Yeah, there's a side project I've been wanting to build for a long time, and it needs search. But the way these prices have been presented, it seems that CloudSearch is just not economically feasible for a SaaS / free multiuser offering.
Are you saying it is too much? WebSolr etc have options that are cheaper.
http://www.midwesternmac.com/services/hosted-solr-search
http://www.netaphorsearch.com/products/solr-hosting
http://www.acquia.com/products-services/acquia-network/cloud...
(they're mainly targeted to drupal)
anything else?
Lucid Imagination is run by some of the most experienced Solr and Lucene devs. Specifically Yonik Seeley, who created Solr.
When I looked at WebSolr, the cost exceeded my entire VPS structure, even for their cheapest plans.
Not to mention, we've got transparent replicated redundancy on all our indexes—one of our better-kept secrets, I really need to update our marketing materials—so double your VPSs there.
For side projects I'd be okay with indexing being less aggressive, sizes being more restrictive, and response times being higher if that made the pricing more accessible.
I'd be happy to give you guys more money when I've got the traffic to justify it, but it'd be nice to be able to flip that on when I need it.