Elastic Cloud vs Pinecone
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Elastic Cloud and Pinecone built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Elastic Cloud if…
Teams that need full-text search and observability on the same underlying engine, or that want the option to self-host later — Elastic's dual identity as a search platform and an observability platform is the actual differentiator against single-purpose competitors.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Pinecone if…
Teams that want a fully managed vector search product with hybrid search and metadata filtering built in, and don't want to operate the underlying index themselves.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Elastic Cloud: The need is narrowly error tracking or APM — a purpose-built tool is usually simpler to operate than standing up an Elasticsearch cluster for one workload, and Elastic Cloud's per-resource pricing doesn't publish a flat entry price the way single-purpose competitors do.
- Pinecone: Cost predictability at small scale matters more than managed convenience — the $50/month Standard minimum applies before any pay-as-you-go usage starts.
Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Elastic Cloud alternatives · Pinecone alternatives
19 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Elastic Cloud 0
Pinecone 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Elastic Cloud | Pinecone |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans. | Yes |
| Kind of free offer | Free trial — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans. | Free tier |
| Entry paid plan | Elastic Cloud Hosted Standard, cheapest of four subscription tiers: as low as $99 per month for a production config of 120 GB storage across 2 zones. Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184 per month on the same config basis. Serverless is metered, no plan fee. | Builder plan: $20/month flat, for solo developers and small teams. Standard plan is usage-based with a $50/month minimum. |
| Pricing model | Three deployment options priced differently: Hosted is resource-based, Serverless is usage-based — both pay-as-you-go monthly or prepaid — and Self-managed is licensed by node count and RAM. | Usage-based on the Standard plan, with a $50/month minimum before pay-as-you-go charges apply. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | Hosted: 60 regions across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (also Alibaba Cloud and FedRAMP). Serverless: generally available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. | Starter is AWS us-east-1 only. Builder, Standard and Enterprise get all available regions across AWS, Azure and GCP. |
| Uptime SLA | 99.95% monthly, for the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers, on both Hosted and Serverless. Not applicable to self-managed, where the customer operates the infrastructure. | 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $500/month minimum usage). Starter, Builder and Standard publish no uptime SLA. |
| Vector | ||
| Hybrid search (vector + keyword) | Supported — combines vector similarity scores with BM25F text-relevance scores in a single hybrid query. | Supported — combine a keyword signal (BM25 or sparse) with a dense signal at query time, often with reranking. |
| Metadata filtering | Supported — vector search results can be filtered by metadata while preserving approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search speed. | Supported — Pinecone indexes metadata so a query can include a metadata filter to limit the search. |
| Support | ||
| Support on entry paid plan | Four support tiers, keyed to the Elastic Cloud subscription tier rather than bought separately. Platinum and Enterprise share an identical support SLA. | Community support via Discord on Starter; free support on Builder, the entry paid plan. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 Type 2 audit by Coalfire covers Elasticsearch Service and support subscriptions; report available on request via the Trust Center. | SOC 2 Type II, audited annually, covering security, availability and confidentiality controls. |
| ISO 27001 | Information Security Program certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018. | ISO 27001:2022 certified; annual surveillance audit completed and certification reported as fully active. From the Trust Center updates feed, posted April 1, 2026. |
| HIPAA | HIPAA business associate agreements available on all Elastic Cloud subscription tiers on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. | HIPAA: BAA available on request for covered entities and business associates. |
| GDPR / data residency | Operates in compliance with GDPR principles; customers can request a Data Processing Addendum through a support case. | GDPR: data processing agreements, EU data residency and right-to-erasure support. |
| PCI DSS | PCI DSS listed among the certifications in the Elastic Trust Center, alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP. | Master Subscription Agreement forbids using the Services to process credit or debit card numbers, which it defines as Restricted Information. The only carve-out is HIPAA Information where an Order contemplates it and a BAA is executed. |
| Encryption at rest | Cluster data is encrypted at rest by default; TLS between Elasticsearch nodes and from the internet. | Stored data encrypted with the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256). |
| Customer-managed keys | Supported on Elastic Cloud Hosted via your cloud provider KMS, but only at the Enterprise subscription level; the key cannot yet be changed or removed once set. | CMEK using keys you manage in AWS KMS on Pinecone-managed projects; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan. |
| Role-based access control | Predefined cloud resource roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer, billing admin) for Hosted and Serverless; custom roles can be created on Serverless projects. | Role-based access control over users, service accounts and API keys; roles managed in the console or via the Admin API. |
| Private networking / VPC | AWS PrivateLink and Azure Private Link for Hosted and Serverless; GCP Private Service Connect for Hosted only. IP filtering can be combined with private connections. | Private Endpoints via AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link, up to 10 per project; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan. |
| Dedicated infrastructure | Elasticsearch nodes run in isolated containers under least privilege; containers have no means of communicating with containers from another cluster. Scope: container-level isolation between customer clusters; no dedicated-hardware option is offered on this page. | Dedicated reserved-compute deployment, plus BYOC: a privately managed Pinecone region inside your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account. |
Where they differ.
