In retail, the search bar is not just a feature, it’s your silent top-performing salesperson. It guides customers to what they want, boosts conversions, and ultimately drives revenue.
But as your catalog scales and consumer expectations evolve, choosing the right search platform can mean the difference between loyal buyers and bounced sessions.
Two platforms dominate the conversation: Lucidworks Fusion and OpenSearch. Both are powerful. Both are enterprise-ready. But they are built on very different philosophies.
The Real Business Question
It is not just about features. It is about control, flexibility, and the cost of innovation.
Ask yourself:
- Do you want to own your retail experience or rent it?
- Can you adapt search to emerging channels, AI capabilities, and customer behavior without waiting for a vendor roadmap?
- Are you building for the next quarter or for the next decade?
This is where the two platforms diverge.
Lucidworks: Feature-Rich, Fast to Deploy, for a Price
Lucidworks Fusion is a commercially supported search and personalization platform built on Apache Solr, designed for enterprise retailers who want:
- Out-of-the-box personalization engines
- Merchandising tools with visual rule editors
- AI-driven recommendations
- Fast time-to-value with managed services
Fusion is ideal if you want everything in one box, have the budget for vendor lock-in, and do not require deep customization.
Choose Lucidworks if:
- You have a generous search budget
- Your team lacks technical capacity for customization
- You want a managed, bundled solution with built-in AI
OpenSearch: Open, Modular, and Built for Growth
OpenSearch is an open-source, Apache-licensed search and analytics platform, forked from Elasticsearch and Kibana, now governed by the Linux Foundation.
What it lacks in prebuilt personalization, it makes up for in:
- Modularity – Build what you need, skip what you do not
- Control – Full customization of ranking, ingest pipelines, and dashboards
- Cost efficiency – Zero license fees and no vendor lock-in
- Deployment freedom – On-premises, AWS, or any cloud
- Future readiness – Native vector search and generative AI support
Choose OpenSearch if:
- You want to control and customize your search experience
- Your team can handle (or is willing to learn) open-source tooling
- You want long-term cost savings and no lock-in
- You plan to future-proof for AI and next-generation retail UX
Why More Retailers Are Choosing OpenSearch
The modern retail journey is non-linear. Shoppers switch between mobile devices, in-store kiosks, voice assistants, and social discovery. Algorithms that work today may fail tomorrow.
OpenSearch lets you build the search experience your brand demands, not the one your vendor allows.
As AI transforms search with vector search, chat interfaces, and personalized discovery, OpenSearch’s open roadmap ensures continuous innovation without proprietary constraints.
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Criteria | Lucidworks | OpenSearch |
|---|---|---|
| Fastest to deploy | Yes | No |
| Most flexible and future-proof | No | Yes |
| Built-in AI recommendations | Yes | No (buildable) |
| Full ownership and no lock-in | No | Yes |
| Lowest long-term total cost of ownership | No | Yes |
| Community-driven innovation | No | Yes |
Conclusion: Buy Speed or Build Freedom?
If you are an enterprise with significant budget and need a fully working search solution out of the box, Lucidworks is a strong choice.
If you are ready to build your own search advantage, reduce long-term costs, and stay adaptable in a fast-changing retail world, OpenSearch gives you the keys to your own future.
Your brand is unique. Your search should be as well.
RBMsoft: Bringing Lucidworks-Level Capabilities to OpenSearch
OpenSearch offers unmatched flexibility and long-term value, but many retailers hesitate because matching the advanced features of Lucidworks requires technical investment.
That is where RBMsoft comes in.
We help retailers deploy customized OpenSearch solutions with:
- Fast setup and seamless migration from Solr/Lucidworks
- Retail-optimized search pipelines and ranking logic
- Personalization and vector-based search
- Merchandising rules and analytics dashboards
- Transparent, fixed pricing with no usage-based fees
OpenSearch gives you control. RBMsoft makes it practical.
📩 Book your free Search Audit to see how we can deliver Lucidworks-level features at a fraction of the cost — without vendor lock-in
