Serverless Meilisearch
Instant search with typo tolerance, faceted filters, and a REST endpoint that just works. Cloud, desktop, or self-host with the Layerbase CLI.
/indexes/products/searchBody
Response200 OK · 4ms
Pro engine
$15/mo flat, no meters
Encrypted
TLS on every plan
Layerbase Cloud
Managed, in seconds
Desktop and CLI
Run it locally or self-host
HTTPS endpoint
Meilisearch over HTTPS, from anywhere
Meilisearch on Layerbase Cloud is one HTTPS endpoint plus an API key from the dashboard. The official clients connect unchanged, and serverless or edge runtimes that cannot hold a TCP connection work the same way. The dashboard console is a thin layer over the same REST API, so what you see in the browser is what your code sees, and the firewall panel locks the endpoint to your own IPs or CIDR ranges. The same database branches copy-on-write, so an experiment or a CI job can have an isolated copy of your collections in seconds.
Serverless and edge accessQuick start
Connect with any Meilisearch client
Product search, autocomplete, faceted catalogs, in-app search experiences that need ranking and typo tolerance without a search-team-sized commitment.
- Wire instant product search into a Next.js or React app via the official client
- Replace Elasticsearch for in-app search use cases without the operational weight
- Add typo tolerance and faceted filters to existing catalogs
- Hand HTTPS endpoints to serverless apps that cannot hold TCP connections
- Self-host on your own hardware with the Layerbase CLI when latency or compliance requires it
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" "https://your-host.cloud.layerbase.dev/indexes"
Where to run it
Cloud, desktop, or self-host
One database, three places it can live. Pick the speed you want and move between them when you outgrow it.
Managed Meilisearch hosting
What managed Meilisearch costs here, and how it behaves
Meilisearch is a Pro engine on Layerbase Cloud: the floor is the $15/mo Pro plan, flat, with no per-search and no per-record meter. It is not on the Free plan. This is what the plan includes and what happens when nothing is searching.
Meilisearch needs the Pro plan, $15/mo
Pro is $15/mo flat: 10 databases, 25 GB of storage, up to 500 concurrent connections, and a 1.5 GB always-on pool. There is no per-search, per-record, or per-index meter, and the cost preview in the create flow shows the monthly cost before you provision anything. Pro also carries a 7-day free trial.
It sleeps after 6 hours idle and wakes on the next request
Meilisearch is served over HTTPS, and a hibernated database keeps its hostname and data volume, so the next HTTPS request wakes it in roughly 1 to 5 seconds rather than failing. If you would rather it never sleep, pin it to your always-on pool: Meilisearch draws 256 MB of the 1.5 GB Pro pool, and that draw is a floor for an index that grows with your data.
The official clients, with keys you manage
meilisearch-js, meilisearch-python, and the other official clients connect to the published HTTPS endpoint. The connection panel surfaces three keys: a search key for the browser, and an admin key and master key to keep in server-side code. A firewall panel restricts the endpoint to specific IPs or CIDR ranges, and the dashboard search console is a thin layer over the same REST API your code will call.
Branch an index the way you branch a database
Meilisearch is branchable here: take a copy-on-write copy of a running index in seconds, point a preview deploy or a CI job at it, and delete it when you are done. Pro allows 10 branches per database, and a branch does not consume a slot from your plan database count.
Nothing expires, and backups are automatic
Auto-archiving is a free-tier sweep, so a Pro database is never archived however long it sits. Pro takes a daily backup with 30 days of rolling retention, plus 10 manual slots you trigger yourself, and restore is one click from the dashboard onto the same database or into a new one.
Meilisearch needs the Pro plan, $15/mo flat, with a 7-day free trial. No per-search or per-record meter.
FAQ
Common Meilisearch questions
What is Meilisearch?
Meilisearch is an open-source search engine built for instant, typo-tolerant search with faceted filters and configurable ranking, aimed at product and in-app search rather than log analytics. It is the open-source path for teams that want Algolia-style results without a search-team-sized commitment. Layerbase runs it as a managed HTTPS endpoint with a web search console and dashboard-managed API keys, so the official clients work unchanged.
How much does managed Meilisearch hosting cost?
Meilisearch is a Pro engine on Layerbase Cloud, so the floor is the $15/mo Pro plan; it is not on the Free plan. Pricing is flat with no per-search or per-record meter, and the cost preview in the create flow shows the monthly cost before you provision anything.
Will my Meilisearch client library work?
Yes. meilisearch-js, meilisearch-python, and the other official clients connect to the published HTTPS endpoint with the dashboard-provided API key.
How do I manage indexes?
Through the dashboard search console or via the client library directly. The console is a UI over the REST API and surfaces the same operations.
How do Meilisearch API keys and security work on Layerbase?
The connection panel surfaces three keys: a search key, an admin key, and the master key. Use the search key in the browser, and keep the admin and master keys in server-side code (the master key is for index and key management).
