{"data":{"slug":"sonic","name":"Sonic","tagline":"MPL-2.0 tiny Rust search backend, an Elasticsearch-lite","category":"rust","categoryName":"Rust","url":"https://crates.io/crates/sonic-server","github":"https://github.com/valeriansaliou/sonic","pricing":"open-source","hook":"Sonic is a fast, lightweight, schema-less search backend written in Rust: you push text with an object ID, query it, and get back IDs to look up in your own database.","whatsGood":"MPL-2.0 (valeriansaliou/sonic), release v1.10.2 (2026-10-05). It normalises natural-language queries, auto-completes and ranks results, and the project's benchmarks show microsecond-range responses with about 30 MB of RAM under load. Clients exist for many languages over its simple TCP protocol. Used in production by Crisp. ★~21.4k.","theCatch":"It is an identifier index, not a document store: it returns IDs, not documents, highlights or facets. No vector or hybrid search. MPL-2.0 is file-level copyleft if you modify Sonic itself. For rich search UX, Meilisearch or Typesense do more.","verdict":"The lightest way to add full-text search when you only need IDs back.","addedAt":"2026-10-18","featured":false,"domain":"Rust","subSpecialty":"Systems","subcategory":"Systems","tags":["self-host","copyleft","active"],"capabilities":[],"surfaces":["Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Rust"],"licenseModel":"MPL-2.0","githubStars":21364,"starsPerWeek":54,"access":"free","archived":false,"repo":{"createdAt":"2019-02-26","pushedAt":"2026-10-15","license":"MPL-2.0","archived":false,"checkedAt":"2026-10-19"}},"related":[{"slug":"rust-lang","name":"Rust","tagline":"Systems programming without the footguns"},{"slug":"tokio","name":"Tokio","tagline":"Async runtime for Rust"},{"slug":"axum","name":"Axum","tagline":"Web framework from the Tokio team"},{"slug":"actix-web","name":"Actix Web","tagline":"Fast Rust web framework"},{"slug":"serde","name":"Serde","tagline":"Serialization framework for Rust"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/sonic","html":"/gems/sonic","markdown":"/gems/sonic.md","category":"/api/gems?category=rust","categoryPage":"/stacks/rust"}}