Free tier
- Elastic Cloud
- No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
- Pinecone
- Yes
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗
“Elastic Cloud Serverless Zero operational load so that you can build faster Start free trial Elastic Cloud Hosted Deploy and scale on any cloud in minutes with ultimate control Start free trial”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Create your first index for free, then pay as you go when you're ready to scale.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Kind of free offer
- Elastic Cloud
- Free trial — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
- Pinecone
- Free tier
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗
“Elastic Cloud Serverless Zero operational load so that you can build faster Start free trial Elastic Cloud Hosted Deploy and scale on any cloud in minutes with ultimate control Start free trial”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Starter For trying out and for small applications. Start for Free Free [...] Database Storage Up to 2 GB Up to 10 GB Unlimited $0.33/GB/mo”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Entry paid plan
- Elastic Cloud
- Elastic Cloud Hosted Standard, cheapest of four subscription tiers: as low as $99 per month for a production config of 120 GB storage across 2 zones. Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184 per month on the same config basis. Serverless is metered, no plan fee.
- Pinecone
- Builder plan: $20/month flat, for solo developers and small teams. Standard plan is usage-based with a $50/month minimum.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Hosted pricing | Elastic ↗
“As low as $99 per month [...] Based on cloud production config, 120 GB storage / 2 zones.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Builder NEW For solo developers and small teams. Get Started $20/month flat [...] Standard POPULAR For production applications at any scale. Start Free Trial $50/month min. usage You'll be charged a minimum of $50/month. Once your usage exceeds this amount, you'll pay as you go.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction
Pricing model
- Elastic Cloud
- Three deployment options priced differently: Hosted is resource-based, Serverless is usage-based — both pay-as-you-go monthly or prepaid — and Self-managed is licensed by node count and RAM.
- Pinecone
- Usage-based on the Standard plan, with a $50/month minimum before pay-as-you-go charges apply.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗
“Pricing Resource based pricing Pay as you go (monthly) or prepaid Usage based pricing Pay as you go (monthly) or prepaid License-based pricing Licensing based on number of nodes and used RAM”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“You'll be charged a minimum of $50/month. Once your usage exceeds this amount, you'll pay as you go.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official pricing · Report a correction
Regions
- Elastic Cloud
- Hosted: 60 regions across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud (also Alibaba Cloud and FedRAMP). Serverless: generally available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.
- Pinecone
- Starter is AWS us-east-1 only. Builder, Standard and Enterprise get all available regions across AWS, Azure and GCP.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗
“AWS, GCP, Azure, Alibaba, FedRamp — 60 regions across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Serverless currently generally available in AWS, GCP, and Azure.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Cloud Availability AWS AWS, Azure, GCP AWS, Azure, GCP AWS, Azure, GCP Region Availability us-east-1 All available regions All available regions All available regions”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Uptime SLA
- Elastic Cloud
- 99.95% monthly, for the Platinum and Enterprise subscription tiers, on both Hosted and Serverless. Not applicable to self-managed, where the customer operates the infrastructure.
- Pinecone
- 99.95%, listed only against Enterprise (from $500/month minimum usage). Starter, Builder and Standard publish no uptime SLA.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗
“uptime sla 99.95% monthly uptime sla for platinum and enterprise subscription tiers see elastic cloud hosted sla for more details”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“everything in Standard 99.95% uptime SLA Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) Private Endpoints Customer Managed Encryption Keys”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
Hybrid search (vector + keyword)
- Elastic Cloud
- Supported — combines vector similarity scores with BM25F text-relevance scores in a single hybrid query.
