--- title: Five years after the fork, OpenSearch is slowly stepping... description: AWS's share of OpenSearch contribution activity has dropped from 91% in the project's first year to 72% in 2025-26, five years after the fork from... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Five years after the fork, OpenSearch is slowly stepping out of AWS’s shadow | daily.dev og:description: AWS's share of OpenSearch contribution activity has dropped from 91% in the project's first year to 72% in 2025-26, five years after the fork from... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/V5k5nvCn6.png og:image:alt: Five years after the fork, OpenSearch is slowly stepping out of AWS’s shadow og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Five years after the fork, OpenSearch is slowly stepping out of AWS’s shadow **[The New Stack](https://daily.dev/sources/newstack)** · 17 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary AWS's share of OpenSearch contribution activity has dropped from 91% in the project's first year to 72% in 2025-26, five years after the fork from Elasticsearch. Amazon-affiliated engineers now make up 71% of maintainers in the core repository, down from 95% in April 2022. Self-managed OpenSearch deployments have grown from 37% to 60% of surveyed users since 2024, outpacing Amazon's managed service, which rose from 44% to 48%. Still, 24% of 71 surveyed non-adopters cite vendor-neutrality concerns tied to AWS, and AWS employee Andrew Ross was just reelected chair of the Technical Steering Committee, where AWS holds 4 of 15 voting seats. The latest release, OpenSearch 3.9, adds AI-focused search and retrieval features alongside performance and monitoring updates. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much of OpenSearch's development is still controlled by AWS? AWS accounted for 72% of contribution activities across OpenSearch's repositories in 2025-26, down from 91% in the project's first year. Amazon-affiliated engineers made up 71% of maintainers in the core repository, compared with 95% in April 2022. AWS still holds 4 of 15 voting seats on the Technical Steering Committee, and an AWS employee was reelected committee chair in October. _Track how vendor-backed open source projects shift governance over time on daily.dev before committing to one._ ### Why did AWS transfer OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation? AWS donated OpenSearch to the Linux Foundation in September 2024 to establish vendor-neutral governance under the OpenSearch Software Foundation, meaning AWS could no longer close the project or change its license. Executive director Bianca Lewis says the move also made commercial sense because AWS earns revenue from compute, not from owning applications, so growing OpenSearch long term was never part of AWS's plan. _Developers weighing OpenSearch against AWS lock-in can follow governance updates like this on daily.dev._ ### What percentage of OpenSearch users run self-managed deployments versus Amazon's managed service? 60% of surveyed OpenSearch users now run self-managed deployments in the cloud, up from 37% in 2024, according to the 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report from the Linux Foundation and OpenSearch Software Foundation. Use of Amazon's managed OpenSearch Service grew more modestly over the same period, from 44% to 48% of surveyed users. _Comparing self-managed versus managed search deployments gets easier when you track reports like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Organizations Are Now Reaching for OpenSearch for AI, Not Just Search](https://daily.dev/posts/organizations-are-now-reaching-for-opensearch-for-ai-not-just-search-mm5kudnhi) · It's Foss · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenSearch Is Done Being Called "the Elasticsearch Fork"](https://daily.dev/posts/opensearch-is-done-being-called-the-elasticsearch-fork--1oedd9hl4) · It's Foss · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenSearch in 2025: Features, Improvements, and Community Growth](https://daily.dev/posts/opensearch-in-2025-features-improvements-and-community-growth-ymq11tig4) · BigData Boutique blog · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Amazon OpenSearch Service now supports OpenSearch version 3.7](https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-opensearch-service-now-supports-opensearch-version-3-7-wkqtg7wcc) · AWS · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Reflections on the 2026 Open Data Infrastructure Report](https://daily.dev/posts/reflections-on-the-2026-open-data-infrastructure-report-8isnghx9p) · Linux Foundation · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#vector-search](https://daily.dev/tags/vector-search), [#elk](https://daily.dev/tags/elk), [#opensearch](https://daily.dev/tags/opensearch) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Five years after the fork, OpenSearch is slowly stepping out of AWS’s shadow","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6"},"datePublished":"2026-10-31T16:08:06.738Z","dateModified":"2026-10-31T16:08:37.867Z","description":"AWS's share of OpenSearch contribution activity has dropped from 91% in the project's first year to 72% in 2025-26, five years after the fork from...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/873ec9c23830f56cf4e4292e81c6387f?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/873ec9c23830f56cf4e4292e81c6387f?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The New Stack","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The New Stack","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/newstack","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/newstack"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,aws,vector-search,elk,opensearch","timeRequired":"PT17M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The New Stack","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/newstack"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Five years after the fork, OpenSearch is slowly stepping out of AWS’s shadow"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/five-years-after-the-fork-opensearch-is-slowly-stepping-out-of-aws-s-shadow-v5k5nvcn6#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much of OpenSearch's development is still controlled by AWS?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AWS accounted for 72% of contribution activities across OpenSearch's repositories in 2025-26, down from 91% in the project's first year. 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