Can I restrict my Meilisearch endpoint to specific IP addresses?
Yes. The firewall panel restricts the endpoint to specific IPs or CIDR ranges.
Is there a free Meilisearch tier on Layerbase?
No. Meilisearch is a Pro engine on Cloud, so the floor is the $15/mo Pro plan. It is a Standard engine, so it sleeps after 6 hours with no requests and wakes on the next HTTPS request, or you can pin it always-on with 256 MB of your pool. The Free plan covers the Standard free-tier engines for prototyping, and Meilisearch is free to run locally with the Layerbase CLI or Layerbase Desktop.
Can I run Meilisearch locally?
Yes. The Layerbase CLI and Layerbase Desktop both run Meilisearch with the same workflow as the cloud version.
Branch Meilisearch in seconds
Fork a running Meilisearch into a full, isolated copy with its own connection string. Copy-on-write makes it near-instant, not a dump and restore. Point a preview deploy at it, test a migration, then throw it away. Layerbase branches 16 engines, not just Postgres.
See how branching worksWhat you get
Everything a Meilisearch database should ship with
The same primitives on every Meilisearch database: TLS, web console, hibernation, and a real dashboard. The rows that need a paid plan say so on the row; nothing here is hidden behind a sales call.
Web IDE
Query console in the dashboard, no extra client to install.
TLS by default
All connections encrypted. No setup required.
Always-on connections
Pin a database to your plan's always-on pool so it never hibernates. Free has no pool, so a free database always sleeps when idle; Solo includes 768 MB of pool and Pro 1.5 GB.
Scale to zero
Hibernates when idle. Wakes on the next connection.
Connection pooling
Pooled endpoint for serverless and edge workloads.
Direct connections
Bypass the pooler for migrations and replication.
Native HTTPS endpoint
Engines whose own wire protocol speaks HTTPS. Every database, including this one, is also queryable over the platform's HTTPS query API and web console.
Serverless driver
Drop-in HTTP driver for edge runtimes (Neon serverless, PlanetScale, Upstash REST, or the engine-native client).
IP whitelisting
Restrict access to specific IPs or CIDR ranges.
Automatic backups
Scheduled dumps and volume snapshots with one-click restore on paid plans. Free includes 1 manual backup slot you take and restore yourself.
What it costs
What Meilisearch costs on Layerbase
Plans are flat. There is no per-hour compute meter, no per-database line item, and no ingress or egress fee, so the bill does not change shape when your traffic does. You do not need an AWS, GCP, or Azure account either: Layerbase runs the infrastructure.
Every engine, plus a bigger always-on pool.
Side by side
Hosted Meilisearch, compared
| Provider | Free tier | Billing |
|---|---|---|
| Meilisearch Cloud | None; a 14-day trial | Cloud from $20/mo; the base 100K-document, 50K-search plan prices at $30/mo |
| Layerbase | Meilisearch is on the Pro plan | $15/mo flat as 1 of 10 databases. No meters. |
Meilisearch Cloud
- Free tier
- None; a 14-day trial
- Billing
- Cloud from $20/mo; the base 100K-document, 50K-search plan prices at $30/mo
Layerbase
- Free tier
- Meilisearch is on the Pro plan
- Billing
- $15/mo flat as 1 of 10 databases. No meters.
Competitor facts verified September 7, 2026 against each vendor's own pricing and documentation pages: Meilisearch Cloud.
Already have data? Migrate it from Algolia Any connection string works too.
More on Meilisearch
All articles- September 5, 2026
Meilisearch Cloud alternatives: the same engine on a flat plan
Meilisearch Cloud starts at $20 a month, has no free plan, and bills per instance or per usage, for a search engine that is open source and runs anywhere. Here is what the Cloud tiers actually buy, where a flat $15 plan with Meilisearch 1.52 fits, how to move an index, and when the Cloud is still the right call.
Read - August 15, 2026
Branching vector databases
Embeddings are expensive to compute and easy to ruin. Qdrant, Weaviate, and Meilisearch all branch on Layerbase now: fork the store per eval run, per agent, or per risky reindex, and throw the fork away.
Read - June 22, 2026
Algolia alternatives in 2026: Meilisearch is the cheap drop-in
Algolia is excellent and expensive. Meilisearch gives you 90 percent of the developer experience at a fraction of the price, with a managed option that does not charge per search. Here is the honest comparison.
Read - June 22, 2026
Migrating from Algolia to Meilisearch
A practical guide to moving search from Algolia to Meilisearch: what maps cleanly, what does not, how to copy records and settings, and the frontend swap.
Read - June 14, 2026
Branching with any database
Neon branches Postgres. PlanetScale branches MySQL. Layerbase branches all of them, because branching happens at the filesystem, not inside the engine. Here is how it works.
Read
Upstream project
Meilisearch is developed by the Meilisearch project. Layerbase packages and hosts official releases; the engine itself is built upstream.