TutKit's journey with Meilisearch: powering multilingual learning at scale.

TutKit is a comprehensive multilingual learning and content platform that offers training materials, marketing resources, and creative assets to its subscribers worldwide. Built by German agency 4eck Media, the platform stands as a testament to the power of effective search functionality in educational platforms.

TutKit self-hosts Meilisearch to power high-performance search functionality across their Laravel-based learning platform, managing 15,000+ multilingual content pieces with millisecond response times.

"With Meilisearch, we have chosen the right company for the perfect search." - Matthias Petri, founder of TutKit.com and managing director of 4eck Media.

The challenge: scaling search for multilingual content

TutKit.com's initial search functionality, implemented by an external agency using MySQL, suffered from severe performance issues due to inefficient programming. With the platform hosting tens of thousands of content pieces, users endured unacceptable loading times of up to 10 seconds for search results—a critical flaw for a content platform. The system also lacked proper multilingual support, making it impossible to effectively filter and display results across different languages.

Frustrated with these limitations, the TutKit team decided to take matters into their own hands. They began a comprehensive refactoring project, bringing the development in-house with a clear goal: to create an ultra-fast search system that could handle multiple languages.

The solution: implementing Meilisearch

The search for a solution that would provide complete control over search results led Tutkit to Meilisearch. While the platform's modern UX and compelling website initially caught their attention, the final decision was driven by several additional factors:

• Lightning-fast search performance: while the platform's modern UX and compelling website initially caught their attention, it was Meilisearch's exceptional speed that stood out—presenting a dramatic improvement over their existing system
• Robust multilingual support. Meilisearch powers a fast search performance across 26 languages on TutKit platform, coupled with straightforward management capabilities.
• Regular platform updates and improvements. Meilisearch’s regular monthly updates continue to bring valuable improvements, enhancing the experience for both the internal TutKit team and the website visitors.

Technical implementation

The TutKit development team executed a comprehensive implementation strategy:

1. System setup: the implementation of Meilisearch began with a straightforward server installation from the official website. To ensure reliable operation, the team configured a system to manage the Meilisearch instance, including automatic startup and failure recovery. This configuration guarantees continuous service availability, even after server restarts.

2. Security: the instance was implemented through a dual-key system:

• a master key for comprehensive backend access, which allows full access to the Meilisearch instance (including creation and index management), is used exclusively in the backend.
• A custom API key with limited permissions for front-end operations. This separation creates a robust security layer, protecting backend operations while maintaining efficient front-end interactions. The Laravel application connects to Meilisearch using the API key, effectively minimizing the risk of unauthorized access and potential data breaches.

3. Optimized data flow: built on the Meilisearch PHP library, TutKit's custom Laravel integration ensures only necessary changes reach the search index. This selective approach minimizes data processing overhead while maintaining complete control over the implementation, resulting in streamlined index updates and improved search performance.

4. Smart batch processing: A custom Laravel console command handles large-scale updates and initial indexing processes. By targeting only relevant records and executing selectively for major changes, this tool significantly reduces server load and maintains system reliability through efficient resource utilization.

5. Real-time synchronization: The system automatically detects and processes changes in Laravel models, updating Meilisearch indices instantly without full reindexing. This targeted approach keeps search data synchronized with minimal resource usage, ensuring fast, responsive search functionality for users.

Impact and results

The implementation of Meilisearch has delivered significant benefits for TutKit: Performance improvements: thanks to Meilisearch's continuously improving indexing speed, TutKit can process new data into their search index with remarkable efficiency. The platform's lightning-fast search capabilities significantly reduce server load by eliminating the need for resource-intensive MySQL queries.

Real-time filtering capabilities further enhance the system's responsiveness, allowing users to instantly refine and view their search results.

Cost benefits: adoption of Meilisearch as an open-source solution has delivered cost advantages for TutKit. Beyond eliminating ongoing licensing fees typically associated with paid providers, the platform's intuitive nature allowed TutKit's in-house development team to handle implementation and maintenance independently, avoiding external developer costs.

User experience impact: improved search functionality has directly enhanced the visitor experience on TutKit's platform. Fast, accurate search results have eliminated user frustration caused by long wait times and irrelevant results. This enhanced user experience has proven valuable for business outcomes, as satisfied users are more likely to convert into paying customers.

Scalability success: despite managing hundreds of thousands of content pieces across multiple languages, the platform maintains its exceptional performance. Meilisearch consistently delivers precise, relevant results while handling TutKit's growing content library and language variants. This robust scalability gives the team confidence in their ability to expand the platform's capabilities over the long term.

Looking forward

TutKit continues to scale its platform, adding more content and language variants with confidence in Meilisearch's ability to handle growing demands. The team looks forward to the further development of AI-powered features that could further enhance search intelligence and simplify the user interface by reducing the need for extensive filtering options.

Matthias Petri, founder of TutKit.com and managing director of 4eck Media said: "A good search is like a stage for large content platforms, where exactly what the user wants to see is always played. Without Meilisearch, our platform would be just one of many - with mediocre search results and without the clear added value that we would like to offer our customers."

For TutKit, Meilisearch has proven to be more than just a search solution – it's become a cornerstone of their platform's success, enabling them to deliver on their promise of effective learning and productive application for users across the globe.