Pristy Core 26.1 is in beta. This page describes a version still being stabilised: to try and put through its paces, not yet for production.
Alfresco Community 26.2 drops Apache Solr
Since July 2026 and Alfresco Community 26.2, Apache Solr is no longer a supported search engine, on any edition. The engine that has powered Alfresco since 2018 may keep working, but without fixes, without security patches and without any compatibility guarantee.
Its replacement is called Alfresco Search Community. It indexes the repository into an Elastic or OpenSearch cluster, which are free and technically solid engines themselves.
But the Alfresco connector that feeds them is shipped as binaries, without source code. Hyland says it intends to publish it in a later release and place it under LGPLv3 at that point; as of today, neither the source nor even the final licence text has been published. For a distribution that carries the name “Community,” the most central component after the repository itself has become a black box.
And it’s not alone. The 26.2 release notes name two non-free components: the
search engine, and the Control Center, the administration interface served
on /admin. Two components where you can neither read the code, nor fix a
flaw, nor rely on them to prove what your platform does.
The Alfresco Content App itself remains under LGPLv3: it’s not the whole distribution that’s shifting, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. But the two components affected are precisely the ones that touch search and administration.
We chose to upgrade Solr ourselves
Rather than follow suit, we took the problem back to its root. Jeci maintains Pristy Search Service, a free/open-source fork of Alfresco Search Services, modernised for 2026:
| Original Community | Pristy Search Service 1.1.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Solr / Lucene | Patched 6.6.5 / Lucene 6 | Unmodified Apache 9.10.1 / Lucene 9.12.3 |
| Java | 11 | 17 |
| Logging | Log4j 1.x | Log4j 2 |
The code is public on github.com/jecicorp/AlfrescoSearchServices, and the official Alfresco Docker installer now offers it as a choice of search engine, alongside OpenSearch. This isn’t a patch we’re keeping to ourselves: it’s a contribution the community can adopt.
Hyland itself points to this work in its release notes, for deployments that want to stay on Apache Solr.
Architecture, what’s new in version 1.1.0 and what it changes for running Pristy: it’s all detailed in our article Pristy Search Service, Pristy’s search engine on Solr 9.
The comparison
With Alfresco Community 26.2, Apache Solr is no longer a supported engine, and the connector of its replacement, Alfresco Search Community, ships without source code. For a distribution that calls itself free/open-source, that’s a change of nature. Pristy takes the other path: staying on a free/open-source engine, and upgrading it ourselves.
Pristy Core 26.1 stays on the Alfresco Community 25.3 foundation: we are not following 26.2 on this front.
| Criterion | Pristy Core 26.1 (beta) | Alfresco Community 26.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | ||
| Content repository | Equivalent : Alfresco Community 25.3 Pristy Core 26.1 stays on 25.3, the last version where every component is fully open source. | Equivalent : Alfresco Community 26.2 |
| Search engine | ||
| Indexing engine | Pristy advantage : Apache Solr 9 (Lucene 9) Pristy relies on unmodified Apache Solr 9.10.1. | Equivalent : Elastic or OpenSearch Alfresco Search Community relies on OpenSearch 2.11.1 or Elastic 8.17.x. |
| Search engine source code | Pristy advantage : Published, under a free/open-source licence | Not available : Not published (binaries only) Hyland announces it will publish the Alfresco Search Community source in a later release. As of today, the module ships as binaries only. |
| Apache Solr | Pristy advantage : Maintained by Jeci | Not available : Support dropped Since 26.2, Alfresco Search Services is not supported on any edition: no fixes, no security patches, no compatibility guarantee. The engine may still work, at your own risk. |
| Engine's Java version | Equivalent : Java 17 | Equivalent : Java 17 |
| Indexing administration | Pristy advantage : Dedicated tracking service Pristy Search Service separates the query service from the indexing tracker service, so they can be sized and restarted independently. | not specified |
| Infrastructure to operate | Pristy advantage : Solr, no cluster required | Equivalent : Elastic or OpenSearch cluster This requires skills and resources that not every organisation has. |
| What happens to free/open-source software | ||
| Fully open-source distribution | Pristy advantage : Yes | Not available : No, two closed components The 26.2 release notes name Alfresco Search Community and Alfresco Control Center as the only two non-free components of the distribution. |
| Administration interface | Pristy advantage : Pristy Portail (AGPLv3) Pristy administers from Pristy Portail, published under AGPLv3. | Not available : Control Center (binaries only) The Control Center is the Angular interface served on /admin. In 26.2 it ships as binaries only, from a separate image repository. |
| Document interface | Equivalent : Pristy interfaces (AGPLv3) | Equivalent : Content App (LGPLv3) The Alfresco Content App remains published under LGPLv3: it isn’t the source of the problem. |
| Search engine licence | Pristy advantage : LGPLv3, published | Not available : Not published As of today, Alfresco Search Community’s licence text is not published. Hyland announces an intention to move to LGPLv3 eventually, with no committed date. |
| Contribution given back to the community | Pristy advantage : Public fork, adopted upstream Our port is published on github.com/jecicorp/AlfrescoSearchServices and offered as an option in the official Alfresco Docker installer. | not specified |
| Search engine auditability | Pristy advantage : Complete | Not available : Impossible Without source code, there is no way to inspect what the engine does or to fix a flaw yourself. |
| Migration | ||
| Reindexing required | Equivalent : Yes, full reindexing On both sides, migration requires rebuilding the index. It’s an operation to plan for, not a blocker. | Equivalent : Yes, engine change |
| Existing queries preserved | Pristy advantage : Yes, same engine | not specified |
| Maturity | Available : Version 1.1.0 Pristy Search Service 1.1.0: tested with Alfresco Community 26.2 and load-tested on large volumes. | Available : Available |
- Pristy advantage
- Available
- Equivalent
- Partial
- Not available
What this means for you
You can still audit your search engine
That’s the fundamental difference. An engine shipped without source code can’t be inspected, can’t be fixed, and can’t be taken over if its vendor changes course. With Solr 9, your entire document chain stays readable — which matters for a public tender, a security audit or a reversibility requirement.
You don’t have an extra cluster to run
Moving to Elastic or OpenSearch means adding infrastructure to install, size, back up and maintain. For a local authority or a mid-sized organisation, that’s not neutral. Solr 9 deploys with the same footprint as before, and remains the best option up to around 50 million files; beyond that, SolrCloud takes over without leaving a free foundation.
Your queries don’t change
Staying on the same engine means not having to replay your saved searches, dashboards and integrations.
Let’s be clear about the status
Pristy Search Service is at version 1.1.0: tested with Alfresco Community 26.2 and put through load tests on large volumes. It remains a community effort, independent and not affiliated with Hyland; it works on Alfresco Enterprise thanks to API compatibility, without being supported there by Hyland.
Let’s also be clear on scope: Pristy Core 26.1 stays built on Alfresco Community 25.3, the last version where every component is fully open source. We are not following 26.2 on this front, and that’s not a delay: it’s a choice not to introduce a black box into a platform we sell you as free/open-source.
If you’re running Pristy in production today, you’re on version 26.0 with its Solr 6 engine: nothing changes for you until we’ve stabilised 26.1. Moving to Solr 9 will require a full reindex — an operation to plan, which we carry out with you. If you’d like to try the beta, push it to its limits and tell us what’s missing, though, you’re exactly the person we’re looking for.
Go further
- Pristy Core 26.0 vs. Alfresco Community 25.3 — the comparison for the version in production
- Pristy vs. Alfresco Enterprise — the comparison with the commercial offering
- Free/open-source software: our licences and sources
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