asking for it, but because it would enable us to keep improving our open-source search engine. Unlike some options that provide a parallel paid product with access to exclusive features, this approach allows us to build a product _on top_ of the open-source project.

For businesses and individuals that want to quickly create a best-in-class search experience, we can offer the convenience of Meilisearch Cloud; for everyone else, we can offer our fully open-source search engine with all the features funded by our paid clients. This follows our bottom-up approach and helps us make sure we are constantly catering to a larger audience.

This is what we’ve been hard at work on over the past few months: **[Meilisearch Cloud](https://cloud.meilisearch.com/)**, our Software-as-a-Service offering.

The development of Meilisearch Cloud  

---------------------------------------

The road to Meilisearch Cloud started eight months ago when we gave [Samuel—whom you might have seen on GitHub](https://github.com/eskombro) or Slack— [Léna](https://github.com/lpinot) and [Nico](https://github.com/nicolasvienot) a mission to make a proof-of-concept application pushing the limits of what we could technically build. They created a [sandbox](https://sandbox.meilisearch.com/) that allows anyone to try Meilisearch for free for 48 hours.

Using this first experience, we began working on our cloud offering. Along the way, we onboarded a few users, did some UX testing, improved the UI, and added features to make it easy to update and manage Meilisearch instances.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Capture_d_e_cran_2022_04_06_a_10_39_12_458b9f351e.png)

Managing your Meilisearch instances from your browser

We designed [our pricing](https://www.meilisearch.com/pricing) for simplicity and based costs on the amount of resources allocated to the Meilisearch instance. We quickly understood that this model wouldn’t fit everyone’s needs, so one of our next steps will be to develop a “serverless” offering with pricing based on API consumption.

The private launch  

---------------------

Throughout February and March we have been quietly onboarding people and taking them off the waiting list.  Today, some companies are already running Meilisearch Cloud in production, and we are now onboarding all the remaining companies registered on the waiting list.

If you are one of them, we ask for just a bit more patience. We have more than a thousand applications to get through, and we want to make sure we maintain the same great experience you already have with Meilisearch. We’ll try to onboard everyone in the next four weeks.

Open-source vs. Cloud  

------------------------

We could not be more excited to announce Meilisearch Cloud and bring our search engine to a whole new group of users. Still, this process hasn’t been without its challenges.

We care deeply about accessibility, transparency, collaboration, and learning. Open source values have become a part of our company and the way we work in a way we never imagined. At the same time, something that’s not often talked about is that open-source development is not free:  the labor of developers, technical writers, support engineers, and myriad other contributors must be fairly compensated so these people can continue maintaining and improving a project.

By creating Meilisearch Cloud, we have chosen to position ourselves in the middle of the open-source and corporate worlds. We want the best of both: the impact and growth rate allowed by a paid product, with the transparency, accessibility, and strong ethical core provided by open source.

Conclusion  

-------------

This is a big step for Meilisearch as this will be our first paid offering. If you would like to try it, you can [still register on the waiting list](https://meilisearch.typeform.com/to/FtnzvZfh?typeform-source=www.meilisearch.com) or wait for the public release planned a few weeks from now.

You can always star our repositories or share our work if you want to support us. See you on [Slack](https://slack.meilisearch.com) or [GitHub](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch); always happy to answer your questions regarding what we are building :)

  
PS: [We are recruiting a full stack software engineer](https://jobs.lever.co/meili/) to help us with our cloud offering!

Our first SaaS product: the history behind Meilisearch Cloud

Today I'm proud to announce that Meilisearch has closed a $5M USD Seed funding round led by [CRV](https://www.crv.com/) with the participation of Robin Vasan ([Mango Capital](http://www.mangocap.com/)), Guillermo Rauch (CEO of [Vercel](https://vercel.com/meili)), and returning investors [LocalGlobe](https://localglobe.vc/) and [Seedcamp](https://seedcamp.com/).

What is Meilisearch?
====================

For more than two years now, we have been working to redefine the world of user-facing search.

We chose to tackle this challenge for a few reasons. From a user perspective, we were tired of seeing great products with terrible search bars. As developers, we also knew how difficult it is to set up a good search experience: there are few tools available, and of those, most are either too complicated, too expensive, or not powerful enough.

From the start, we made several bold choices that empowered us to create Meilisearch as it is today.

