Azure AI Search vs Alternatives: Which One Should You Actually Use?

Description

Is Azure AI Search really worth $245–$736/month? In this video, I go through ALL 10 features of Azure AI Search — keyword search, vector search, hybrid search, semantic ranking, document cracking, AI enrichment, faceted navigation, autocomplete, geo-spatial search, and integrated vectorization — and for each one I show you the best Azure-native alternative and the best open-source alternative, with REAL cost breakdowns on a 20 GB dataset. This is not about saying Azure AI Search is bad. It's about helping you make the right call for your data, your requirements, and your budget. 🔑 Key topics covered: - Why not everything needs RAG (and the mistake most people make) - Feature-by-feature cost comparison: Azure AI Search vs PostgreSQL, Cosmos DB, Azure Managed Redis, Meilisearch, Qdrant, Typesense, Weaviate & LlamaIndex - Real embedding costs — text-embedding-3-small vs 3-large on 20 GB of data - When Azure AI Search genuinely earns its price (and when it doesn't) - A simple 4-step decision framework to choose the right search tool ⏱ Timestamps below ↓ 🔔 Subscribe for more Azure architecture and cloud-native deep dives. --- 👉 Chapters: 0:00 – Intro & When Azure AI Search Makes Sense 1:15 – The Hidden Embedding Cost 2:26 – Not Everything Needs RAG 4:10 – All 10 Features Overview 4:28 – Keyword Search Alternatives 7:53 – Vector Search Alternatives 11:56 – Hybrid Search Alternatives 15:11 – Semantic Ranking Alternatives 18:30 – Multimodal Search Alternatives 20:53 – Document Cracking & AI Enrichment 24:15 – Facets, Autocomplete & Geo-Spatial 27:25 – Integrated Vectorization 30:31 – The 4-Step Decision Framework #Azure #AzureAISearch #RAG #VectorSearch #AzureOpenAI #CloudArchitecture #Meilisearch #Qdrant #Typesense #LlamaIndex #AzureCosts #SearchEngines #AISearch #MicrosoftAzure #CloudNative