- Pinecone
- Supported — combine a keyword signal (BM25 or sparse) with a dense signal at query time, often with reranking.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic: What is vector search? ↗
“To further optimize, combine vector similarities with BM25F scores, known as hybrid scoring. This allows you to have images ranked by vector similarity while implementing BM25F, which can provide better rankings for text.”
Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone documentation ↗
“To get the best of both, use hybrid search — combine a keyword signal (BM25 or sparse) with a dense signal at query time, often with reranking.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official docs · Report a correction
Metadata filtering
- Elastic Cloud
- Supported — vector search results can be filtered by metadata while preserving approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search speed.
- Pinecone
- Supported — Pinecone indexes metadata so a query can include a metadata filter to limit the search.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic: What is vector search? ↗
“Filter vector search results using metadata. Maintain recall without sacrificing speed by applying a filter in line with approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) search.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone documentation ↗
“Pinecone indexes metadata for filtering, so a query can include a metadata filter to limit the search.”
Read 2026-09-11 · official docs · Report a correction
Support on entry paid plan
- Elastic Cloud
- Four support tiers, keyed to the Elastic Cloud subscription tier rather than bought separately. Platinum and Enterprise share an identical support SLA.
- Pinecone
- Community support via Discord on Starter; free support on Builder, the entry paid plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Pricing ↗
“four support tiers, depending on the elastic cloud subscription tier two subscription tiers (platinum and enterprise) with identical support sla”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
- Pinecone Pricing ↗
“Community Support via Discord [...] Prometheus and Datadog monitoring Includes Free support Response SLAs available via Developer or Pro support add-on”
Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction
SOC 2
- Elastic Cloud
- SOC 2 Type 2 audit by Coalfire covers Elasticsearch Service and support subscriptions; report available on request via the Trust Center.
- Pinecone
- SOC 2 Type II, audited annually, covering security, availability and confidentiality controls.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Security | Elastic ↗
“have been audited by Coalfire under the SOC 2 Type 2 framework. Customers can request a SOC 2 report through the Elastic Trust Center”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“SOC 2 Type II Annual audits. Controls for security, availability, and confidentiality.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
ISO 27001
- Elastic Cloud
- Information Security Program certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018.
- Pinecone
- ISO 27001:2022 certified; annual surveillance audit completed and certification reported as fully active. From the Trust Center updates feed, posted April 1, 2026.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Security | Elastic ↗
“Elastic has formally adopted an Information Security Program, which is certified on ISO 27001, including ISO 27017 and ISO 27018.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Trust and Security Center ↗
“We are thrilled to announce that Pinecone has successfully completed our annual ISO 27001:2022 surveillance audit, ensuring our certification remains fully active!”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
HIPAA
- Elastic Cloud
- HIPAA business associate agreements available on all Elastic Cloud subscription tiers on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
- Pinecone
- HIPAA: BAA available on request for covered entities and business associates.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Security | Elastic ↗
“All Elastic Cloud subscription tiers on Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services allow for HIPAA business associate agreements (BAAs).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“HIPAA BAA available on request for covered entities and business associates.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
GDPR / data residency
- Elastic Cloud
- Operates in compliance with GDPR principles; customers can request a Data Processing Addendum through a support case.
- Pinecone
- GDPR: data processing agreements, EU data residency and right-to-erasure support.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Security | Elastic ↗
“Today, Elastic is operating in compliance with the principles of GDPR. Elastic Cloud customers can request a Data Processing Addendum (DPA)”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“GDPR Data processing agreements, EU data residency, and right-to-erasure support.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
PCI DSS
- Elastic Cloud
- PCI DSS listed among the certifications in the Elastic Trust Center, alongside SOC 2, ISO 27001 and FedRAMP.
- Pinecone
- Master Subscription Agreement forbids using the Services to process credit or debit card numbers, which it defines as Restricted Information. The only carve-out is HIPAA Information where an Order contemplates it and a BAA is executed.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Trust Center | Elastic ↗
“FedRAMP High FedRAMP Moderate PCI DSS CSA STAR ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27017 ISO/IEC 27018 SOC 2 SOC 3 TISAX HIPAA”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Master Subscription Agreement ↗
“Customer must not use the Services to process any Restricted Information. [...] “ Restricted Information ” means the following categories of Personal Information: (a) patient, medical, or other protected health information regulated by the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“ HIPAA Information ”); (b) credit, debit, bank account, or other financial account numbers”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
Encryption at rest
- Elastic Cloud
- Cluster data is encrypted at rest by default; TLS between Elasticsearch nodes and from the internet.
