A like-for-like monthly commercial comparison based on the June 2026 quotes. All costs are presented in GBP (£).
Algolia
£1,678.02 / avg month
Based on £60,408 over 3 years
| Year 1 Monthly (£18,790 / 12) |
£1,565.85 |
| Year 2 Monthly (+7%) |
£1,675.46 |
| Year 3 Monthly (+7%) |
£1,792.74 |
| Onboarding (One-time, Required) |
£4,698.00 |
Included in Plan (Elevate for Ecommerce):
- 600,000 Records maximum
- 410,000 Search requests / month (4.92M / yr)
- 116,666 Recommend requests / month (1.4M / yr)
- NeuralSearch (AI-powered relevance)
- Analytics Extended Retention
Overage Rates (Billed Monthly):
- Search requests: £1.67 per 1,000
- Records: £4.10 per 1,000
- Recommend: £0.51 per 1,000
Coveo
£3,302.58 / month
Fixed £118,893 over 3 years
| Year 1 Monthly (£39,631 / 12) |
£3,302.58 |
| Year 2 Monthly (Fixed) |
£3,302.58 |
| Year 3 Monthly (Fixed) |
£3,302.58 |
| Onboarding (Delivery Assurance) |
Included |
Included in Plan (Enterprise):
- Up to 100k items in the index
- Up to 100k search queries per month (QPM)
- Up to 100k recommendations per month
- Personalisation As You Go & Business Aware Ranking
- 1 production and 1 non-production orgs
- Access to full connector library
- Delivery Assurance & Premier Support
Notes:
- Fixed term; Auto-renews at list price.
Penn-Elcom Current Usage (Monthly Averages)
Based on the provided pre-stats, here is the current traffic baseline before any search interactions (facets, autocomplete) are even factored in:
| Page Type |
Monthly (average) |
| Category Page |
167,164 |
| Search Results Page |
3,859 |
| Detail Page (PDP) |
94,323 |
| Total Page Views |
357,145 |
Note: It is confirmed that Category Pages will be powered by the chosen search engine. This means every single Category Page view consumes at least 1 Search Query.
Comparison Summary & CRITICAL Risks Discovered
Monthly Subscription Delta: Coveo is on average £1,624.56 more expensive per month over the 3-year term.
- CRITICAL - Coveo Traffic Cap: The Coveo quote limits traffic to 100,000 queries per month (QPM). The current stats show PE averages 167,164 Category Page views alone. If Coveo powers the category pages, PE is instantly over the monthly limit by nearly 70% before a single user touches a filter, searches a keyword, or uses autocomplete. This quote is fundamentally underscoped for PE's traffic.
- CRITICAL - Coveo Record Cap: The Coveo quote explicitly limits to 100,000 items in the index. With PE's catalog at ~600,000 records, Coveo is massively underscoped for the catalog size. This MUST be raised with Coveo immediately to get a re-quote at the correct tier.
- Algolia Headroom: Algolia's quote includes 410,000 queries/month and 600,000 records. The 171k base page views (Category + Search) leave ~240k queries per month of headroom for autocomplete, facets, and pagination. This quote accurately reflects PE's scale.
What counts as a Search Request?
Both platforms calculate a "Query" or "Search Request" in exactly the same way. Every interaction that requires the frontend to fetch new results from their API counts as one request. This includes:
- Category Load (PLP): Landing on any category page powered by the search engine = 1 request
- Full Search: Typing a term and hitting enter = 1 request
- Refinements: Every single time a user clicks a facet/checkbox, changes the sort order, or clicks "Next Page" = 1 additional request
- Search Preview (Autocomplete): Every time the autocomplete updates as the user types, it counts as a request. (Note: If not carefully debounced in code, typing "Rack" could fire 4 separate requests!)
Because of this, a single user browsing a category and applying 3 different filters will consume 4 requests for that pageview alone.