Migrating from Algolia to Meilisearch

This page aims to help current users of Algolia make the transition to Meilisearch.

For a high-level comparison of the two search companies and their products, see our analysis of the search market.

This guide will take you step-by-step through the creation of a Node.js script to upload Algolia index data to Meilisearch. You can also skip directly to the finished script.

The migration process consists of three steps:

1. Export your data stored in Algolia
2. Import your data into Meilisearch
3. Configure your Meilisearch index settings (optional)

To help with the transition, we have also included a comparison of Meilisearch and Algolia's API methods and front-end components.

Before continuing, make sure you have both Meilisearch and Node.js installed and have access to a command-line terminal. If you're unsure how to install Meilisearch, see our quick start.

Start by creating a directory algolia-meilisearch-migration and generating a package.json file with npm:

mkdir algolia-meilisearch-migration
cd algolia-meilisearch-migration
npm init -y

This will set up the environment we need to install dependencies.

Next, create a script.js file:

touch script.js

This file will contain our migration script.

To get started, you'll need two different packages. The first is algoliasearch, the JavaScript client for the Algolia API, and the second is meilisearch, the JavaScript client for the Meilisearch API.

npm install -s algoliasearch@4.13 meilisearch@0.25.1

You'll need your Application ID and Admin API Key to start the Algolia client. Both can be found in your Algolia account.

Paste the below code in script.js:

const algoliaSearch = require("algoliasearch");

const algoliaClient = algoliaSearch(
  "APPLICATION_ID",
  "ADMIN_API_KEY"
);
const algoliaIndex = algoliaClient.initIndex("INDEX_NAME");

Replace APPLICATION_ID and ADMIN_API_KEY with your Algolia application ID and admin API key respectively.

Replace INDEX_NAME with the name of the Algolia index you would like to migrate to Meilisearch.

To fetch all Algolia index data at once, use Algolia's browseObjects method.

let records = [];
await algoliaIndex.browseObjects({
    batch: (hits) => {
      records = records.concat(hits);
    }
  });

The batch callback method is invoked on each batch of hits and the content is concatenated in the records array. We will use records again later in the upload process.

Create a Meilisearch client by passing the host URL and API key of your Meilisearch instance. The easiest option is to use the automatically generated admin API key.

const { MeiliSearch } = require("meilisearch");

const meiliClient = new MeiliSearch({
  host: "MEILI_HOST",
  apiKey: "MEILI_API_KEY",
});
const meiliIndex = meiliClient.index("MEILI_INDEX_NAME");

Replace MEILI_HOST,MEILI_API_KEY, and MEILI_INDEX_NAME with your Meilisearch host URL, Meilisearch API key, and the index name where you would like to add documents. Meilisearch will create the index if it doesn't already exist.

Next, use the Meilisearch JavaScript method addDocumentsInBatches to upload all your records in batches of 100,000.

const BATCH_SIZE = 100000;
await meiliIndex.addDocumentsInBatches(records, BATCH_SIZE);

That's all! When you're ready to run the script, enter the below command:

node script.js

const algoliaSearch = require("algoliasearch");
const { MeiliSearch } = require("meilisearch");

const BATCH_SIZE = 1000;

(async () => {
  const algoliaClient = algoliaSearch("APPLICATION_ID", "ADMIN_API_KEY");
  const algoliaIndex = algoliaClient.initIndex("INDEX_NAME");

  let records = [];
  await algoliaIndex.browseObjects({
    batch: (hits) => {
      records = records.concat(hits);
    }
  });

  const meiliClient = new MeiliSearch({
    host: "MEILI_HOST",
    apiKey: "MEILI_API_KEY",
  });
  const meiliIndex = meiliClient.index("MEILI_INDEX_NAME");

  await meiliIndex.addDocumentsInBatches(records, BATCH_SIZE);
})();

Meilisearch's default settings are designed to deliver a fast and relevant search experience that works for most use-cases.

To customize your index settings, we recommend following this guide. To learn more about the differences between settings in Algolia and Meilisearch, read on.

One of the key usage differences between Algolia and Meilisearch is how they approach index settings and search parameters.

In Algolia, API parameters is a flexible category that includes both index settings and search parameters. Many API parameters can be used both at indexing time—to set default behavior—or at search time—to override that behavior.

In Meilisearch, index settings and search parameters are two distinct categories. Settings affect all searches on an index, while parameters affect the results of a single search.

Some Meilisearch parameters require index settings to be configured beforehand. For example, you must first configure the index setting sortableAttributes to use the search parameter sort. However, unlike in Algolia, an index setting can never be used as a parameter and vice versa.

The below table compares Algolia's API parameters with the equivalent Meilisearch setting or search parameter.

This section compares Algolia and Meilisearch's respective API methods, using JavaScript for reference.

InstantSearch is a collection of open-source tools maintained by Algolia and used to generate front-end search UI components. To use InstantSearch with Meilisearch, you must use Instant Meilisearch.

Instant Meilisearch is a plugin connecting your Meilisearch instance with InstantSearch, giving you access to many of the same front-end components as Algolia users. You can find an up-to-date list of the components supported by Instant Meilisearch in the GitHub project's README.