Pricing snapshot
Elasticsearch is available as free, open-source software to install and manage yourself. Elastic also offers Hosted and Serverless services, plus self-managed subscriptions. The buying decision starts with who operates the deployment and which features you need.
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| Option | Pricing basis | Operations and scale |
|---|---|---|
Hosted | Resource based pricing; pay as you go (monthly) or prepaid | Customer controls hardware configuration, cluster size, node count, and versions. |
Serverless | Usage based pricing; pay as you go (monthly) or prepaid | Elastic manages hardware configuration, cluster size, node count, and versions; capacity scales with search and indexing load. |
Self-managed | Free software available; self-managed subscription pricing uses node count and used RAM | Customer controls deployment location, hardware setup, configuration, orchestration, cluster size, node count, and versions. |
Choose the operating model
Choose Hosted when direct control of cluster capacity and configuration is required.
Choose Serverless when Elastic-managed operations and automatic scaling based on search and indexing load fit the workload.
Choose Self-managed when deployment location and infrastructure configuration must remain under customer control.
Availability and support details
Hosted deployments are listed across AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Alibaba, and FedRamp, while Serverless is generally available in AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. Elastic lists four support tiers for both cloud options. Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers have a 99.95% monthly uptime SLA for Hosted and Serverless; self-managed infrastructure has no applicable uptime SLA in this comparison.
Elastic Cloud products have a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. Separately, Elastic's local development setup includes a one-month trial license with all Elastic features, then reverts to Free and open - Basic; Elastic cautions that this setup is for local development and testing, not production deployments.
What drives the bill
For Hosted, evaluate the resources and capacity configuration you choose. For Serverless, evaluate search and indexing load because capacity scales with those loads. For a self-managed subscription, size the node count and used RAM. Compare configurations and feature requirements before setting a budget.
Take
Use Serverless when you want Elastic to manage capacity and scaling. Choose Hosted when you want control over the cluster configuration within a managed service. Run Elasticsearch yourself when control of deployment location and infrastructure matters enough to own the operating work. Check the features and support you need before choosing a subscription.