- Home
- Enterprise Search Software
- Apache Solr
Apache Solr
What it is
Apache Solr is a free, open-source search platform built on Apache Lucene, with full-text, vector, and geospatial search capabilities. It accepts documents over HTTP in JSON, XML, CSV, or binary formats and returns results in those formats through a REST query interface. Matching options include phrase searches, wildcards, joins, and grouping; discovery tools include faceting, autocomplete, spelling suggestions, hit highlighting, and result clustering. Solr can distribute indexing, replicate data, balance queries, and provide automated failover and recovery. It integrates Apache Tika to extract content from files such as PDFs and Microsoft Word documents. Administrators can use its responsive interface to control instances and inspect cluster state, logs, threads, and metrics. Listed security capabilities include SSL, authentication, and role-based authorization. Solr is self-hosted and supports Linux, macOS, and Windows, as well as API access. Binary and source releases are licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0, and community support is available through the users mailing list and other channels. Releases are not scheduled in advance, and versions older than 9.10 are end of life and will not receive further updates.
For and against
For
- Supports full-text, vector, and geospatial search.
- Offers faceting, autocomplete, and spelling suggestions.
- Provides distributed indexing and automated failover.
- Integrates Apache Tika for rich-document extraction.
- Free community support is available.
Against
- Self-hosted deployment requires operating the platform.
- Release dates are not scheduled in advance.
- Versions older than 9.10 are end of life.
The verdict
Apache Solr combines several search modes with distributed operation and tools for search discovery and administration. Its self-hosted model and end-of-life status for releases older than 9.10 are key considerations.
Who it suits
Solr suits teams and individuals building self-hosted search for documents, websites, or applications. Its range of search and administration features can serve projects from smaller efforts to global enterprise use cases.
Plans and prices
Apache Solr Free
Source and binary releases · self-hosted deployment · no usage fee
Read 15 Oct 2026 · apache.org
Apache Solr
Open-source search platform · binary and source releases · Apache License, Version 2.0
Read 4 Oct 2026 · solr.apache.org
On the record
- Administration
- A responsive web administration interface and JMX metrics are supplied.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Community support
- The Solr community provides free user support through its users mailing list and other listed channels.solr.apache.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- Current release
- Solr 10.0.0 is listed as the current stable major release, with 9.10.x receiving limited critical fixes.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Data formats
- Documents can be indexed through HTTP as JSON, XML, CSV or binary, with results returned in those formats.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Deployment integrations
- Official documentation covers Docker deployment and the project website links Kubernetes integration resources.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Discovery features
- Solr supports faceting, autocomplete, spelling suggestions, hit highlighting, and search results clustering.solr.apache.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- Discovery tools
- Autocomplete, spell suggestions, result clustering and configurable hit highlighting are included.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Distributed scale
- Solr provides distributed indexing, replication, load-balanced querying, automated failover, and recovery.solr.apache.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- Documentation
- The official reference guide covers concepts, deployment, configuration, indexing, querying and upgrades, and is written by Solr committers.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Downloads and support limits
- Solr releases are not scheduled in advance; older versions below 9.10 are end of life and will not receive further updates.solr.apache.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- Plugins can extend indexing, analysis, request handling and query parsing, and the source can be modified.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Faceting
- Term, query, range, date and pivot faceting are built in for filtering and data exploration.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Full-text search
- It supports phrase, wildcard, join, grouping and other Lucene-powered matching methods.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Geospatial
- Solr supports location filtering, polygons, latitude/longitude queries and Java Topology Suite integration.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Indexing and queries
- Solr accepts documents as JSON, XML, CSV, or binary over HTTP and returns query results in those formats.solr.apache.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The project describes Solr as suitable for global enterprises and weekend projects, and says it powers heavily trafficked websites and applications.solr.apache.org · read 4 Oct 2026
- License
- Solr is released under the permissive Apache License 2.0.solr.apache.org · read 15 Oct 2026
- Limit: configuration and scaling
- Gartner reviewers cite complex configuration, imperfect schema management, scaling difficulties and dependence on ZooKeeper.gartner.com · read 15 Oct 2026
