For builders who want to perform fast search on the cheap, try the OmniSearch plugin + Typesense open source headless search. This is a completely independent recommendation, I have no relationship to the plugin author or Typesense.
I started using this yesterday and based on what I am seeing so far, I am astonished that the OmniSearch plugin has only been installed 22 times. So I felt the need to spread the word and start a thread.
After building backend workflows for complex database management operations, I finally decided to go with Algolia, only to discover that I had to upgrade my Bubble plan by $100 to use it. So I decided to give Typesense a try, but I didn’t have the time (or technical background) to integrate it directly. The Omnisearch plugin is only $9/month and works on the Bubble $32 plan which integrates Typesense (which seems to be WAY MORE cost effective than Algolia) without building complex APIs.
Granted, I only have 24 hours experience under my belt but here is the value I am seeing so far using Omnisearch:
- It has semantic search and appears to work very fast for very low cost
- I am saving $100/month on the basic Bubble plan than I would if I used Algolia
- I am not burning up Bubble WUs to recursively modify database updates
- It has privacy settings
- OmniSearch gives you an Typesense admin dashboard out of the box if you follow this quick start guide. Getting started | Scious Docs. When you get to the part of copying their admin dashboard example, you can find that here Scious-plugins | Bubble Editor
Hope this helps someone else out there. Curious about whether anyone else is using this and what your experience and lessons learned are.