[Xylakant]

I absolutely agree with you. One of my biggest issues with ES is that authentication (even basic) and encrypted intra-cluster communication requires a (commercial) plugin. Either shield, which is not available as a standalone piece of software or SearchGuard, which is sort-of-free with limited functionality. I do consider those basic functions that should be available out of the box.

[jkressin]

The basic version of Search Guard provides TLS/SSL encrypted intra-cluster communication and also HTTP basic authentication totally free of charge also for commercial projects. Only for authentication methods like LDAP or Kerberos, or for advanced features like Document-Level-Security and audit logging a license is needed. Disclaimer: I work for floragunn/Search Guard.