First, we chose to make our project open source. We did this primarily because it was our reflex as developers, but also because it was the best way to reach the maximum number of users. From the beginning our goal was to provide a good search engine for developers; why wait until we deemed the product complete to put it in their hands? Instead of building something for our users, we chose to build alongside them.

Secondly, we picked Rust as the main programming language for our engine. This was a difficult choice in 2019, because although it was elected the language of the year, few companies had invested in this technology and the number of dedicated Rust developers was still small. We forged ahead because we believed that its superior performance would more than make up for any potential downsides.

These choices, while counterintuitive at the time, have become our greatest strengths. Starting from our very first public communication, there was an overwhelming response from developers. For several months in a row, we were one of the fastest-growing open-source projects on GitHub. That's when we decided to raise our first round of funding from European investors to double down on our product and growth.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/Screenshot_2022_01_18_at_15_01_22_482f82eba5.jpg)

In less than two years the project has grown enormously: today we have more than 20k stars on GitHub, almost 100k developers using our engine every month, and thousands of servers in production. Our product managed to strike a chord in the heart of developers who were tired of inadequate search. In doing so, we fulfilled the mission we set ourselves at the beginning.

What's next?
============

Our latest round of funding allows us to invest more heavily in our community. We’ve already created a product that sparks developers’ imaginations; now our mission is to give them the tools and support they need to build amazing sites and apps with Meilisearch. We will do this by building a team whose sole purpose will be managing, feeding, and growing an inclusive community.

Of course, we will also continue to work on our product. We have many new features coming that have been massively requested by users.

In addition, now that we have so many users on our open source project, we are getting more and more requests from companies that would like to use a version of Meilisearch managed by us instead of having to manage the service themselves. That's why we started to develop [Meilisearch Cloud](https://meilisearch.typeform.com/to/FtnzvZfh?typeform-source=admin.typeform.com) a few months ago. With Meilisearch Cloud, we are taking the power and simplicity of our engine, optimizing for it, and managing it for our users. In just a few weeks of beta, we have already received hundreds of requests for access.

If you’ve supported, used, or contributed to Meilisearch in the past: thank you! We are planning to grow the team and will be recruiting all kinds of roles in the coming months. If you want to help us shape the future of website and app search, we're [looking for more talent](https://www.welcometothejungle.com/companies/meilisearch) to help us sustain our vision.

  
Quentin de Quelen - CEO of Meilisearch

Meilisearch raises a $5M Seed to change the world of user-facing search

**tl;dr:** We recently raised 1,5M euros from LocalGlobe, Seedcamp, Kima & Tiny.vc. This funding will allow us to focus on building a community of early adopters & contributors around our open search engine [Meilisearch](https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliSearch).

We are still at the very beginning of our open source adventure and we are thrilled to see that more and more people believe in this project. This is our first fundraise and it means the world for the Meili team 🎉

### Meili got funded!

Meili SAS (the company) was created in November of 2018 with the idea of building an alternative to existing search engine APIs like Algolia. After some successes and failures as a team and company, we decided to raise some money to keep focus on building Meilisearch and its ecosystem.

We believe that an exceptionalsearch experience on websites and applications should be the norm, not an exclusive feature. Thus we are building the most straightforward technology for developers to offer state-of-the-art search to their users, scaling from the tiniest of operations all the way up to enterprise.

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/david_armstrong_srp_E_a5_W418_unsplash_beb73be50e.jpg)

How we got there
----------------

Meilisearch has been open source since the [earliest days](/blog/open-source-or-not/)f its development. As developers, we made our project accessible on GitHub from day one but without the idea of being an "open source company". First and foremost we set out to make a simpler alternative to Algolia for smaller businesses who needed something more developer-friendly and affordable.

After describing our project to many developers, we quickly realize that one of the main differences from Algolia was that Meilisearch is open source. Still we weren't using open source as a force.

In late 2019, after some substantial discussion within the team, we decided to [fully commit to orienting the business around open source](/blog/to-open-source-and-beyond/)e could not quietly bootstrap anymore since we decided to build a community around our project to get feedback and contributions from external developers.

We wrote our [Beta release blog post](/blog/meilisearch-beta-release/)or Meilisearch in November of 2019. Since then we have been working hard at making Meilisearch the new obvious choice for developers when it comes to building a search box.

Charlotte, who joined us in August of 2019, did an incredible job of directing the writing and making of our [documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com/) while Clémentine, who joined us one month later, took charge of developing the [SDKs and integrations](https://github.com/meilisearch/integration-guides) to ease the use of Meilisearch.

