diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 242c941..a55eb1e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 .sass-cache
 .vagrant
 .venv
+.whoosh_index
 
 *.log
 *.un~
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e1e0b5c..6f014e1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@
 - `createuser snippets`
 - `createdb snippets --owner=snippets`
 - `cp settings_local.py-template settings_local.py` // modify if necessary
-- `brew install elasticsearch`
-- `brew services start elasticsearch`
 - `curl -X PUT "localhost:9200/haystack?pretty"`
 - `python manage.py update_index` // optional if you have a local DB dump with snippets
 - `make run`
@@ -29,7 +27,6 @@
 - `dokku config:set DOKKU_LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=team@siftie.com SECRET_KEY=<some-secret-key> USE_SSL=true`
 - `git remote add dokku dokku@server.nicksergeant.com:snippets`
 - `git push dokku`
-- Elasticsearch 2.x only!
 
 ## Automatic deploy to Heroku
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 5a23d32..1c1692e 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ Django==1.11.18
 Fabric==1.12.0
 PyYAML==3.13
 Pygments==2.1.3
+Whoosh==2.7.4
+black==18.9b0
 certifi==2016.9.26
 dj-database-url==0.4.1
 dj-static==0.0.6
@@ -15,7 +17,6 @@ django-registration-redux==1.4
 django-storages==1.5.1
 django-taggit==0.21.3
 django-tastypie==0.14
-elasticsearch>=2.0.0,<3.0.0
 git+git://github.com/matagus/django-pagination-py3.git#egg=django-pagination
 git+git://github.com/nicksergeant/django-templatetag-sugar.git#egg=django-templatetag-sugar
 gunicorn==19.6.0
diff --git a/settings.py b/settings.py
index 8d53029..b2a7219 100644
--- a/settings.py
+++ b/settings.py
@@ -3,39 +3,9 @@ from urllib.parse import urlparse
 import dj_database_url
 import os
 
-
 if 'DATABASE_URL' in os.environ:
-
     DATABASES = {'default': dj_database_url.config()}
 
-if 'SEARCHBOX_SSL_URL' in os.environ:
-
-    url = os.environ.get('SEARCHBOX_SSL_URL')
-
-    es = urlparse(url)
-
-    HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = {
-        'default': {
-            'ENGINE': 'haystack.backends.elasticsearch_backend.ElasticsearchSearchEngine',
-            'URL': es.scheme + '://' + es.hostname + ':443',
-            'INDEX_NAME': 'snipts',
-        },
-    }
-
-    if es.username:
-        HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS['default']['KWARGS'] = {
-            "http_auth": es.username + ':' + es.password
-        }
-
-else:
-    HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = {
-        'default': {
-            'ENGINE': 'haystack.backends.simple_backend.SimpleEngine'
-        }
-    }
-
-
-
 ABSOLUTE_URL_OVERRIDES = {'auth.user': lambda u: "/%s/" % u.username}
 ACCOUNT_ACTIVATION_DAYS = 0
 ADMINS = (('Siftie', 'team@siftie.com'),)
diff --git a/settings_local.py-template b/settings_local.py-template
index 9624114..e045285 100644
--- a/settings_local.py-template
+++ b/settings_local.py-template
@@ -16,10 +16,3 @@ DATABASES = {
         'PORT': ''
     }
 }
-HAYSTACK_CONNECTIONS = {
-    'default': {
-        'ENGINE': 'haystack.backends.elasticsearch_backend.ElasticsearchSearchEngine',
-        'URL': 'http://127.0.0.1:9200/',
-        'INDEX_NAME': 'haystack',
-    },
-}