Wall Check
Meilisearch
Open-core search; self-hosted is free, cloud pricing is metered on queries and indexing.
Gates 3/5 3 of the five walls fired — the score is a count, not a verdict.
Checked 2026-09-27 · re-check due 2026-11-26.
The five walls
! Price wall
The free tier ends. The limit you hit while everything still looks free.
Cloud starts at $30/mo.
source · checked 2026-09-27
! Permission wall
You can see the setting but not touch it. Licenses and admin roles decide what you control.
Advanced RBAC requires Enterprise.
source · checked 2026-09-27
✓ Gate wall
A human at the vendor decides your timeline — approvals, reviews, onboarding queues.
Self-serve cloud signup.
source · checked 2026-09-27
! Meter wall
Cost scales with your success. Per-unit, per-seat, per-message pricing that grows as you do.
Metered on document count and search queries.
source · checked 2026-09-27
✓ Exit wall
Getting out costs more than getting in. Your data, your domain, your number — who keeps them.
Can export data and self-host the open source engine.
source · checked 2026-09-27
The twelve questions
- What is the hard number where the free tier ends?
- Open source self-hosting available.
Documents read for this check: pricing page, changelog, community forum, API docs.
Where Meilisearch shows up in our fixes
Side-by-side comparisons
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