Which search backend are you running in production?

Started by Tama Rangi on 19 Sept 2026 · 457 views · 4 replies · 11 likes

Tama RangiStarted the thread

Tech Lead, Department of Internal Affairs · 15d ago

We're re-platforming the all-of-government search and I'd love a quick show of hands. Vote below, then tell us why in a reply: hosting constraints, cost, relevance tuning…

3 Latest reply

Poll

Which Search API backend do you run in production?

Search API Database20% · 2
Apache Solr40% · 4
OpenSearch / Elasticsearch30% · 3
A SaaS search service10% · 1

10 votes · Log in to vote

4 replies

MBMB
Marcus Bell
Senior Developer, Brighton & Hove City Council · 15d ago
#1
Solr via our hosting provider. Boring, reliable, and the LocalGov Drupal search config assumes it.
1
DODO
Daniel Ortiz
Drupal Architect, General Services Administration · 14d ago
#2
Solr for most agencies, but procurement for managed Solr took 4 months. Factor that in!
2
LTLT
Liam Tremblay
Platform Engineer, Canadian Digital Service · 14d ago
#3
OpenSearch on AWS. Needed it for bilingual analysers (EN/FR) and we already run it for logs.
2
PSPS
Priya ShahModerator
Lead Drupal Developer, Government Digital Service · 13d ago
#4
OpenSearch here too. Relevance tuning matters far more than the engine: synonyms for policy jargon made the biggest difference for us.
3

Join the conversation

GDDN is for people working on Drupal in government. Log in or apply to reply.