Pair Meilisearch v1.12’s fast REST API with HTMX 2.0’s hx-get and hx-trigger attributes, and you get a real-time, typo-tolerant search box that returns results in under 50ms. You write no custom JavaScript and pull in no React or Vue. The server renders HTML fragments that HTMX swaps into the DOM, so the whole search box stays under 15 KB of total JS. This post covers the full setup, from Docker Compose to a working search UI with faceted filtering.

Need to search hundreds of thousands of short strings, like tags, usernames, or SKU codes? Heavyweights like Elasticsearch are often overkill. For a dataset of 200k tags, each about 10 characters long, what you want is low latency, a small memory footprint, and easy deployment.

This guide sorts the best modern tools into two groups: standalone servers and in-process libraries. That split helps you pick the right fit for your next project. These engines also work well for adding search to static site generators.