EMPATHY.CO VS ALGOLIA

Dear visitor,
We'd like to think that Empathy is the AI Search player that escaped from domestication.
This is why Empathy can also run in your cloud, opening its source code, composable components and services for you to own. A SaaS and SmC (Self-managed Components) that is unique.
Thank you for considering Empathy as your trusted partner.
Angel Maldonado
CEO - Founder
EMPATHY
Algolia
EMPATHY
ALGOLIA

Company

TOTAL TEAM SIZE

Engineer

146
173

Sales

8
165

Marketing

11
52
Founded
2012
Total Revenue
& PROFIT
22M
+$5M EBITD
~100M
Non-profitable

Privacy & Compliance

IP adresses
GEOLOCATION
empathy

IP addresses read-only for Platform Engineering operations. No persistence

Algolia

Offers geo-spatial, geo-location search, as well as IP address capture and persistence

Voice collection
BIOMETRIC DATA
empathy

No-Biometric, no-voice, no-image

Algolia

Offers Voice Search, capturing voice patterns as a unique form of sensitive identifiable information

User IDs
IDENTIFIERS
empathy

In-Session IDs only

Algolia

Uses UserIDs, cross-session identifiers

Consent banner
Consent Banner (Cookies &Trackers)
empathy

Not needed, because Empathy is privacy-first

Algolia

Needed/mandatory

Privacy policy
Privacy Policy Page Integration
empathy

Not needed, because Empathy is privacy-first

Algolia

Needed/mandatory

Overview

Empathy
Algolia

Source Code

SaaS closed-object code

SmC open-source code

Proprietary closed source

Front Code

Interface open-source (Apache 2)

Open source frontend library

Core Search Engine

Elastic

Proprietary

Core Search Algorithm

Built from the ground-up

Built from the ground-up

Best Suited For

Privacy-first search experience respecting customers' data while offering intuitive Search & Discovery, no matter the size of the dataset, number of products, languages, or markets

Instant Search-as-you-type 
Experiences for datasets up to 128 GB in size

Primary Index Location

RAM

RAM

AI-powered search

AI Search
AI search approach
empathy

Hybrid (keyword & vector) search using ML and  NLP. Semantics API

Algolia

Hybrid (keyword & vector) search using ML and NLP. NeuralSearch API (*only available for clients with the Elevate plan)

AI driven
AI-driven results experience
empathy

Sequential keyword & vector search when searching and indexing. First, keyword search is executed, then vector search if needed.

Algolia

Parallel keyword & vector search, influencing every search and discovery scenario by dynamically arranging results from most to least relevant.

semantic search
Responsible semantic data models
empathy

Open-source foundation semantic models fine-tuned with proprietary datasets for each specific domain.

Algolia

Language models trained with user-centric and potentially user-held data models, getting the data directly from customers with their consent.

Data integrity
Data integrity & privacy-first
empathy

Privacy control measures based on consent-domain integral data as well as semantic models trained to guarantee confidentiality with anonymised in-session behavioural interactions.

Algolia

Personalisation via different user profiles based on consent, respecting privacy by collecting personal data, not private data.

Vector search
AI vectors explainability
empathy

Play Vector explains through visual insight the what and why behind the AI-generated feed enrichment, semantic models and computed data. Additionally, manual judgments complement offline automated evaluations empowering merchants to orchestrate AI to their ambition.

Algolia

White-box model of transparency that explains to customers how search relevance is computed, namely, why results are ranked in a particular order.

Deployment Options

Empathy
Algolia

Self-Hosted Option

Check
Wrong

SaaS Option

Check
Check

High Availability

Check
Check

RAFT-based multi-node clustering

Multiregion

Only available for self hosted versions

Check

CDN-like Geo-Distributed clusters

Check
Check

Available in Premium tier, called Distributed Search Network

Runtime Dependencies

None. Self-contained binary

Built-in, high performance HTTP server, that can be exposed to the frontend directly

N/A, since it's SaaS only

Index Backward Compatibility

Check

Fully backward compatible

Check

Fully backward compatible

Upgrade Path

Managed SaaS service, doesn't require upgrades

Automated upgrades for self-hosted options based on CI/CD integrations

Managed SaaS service, doesn't require upgrades

Features

Empathy
Algolia

Clear separation between search business roles

Check
Wrong

Equalize/ Static relevancy config (AB)

Check
Wrong

RT + Curation

Check
Wrong

NQ + Curation

Check
Wrong

Promotions (banners)

Check
Wrong

Redirections

Check
Wrong

Popular Searches

Check
Wrong

Top Recommendations

Check
Check

Brand Recommendations (Query Preview)

Check
Wrong

Next Query Recommendations

Check
Wrong

Dynamic Re-ranking

Check

Contextualize

Wrong

Available in Premium Tier

My History

Check
Wrong

Identifier Results (Sku Search)

