Elasticsearch vs Clickhouse: Selecting the Right Database for GenAI Applications

Elasticsearch and ClickHouse are two prominent databases with vector search capabilities, essential for recommendation engines, image retrieval, and semantic search in AI-driven applications. While both have strengths and weaknesses, the choice between them depends on specific requirements such as search methodology, data types, scalability, flexibility, integration, ease of use, cost, and security. Elasticsearch is good for real-time hybrid search with a mature ecosystem and user-friendly APIs, while ClickHouse is suitable for large scale analytics with SQL centric workflows and scalable architecture. Evaluating these databases using VectorDBBench can help users make an informed decision based on their use case.