Laravel: Scout With Meilisearch or Algolia ($)

Scout adds full-text search to Eloquent models by keeping a search index in sync automatically, every time a model is saved, updated, or deleted, without writing that synchronization logic yourself.

composer require laravel/scout meilisearch/meilisearch-php

class Product extends Model
{
    use Searchable;

    public function toSearchableArray(): array
    {
        return ['name' => $this->name, 'description' => $this->description];
    }
}

// searching
$results = Product::search('wireles mouse')->get();

That typo in “wireles” still returns the mouse; typo tolerance and relevance ranking are exactly what the underlying search engine handles and a SQL LIKE query never could.

Meilisearch is open source and self-hosted, a single binary with sensible defaults out of the box:

docker run -p 7700:7700 getmeili/meilisearch

Algolia is a managed, paid alternative, same Scout driver, no infrastructure to run:

composer require algolia/scout-extended

// config/scout.php
'driver' => env('SCOUT_DRIVER', 'algolia'),

Pricing

Meilisearch is free to self-host. Algolia bills by search volume and records indexed, with a free tier for small projects, which is what earns it the $: the same Scout code works against either, so the choice is genuinely just “run it yourself or pay someone else to.”

When to reach for this

Any Laravel app with a search box over more than a trivial amount of data: a product catalog, a documentation site, a directory of listings.

When it’s the wrong fit

Search needs simple enough that an indexed database column and a basic LIKE query genuinely suffice, where adding a search engine is unnecessary infrastructure for the problem at hand.

Under the hood: Scout’s driver system is a plain PHP interface; Meilisearch and Algolia drivers both implement the same handful of methods (update, delete, search). Swapping between them is a config change specifically because Scout was designed against that interface rather than either engine’s specific API.