Fundraise
---------

In late 2019 we began to meet with investors because we knew we wouldn't be able to develop the business without help from industry veterans.

The first key meeting that we had was with [Alexis from Kima](https://twitter.com/ale6_) who helped us make our pitch understandable to VCs. Alexis was presented to us as `THE investor who understand tech` in Paris. Not only did he understood what we wanted to build, he also did an amazing job at introing us to relevant funds regarding our stage & business 😁  
  
Then from meeting to meeting we met the different persons we are now working with: [Mish](https://twitter.com/mishmashkautsan?lang=en) & [Louis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/knightwebb/?originalSubdomain=uk) from [LocalGlobe](https://localglobe.vc/) as lead investor, [Sia](https://twitter.com/siahouchangnia?lang=en) from [SeedCamp](https://seedcamp.com/), [Alexis](https://twitter.com/ale6_) from [Kima](https://www.kimaventures.com/) & [Philipp](https://twitter.com/pmoe?lang=en) from [Tiny.vc](https://www.tiny.vc/).

The deal we made with the VCs is that we develop the community and the usage around Meilisearch while we better understand the use-cases of our search engine. From there we will be able to generate revenue. [Our business plan is publicly available](/blog/meilisearch-open-business-plan-v0-1/)s a iteratively developed document.

What's next?
------------

### Core features

We made an [open roadmap](http://roadmap.meilisearch.com/) and we will publish more roadmap communications in the coming weeks to get better feedback on what developers need in a search engine API.

There are some features that we know we need to build in order to be competitive as a search engine backend (basic analytics and authorization system 🚧) that are already planned. We are also discussing with developers & companies to gain more insight on features that should be game-changers in the enterprise search industry!

### Integrations & Documentation

All of this work around Meilisearch would not make any sense if Meilisearch is not used. To ease the integration of Meilisearch we are building different [SDKs](https://github.com/meilisearch/integration-guides) in different languages and improving our [documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com/) every week.

We want anyone to be able to integrate Meilisearch in any common programming environment in less than 5 minutes. Today, with our most mature front- and back-end libraries you should be able to setup a proof-of-concept in less than an hour. We are hard at work shaving off those remaining 55 minutes to get where we want to be.

### Open source & values

As we learn to build a commercial open source software company, we are thriving for transparency on everything we do. To raise awareness around open source sustainability, Erlend is publishing a podcast called [Value in Open](/blog/value-in-open-1-posthog/)e already have our first episode released, and the second one should follow shortly 😁

![](https://unable-actionable-car.media.strapiapp.com/kelly_sikkema_XX_2_W_Tb_Lr3r8_unsplash_1_877c2e9d79.jpg)

  
We are delighted and excited about the future of Meilisearch 😁 if you want to reach us for anything, [please feel free to do so](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/contact.html)!

Meili raises 1.5M€ for open source search in Rust

Value in Open #1 - PostHog

> This is the spiritual sequel to our [Open Business Plan](/blog/meilisearch-open-business-plan-v0-1/)hese open documents are continuously iterated on in our publicly available [Project Handbook](https://www.notion.so/meilisearch/Project-Handbook-e818a836dd3f4df1bde7c3989c9a0ae4).

Being a young project, our values are not yet fully formed. As such, we take our value cues from established organizations that we are closely aligned with. To date, these are: Mozilla, World Wide Web Foundation, Open Organization (Red Hat) and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

With the decades of experience and thinking that has gone into the principles we've adopted from the giants, we found it difficult to add anything original or especially representative of Meilisearch as a company. But in the past week, a recurring theme in tech and open source circles resurfaced once more on the Rust Users forum: [Can technology be apolitical?](https://users.rust-lang.org/t/rust-says-tech-will-always-be-political/43627)

The Meilisearch team unanimously agrees that the answer to this question is a resounding **'no'**. For some apt argumentation in favor of this conclusion, see the posts of [XAMPPRocky](https://users.rust-lang.org/t/rust-says-tech-will-always-be-political/43627/15?u=erlend_sh), [kornel](https://users.rust-lang.org/t/rust-says-tech-will-always-be-political/43627/17?u=erlend_sh) and [IsaacWoods](https://users.rust-lang.org/t/rust-says-tech-will-always-be-political/43627/27?u=erlend_sh).