Check
Check

Partial Results

Check
Wrong

Query Field Weights & Boosting (Custom Ranking rules)

Check
Wrong

Boost/bury products (Custom Ranking rules)

Check
Check

Up to 10 results in Free Tier, Up to 10,000 results in Premium Tier

Explain

Check

Transparency about all aspects that affect the product scoring in order to understand the position of each result in specific queries

Catalog discovery with minimal info about the match (typos, field match, position, etc.) and ranking rules matching

Blacklist of terms

Check
Check

Visual analytics (Insights)

Check
Wrong

Open statistics/analytics API

Check
Wrong

Public roadmap - Documentation

Check
Wrong

Release notes - Documentation

Check
Wrong

REST API

Check
Check

Typo Tolerance (Spellcheck)

Check
Check

Grouping / Distinct

Check
Check

One distinct field

Dynamic Sorting

Check

Duplicate indices need to be created for each sort order, for Exhaustive Sorting

Virtual replica indices can be used for Relevant Sorting

Faceting & Filtering

Check
Check

Facet Value Searches

Check
Check

Synonyms

Check
Check

Up to 10,000 per index

Dynamic Synonym Suggestions

Check
Check

Available in Premium Tier

Language support

All languages

All languages

Stop words

Check
Check

Geo Search

Wrong
Check

Sort by String field

Check
Check

Possible but not recommended

Search Analytics

Check

Search Success KPIs

Query performance reports

Search Opportunities for improving

Search Performance

Visual analytics covering business cases

Open Statistics API

Client-side and Server-side

Negative Keyword Search (-query)

Check
Check

Phrase Search ("some query")

Check

To Do

Check

User-level Search Personalization

Check

Read-only and in-session / in-the-now for SaaS and read-and-write personalisation for SmC. More info: Session Contextualization

Check

Premium Tier

A/B Testing Results

Equalize in EPP enables merchandisers to configure and curate the brand search experience by audience segment. Affect product scoring by weighting attribute values and applying them to different segments. Merchandisers have granular control and visibility over how search results appear and the agility to adapt quickly, provide relevant results, and support merchandising goals

Check

Query Suggestions

Check

Wisdom of the Crowd-based

Check

Visual Dashboard

Check

Search & Discovery Playboard

Analytics & Insights for detecting opportunities and understanding shoppers behavior

Tooling for setting up relevance and ranking

Search Experience Customization

Overview of the product grid and scoring details in Explain

Account management

Monitoring of all actions taken in the Playboard

Instance Management Console

Check

Site Crawler

Wrong
Check

DocSearch crawler for docs sites.

General site crawler is part of Premium Tier

Search UI Component Library

Check

Interface X Components

Check

InstantSearch.js

Privacy Friendliness

Check

Privacy-friendly. Does not collect ANY personal data in either the Self-Hosted nor the SaaS option

Wrong

Not privacy-friendly. Collects personal data, usage analytics & IP addresses

Limits

Empathy
Algolia

Number of Documents

Unlimited, only constrained by available RAM

Unknown

Maximum Indices

Unlimited

Unlimited

Maximum Index Size

Unlimited, only constrained by available RAM

Limited to 128 GB

Maximum Words per field

Unlimited

Unlimited

Maximum Record Size

Unlimited

Limited to 10KB

Number of API Keys

Unlimited

Limited to 5000

Support

Empathy
Algolia

Channels

GitHub issues

Email

Private Slack (including audion & video calls)

Prioritised Support 24/7

Customer Success specialist

GitHub issues

Email

Public Slack Community

Phone

Paid Prioritized Support

Expert Onboarding & Training

Check
Check
EMPATHY vs algolia
EMPATHY
Algolia

Front Libraries

Front Libraries
Open-Source Front Libraries

Interface X Archetype Layer

can be integrated into any web project, regardless of the frameworkInterface

X Components
only integrated into Vue or React projects (through react-wrapper)

FRONT
LIBRARIES

Algolia has four different web libraries, all of them open-source:

InstantSearch
Vanilla Javascript
(can be included in any project)
React InstantSearch
Vue InstantSearch
Angular InstantSearch

DESIGN SYSTEM
Design System

Brand design system based on Tailwind. Coming soon to the documentation.

Design System

Uses simple CSS for widgets.  Tailwind integration also available.

Empathy XComponents vs Algolia Widgets

Empathy
Algolia

Breadcrumb - Mounted using hierarchical filters

Wrong

Stats - Number of results

Wrong

DynamicWidgets - Allows to show/hide widgets depending on the respond. Algolia uses this for Faceting in their examples

Brand Recommendations (Query Preview)

Wrong
COMPANY
PRIVACY
OVERVIEW
AI search
Deployment
Features
Limits
Support
front