Scale of Enterprise Search Systems

Here are some numbers to take into consideration as to how much ES projects cost:

Open-source systems No License Fee
These systems must be installed, configured, and customized by the user.  Support and professional services are generally available only for the more active proejcts.

Lower-priced system $2,000 to $50,000
These systems, in general, must be installed by the licensee.
Support and professional services may not be available or are not widely available.

Mid-range system $51,000 to $250,000
These systems offer various advanced features such as clustering or
natural language processing; however, extra cost services are available from the vendors or integrators.
The companies in this price range may not have the market profile of the higherend systems.

Higher-priced system $250,000 to seven figures
These systems provide a wide range of features and are generally supported by either the vendor’s professional services unit or established integration firms. Typical features include multiple options for achieving core features, workflow functionality, and advanced linguistic options.