> _XAMPPRocky said:_  
>   
> The Rust project is a real world community and organisation of people that works on building new versions and provides support. Which is done mostly by volunteers and a lot of whom are people who are underrepresented in tech. This organisation of volunteers has the agency to try to build the type of community it wants to be a part of and participate in. Since the very start the Rust project has had a [Code Of Conduct](https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/code-of-conduct) which states the following in the very first line.  
>   
> "We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all"  
>   
> This is an inherently political statement when we live in a world where there has been significant systemic injustice against people of colour and queer folk, both in tech and in the world at large. Working towards providing a welcoming environment for all requires an active voice to push back.

See also the [introductory text](https://firstdonoharm.dev/) of the Hippocratic License:

> Politics and software are so tangled that they cannot be reasonably separated. Consider the GPS software that tells you how to get to a restaurant; it’s also used to direct military drones to their targets. The facial recognition software  that unlocks your phone? It’s being  used to record, track, and target the activities of political  dissenters.

The goal of this declaration is to clearly state our strongly held principles, and the way we want to contribute to our environment. Thinking of technology as inherently apolitical is incompatible with our values as a company, and  we will focus our efforts on interacting and collaborating with those who share this principle with us.

* * *

Our Core Values (v0.1)
======================

Homegrown Principles
--------------------

As we mature as a project, our ideological identity will become more defined. We are starting with a single principle of our own making:

### Technology is political

Every new creation (for work, art, pleasure...) is necessarily based in previous knowledge, paradigms and tools that aren't anything but the  result of political and social constructions and history. The scope of  "what is possible" is necessarily defined by how our field has evolved  in a determined economic and political context, and any intention to transform it is necessarily political.

By acknowledging this, we recognize that neutrality is not an option for us as a values-driven company and participant in the open source movement.

Mozilla Manifesto
-----------------

We are committed to an internet that catalyzes collaboration among diverse communities working together for the common good.

We are inextricably linked to the Mozilla Foundation through our deep involvement with Rust. We greatly admire the Mozilla foundation’s work and we commit ourselves to upholding the 10 principles set forth in their [Manifesto](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/). Especially relevant to us are principles 5-9:

> **Principle 5**  
> Individuals must have the ability to shape the internet and their own experiences on it.

> **Principle 6**  
> The effectiveness of the internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.

> **Principle 7**  
> Free and open source software promotes the development of the internet as a public resource.

> **Principle 8**  
> Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability and trust.

> **Principle 9**  
> Commercial involvement in the development of the internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial profit and public benefit is critical.

Contract for The Web
--------------------

We endorse the [Contract for The Web](https://contractfortheweb.org/). Most relevant to us are its Company Principles (addendum in \[brackets\]):

> **Principle 4**  
> Make \[essential technology on\] the internet affordable and accessible to everyone

> **Principle 5**  
> Respect and protect people’s privacy and personal data to build online trust

> **Principle 6**  
> Develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst

Open Organization
-----------------

We adopt the [Open Organization Definition](https://opensource.com/open-organization/resources/open-org-definition) by Red Hat in its entirety:

*   Transparency ([Project Handbook](https://www.notion.so/meilisearch/Project-Handbook-e818a836dd3f4df1bde7c3989c9a0ae4) and [Open Business Plan](/blog/meilisearch-open-business-plan-v0-1/)   Inclusivity ([Contact us - Communication conventions](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/contact.html))
*   Adaptability
*   Collaboration (Contribution Guidelines coming soon)
*   Community ([To open source, and beyond!](/blog/to-open-source-and-beyond/)N Sustainable Development Goals
--------------------------------

As a distributed, internet-based project, it can feel like we are one step removed from the “real world” and our impact on it. But as technology becomes ever more pervasive in our economy, infrastructure and communities, our actions have very real and immediate consequences.

We acknowledge our place in the interconnected world, and in our own small way we are committed to its betterment. None of our activities should have adverse effects on the [UN Sustainable Development Goals](https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/), and we'll do what we can to advance Goals 8, 9 and 10 (addendum in \[brackets\]):

> **Goal 8**  
> Decent Work and Economic Growth; Sustainable economic growth will require societies to create the conditions that allow people to have quality jobs.

> **Goal 9**  
> Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure; Investments in \[technological, open source\] infrastructure are crucial to achieving sustainable development

> **Goal 10**  
> Reduced Inequalities; To reduce inequalities, policies should be universal in principle, paying attention to the needs of disadvantaged and marginalized populations.

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