- Pinecone
- Stored data encrypted with the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Security | Elastic ↗
“Cluster data is encrypted at rest. We support IP address-based access controls”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Security overview - Pinecone Docs ↗
“Pinecone encrypts stored data using the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256) encryption algorithm.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Customer-managed keys
- Elastic Cloud
- Supported on Elastic Cloud Hosted via your cloud provider KMS, but only at the Enterprise subscription level; the key cannot yet be changed or removed once set.
- Pinecone
- CMEK using keys you manage in AWS KMS on Pinecone-managed projects; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Use a customer-managed encryption key | Elastic Docs ↗
“Encryption at rest using customer-managed keys is only available for the Enterprise subscription level.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Configure CMEK - Pinecone Docs ↗
“CMEK allows you to encrypt your data using keys that you manage in your cloud provider's key management system (KMS). Pinecone supports CMEK using Amazon Web Services (AWS) KMS. [...] A Pinecone Enterprise plan”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Role-based access control
- Elastic Cloud
- Predefined cloud resource roles (Admin, Editor, Viewer, billing admin) for Hosted and Serverless; custom roles can be created on Serverless projects.
- Pinecone
- Role-based access control over users, service accounts and API keys; roles managed in the console or via the Admin API.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- User roles and privileges | Elastic Docs ↗
“Elastic Cloud Hosted deployments and Elastic Cloud Serverless projects each have a set of predefined cloud resource access roles available”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Security overview - Pinecone Docs ↗
“Pinecone uses role-based access controls (RBAC) to manage access to resources. Service accounts, API keys, and users are all principals [...] You can manage roles in the Pinecone console or programmatically with the Admin API.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Private networking / VPC
- Elastic Cloud
- AWS PrivateLink and Azure Private Link for Hosted and Serverless; GCP Private Service Connect for Hosted only. IP filtering can be combined with private connections.
- Pinecone
- Private Endpoints via AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link, up to 10 per project; requires a Pinecone Enterprise plan.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Private connectivity | Elastic Docs ↗
“Private connectivity is a secure way for your Elastic Cloud deployments and projects to communicate with other cloud provider services”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
- Configure Private Endpoints - Pinecone Docs ↗
“This page describes how to create and use Private Endpoints to connect to Pinecone through AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link, keeping your traffic private from the public internet. [...] A Pinecone Enterprise plan [...] Private Endpoints are configured at the project-level and you can add up to 10 endpoints per project.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction
Dedicated infrastructure
- Elastic Cloud
- Elasticsearch nodes run in isolated containers under least privilege; containers have no means of communicating with containers from another cluster. Scope: container-level isolation between customer clusters; no dedicated-hardware option is offered on this page.
- Pinecone
- Dedicated reserved-compute deployment, plus BYOC: a privately managed Pinecone region inside your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Elastic Cloud Security | Elastic ↗
“Elasticsearch nodes run in isolated containers, configured according to the principle of least privilege, and with restrictions on system calls and allowed root operations. [...] Containers have no means of setting up communication with containers from another cluster.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
- Pinecone Enterprise - Trusted Knowledge Infrastructure ↗
“Dedicated Reserved compute for predictable performance. Ideal for consistent throughput requirements. [...] BYOC Database A privately managed Pinecone region inside your own AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud account. Data never leaves your VPC”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site · Report a correction
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Elastic Cloud or Pinecone?
Elastic Cloud: Elastic Cloud Hosted Standard, cheapest of four subscription tiers: as low as $99 per month for a production config of 120 GB storage across 2 zones. Gold $114, Platinum $131, Enterprise $184 per month on the same config basis. Serverless is metered, no plan fee.
Pinecone: Builder plan: $20/month flat, for solo developers and small teams. Standard plan is usage-based with a $50/month minimum.
Free tier: Elastic Cloud or Pinecone?
Elastic Cloud: No — The only free offer here is a trial; no ongoing free tier is listed beside the Hosted and Serverless plans.
Pinecone: Yes
Should I choose Elastic Cloud or Pinecone?
Pick Elastic Cloud if Teams that need full-text search and observability on the same underlying engine, or that want the option to self-host later — Elastic's dual identity as a search platform and an observability platform is the actual differentiator against single-purpose competitors.
Pick Pinecone if Teams that want a fully managed vector search product with hybrid search and metadata filtering built in, and don't want to operate the underlying index themselves.
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