If you're looking for a Collie alternative, Meilisearch is a good choice. It's an open-source search engine that's geared toward fast, relevant results and that's easy to embed in websites and apps. Meilisearch offers search-as-you-type with results in under 50 milliseconds, and it's got good security. It's also adaptable, with flexible pricing and an active community, so it's a good choice if you want to build a search engine that keeps people engaged and helps them find what they're looking for.
Another serious contender is Algolia. It offers an AI-powered search infrastructure that's geared for enterprise and developer customers. Algolia offers AI search, dynamic re-ranking and personalization, and can be added to websites and apps relatively quickly. Its flexible pricing and abundant documentation make it a good choice for building a personalized search experience.
If you want to use AI for search, Vespa offers a unified search engine and vector database. Vespa supports advanced search features like vector search and lexical search, and it's good for large-scale, high-performance use. It also offers free usage to get you started, so developers can try out AI on their data.
Last, Exa uses transformer-based models to offer search results that are contextually relevant. It accepts natural language search queries and updates its index every two minutes for fresh, high-quality web content. Exa is particularly good for large language models, but it offers a range of pricing tiers, including a free tier, so it can be a good choice for smaller projects or for people who want to try it out without a big budget.