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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Typesense Has a Free API That Gives You Algolia-Level Search in Minutes

#typesense #search #api #opensource

Typesense is the open-source search engine built for speed. Sub-millisecond typo-tolerant search, faceted filtering, geo search — self-hosted, free forever.

What Is Typesense?

Typesense is a fast, typo-tolerant search engine optimized for instant search experiences. Built in C++, it returns results in under 50ms.

Quick Start 

# Docker
docker run -p 8108:8108 \
  -v /tmp/typesense-data:/data \
  typesense/typesense:latest \
  --data-dir /data \
  --api-key=your-api-key
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Create Collection 

curl -s -X POST 'http://localhost:8108/collections' \
  -H 'X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: your-api-key' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "name": "products",
    "fields": [
      {"name": "name", "type": "string"},
      {"name": "description", "type": "string"},
      {"name": "price", "type": "float"},
      {"name": "category", "type": "string", "facet": true},
      {"name": "rating", "type": "float"},
      {"name": "in_stock", "type": "bool", "facet": true}
    ],
    "default_sorting_field": "rating"
  }'
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Index Documents 

curl -s -X POST 'http://localhost:8108/collections/products/documents/import?action=create' \
  -H 'X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: your-api-key' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -d '{"name":"MacBook Pro 16","description":"Apple laptop with M3 Max chip","price":2499,"category":"Laptops","rating":4.8,"in_stock":true}
{"name":"ThinkPad X1 Carbon","description":"Lenovo business ultrabook","price":1399,"category":"Laptops","rating":4.6,"in_stock":true}
{"name":"iPad Air","description":"Apple tablet with M2 chip","price":599,"category":"Tablets","rating":4.7,"in_stock":false}'
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Search 

# Typo-tolerant search
curl -s 'http://localhost:8108/collections/products/documents/search?q=macbok&query_by=name,description&sort_by=rating:desc' \
  -H 'X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: your-api-key' | jq '.hits[].document.name'
# "MacBook Pro 16" — finds it despite typo!

# Filtered + faceted
curl -s 'http://localhost:8108/collections/products/documents/search?q=*&filter_by=category:Laptops&&price:<2000&facet_by=category,in_stock&sort_by=price:asc' \
  -H 'X-TYPESENSE-API-KEY: your-api-key'
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JavaScript SDK 

import Typesense from 'typesense'

const client = new Typesense.Client({
  nodes: [{ host: 'localhost', port: 8108, protocol: 'http' }],
  apiKey: 'your-api-key',
})

// Search
const results = await client.collections('products').documents().search({
  q: 'laptop',
  query_by: 'name,description',
  filter_by: 'price:<2000 && in_stock:true',
  sort_by: 'rating:desc',
  per_page: 10,
})

console.log(`Found ${results.found} products in ${results.search_time_ms}ms`)
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InstantSearch UI (React) 

import { InstantSearch, SearchBox, Hits, RefinementList } from 'react-instantsearch'
import TypesenseInstantSearchAdapter from 'typesense-instantsearch-adapter'

const adapter = new TypesenseInstantSearchAdapter({
  server: { nodes: [{ host: 'localhost', port: 8108, protocol: 'http' }], apiKey: 'search-key' },
  additionalSearchParameters: { query_by: 'name,description' },
})

function SearchPage() {
  return (
    <InstantSearch searchClient={adapter.searchClient} indexName="products">
      <SearchBox />
      <RefinementList attribute="category" />
      <Hits hitComponent={({ hit }) => <div>{hit.name} — ${hit.price}</div>} />
    </InstantSearch>
  )
}
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Typesense vs Alternatives

Feature Typesense Meilisearch Algolia
Speed <1ms <50ms <20ms
RAM usage Low Low N/A
Open source Yes Yes No
Geo search Yes Yes Yes
Facets Yes Yes Yes
Free Self-hosted Self-hosted 10K req

Search through scraped web data? Scrapfly + Typesense = searchable web data. Email spinov001@gmail.com for scraping + search pipelines.

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