# What is Meilisearch?
Source: https://www.meilisearch.com/docs/learn/getting_started/what_is_meilisearch

Meilisearch is a search engine featuring a blazing fast RESTful search API, typo tolerance, comprehensive language support, and much more.

Meilisearch is a **RESTful search API**. It aims to be a **ready-to-go solution** for everyone who wants a **fast and relevant search experience** for their end-users ⚡️🔎

## Meilisearch Cloud

[Meilisearch Cloud](https://www.meilisearch.com/cloud?utm_campaign=oss\&utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=what-is-meilisearch) is the recommended way of using Meilisearch. Using Meilisearch Cloud greatly simplifies installing, maintaining, and updating Meilisearch. [Get started with a 14-day free trial](https://www.meilisearch.com/cloud?utm_campaign=oss\&utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=what-is-meilisearch).

## Demo

[<img alt="Search bar updating results" />](https://where2watch.meilisearch.com/?utm_campaign=oss\&utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=what-is-meilisearch\&utm_content=gif)
*Meilisearch helps you find where to watch a movie at [where2watch.meilisearch.com](https://where2watch.meilisearch.com/?utm_campaign=oss\&utm_source=docs\&utm_medium=what-is-meilisearch\&utm_content=link).*

## Features

* **Blazing fast**: Answers in less than 50 milliseconds
* [AI-powered search](/learn/ai_powered_search/getting_started_with_ai_search): Use the power of AI to make search feel human
* **Search as you type**: Results are updated on each keystroke using [prefix-search](/learn/engine/prefix#prefix-search)
* [Typo tolerance](/learn/relevancy/typo_tolerance_settings): Get relevant matches even when queries contain typos and misspellings
* [Comprehensive language support](/learn/resources/language): Optimized support for **Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and languages using the Latin alphabet**
* **Returns the whole document**: The entire document is returned upon search
* **Highly customizable search and indexing**: Customize search behavior to better meet your needs
* [Custom ranking](/learn/relevancy/relevancy): Customize the relevancy of the search engine and the ranking of the search results
* [Filtering](/learn/filtering_and_sorting/filter_search_results) and [faceted search](/learn/filtering_and_sorting/search_with_facet_filters): Enhance user search experience with custom filters and build a faceted search interface in a few lines of code
* [Highlighting](/reference/api/search#highlight-tags): Highlighted search results in documents
* [Stop words](/reference/api/settings#stop-words): Ignore common non-relevant words like `of` or `the`
* [Synonyms](/reference/api/settings#synonyms): Configure synonyms to include more relevant content in your search results
* **RESTful API**: Integrate Meilisearch in your technical stack with our plugins and SDKs
* [Search preview](/learn/getting_started/search_preview): Allows you to test your search settings without implementing a front-end
* [API key management](/learn/security/basic_security): Protect your instance with API keys. Set expiration dates and control access to indexes and endpoints so that your data is always safe
* [Multitenancy and tenant tokens](/learn/security/multitenancy_tenant_tokens): Manage complex multi-user applications. Tenant tokens help you decide which documents each one of your users can search
* [Multi-search](/reference/api/multi_search): Perform multiple search queries on multiple indexes with a single HTTP request
* [Geosearch](/learn/filtering_and_sorting/geosearch): Filter and sort results based on their geographic location
* [Index swapping](/learn/getting_started/indexes#swapping-indexes): Deploy major database updates with zero search downtime

## Philosophy

Our goal is to provide a simple and intuitive experience for both developers and end-users. Ease of use was the primary focus of Meilisearch from its first release, and it continues to drive its development today.

Meilisearch's ease-of-use goes hand-in-hand with ultra relevant search results. Meilisearch **sorts results according to a set of [ranking rules](/learn/relevancy/ranking_rules)**. Our default ranking rules work for most use cases as we developed them by working directly with our users. You can also **configure the [search parameters](/reference/api/search)** to refine your search even further.

Meilisearch should **not be your main data store**. It is a search engine, not a database. Meilisearch should contain only the data you want your users to search through. If you must add data that is irrelevant to search, be sure to [make those fields non-searchable](/learn/relevancy/displayed_searchable_attributes#searchable-fields) to improve relevancy and response time.

Meilisearch provides an intuitive search-as-you-type experience with response times under 50 milliseconds, no matter whether you are developing a site or an app. This helps end-users find what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. To make that happen, we are fully committed to the philosophy of [prefix search](/learn/engine/prefix).

## Give it a try

Instead of showing you examples, why not just invite you to test Meilisearch interactively in the **out-of-the-box search preview** we deliver?

There's no need to write a single line of front-end code. All you need to do is follow [this guide](/learn/self_hosted/getting_started_with_self_hosted_meilisearch) to give the search engine a try!