Self-Hosted Search Engines: 26 Open-Source Apps

Best for your setup

The default order favors popular apps. These picks favor your specific setup.

Homelab Novice
Wants it running tonight, with one command.
SearXNG38.4k
SearXNG is a metasearch engine that lets users search the web without being tracked or profiled.
- Live demo
- Documented
- No cloud account needed
78/100 fitHow well this app matches homelab novices, 0 to 100
See all
Homelab Expert
Runs a stack already and wants it to plug in.
ZincSearch17.9k
ZincSearch is a lightweight full-text search engine and Elasticsearch-compatible alternative for indexing and searching application data.
- REST or GraphQL API
- Multi-user
84/100 fitHow well this app matches homelab experts, 0 to 100
See all
Homelab Hacker
Wants control: APIs, scripts and many ways to run it.
Manticore Search12.1k
Manticore Search is an open-source fast database for search, positioned as an alternative to Elasticsearch.
- Scriptable API
- Many ways to install
- No cloud account needed
87/100 fitHow well this app matches homelab hackers, 0 to 100
See all

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26 projects

MeiliSearch

59.6k

A lightning-fast search engine that fits into apps, websites, and workflows, with built-in features for relevant search experiences.

Search EnginesPermissive LicenseDatabase Management+1

Typesense

26.9k

Typesense is a fast, typo-tolerant search engine for building search experiences.

Search EnginesDatabase ManagementAI RAG Systems+2

ZincSearch

17.9k

ZincSearch is a lightweight full-text search engine and Elasticsearch-compatible alternative for indexing and searching application data.

Search EnginesSelf Hosting SolutionsPermissive License

SearXNG

38.4k

SearXNG is a metasearch engine that lets users search the web without being tracked or profiled.

Search EnginesCopyleft LicenseSelf Hosting Solutions+1

Manticore Search

12.1k

Manticore Search is an open-source fast database for search, positioned as an alternative to Elasticsearch.

Search EnginesCopyleft LicenseDatabase Management+2

Perplexica

37.3k

Vane is a privacy-focused AI answering engine that runs on your own hardware and returns cited answers from web search and local or cloud LLMs.

Artificial IntelligencePermissive LicenseSearch Engines+5

Vane

37.3k

Vane is a privacy-focused AI answering engine that runs on your own hardware and combines web search with local or cloud LLMs to deliver cited answers.

Artificial IntelligencePermissive LicenseGenerative AI+6

OpenSearch

13.9k

An open-source, enterprise-grade search and observability suite for unstructured data at scale.

Search EnginesAnalytics ToolsDatabase Management+2

Yacy

4.1k

YaCy is a self-hosted search engine application with a web interface, crawler, and peer-to-peer index sharing.

Search EnginesCopyleft LicenseSelf Hosting Solutions+2

Single ContainerFully FOSS

Local Deep Research

9.2k

An AI-powered research assistant for deep, agentic research with citations, designed to run locally or via a self-hosted setup.

Artificial IntelligenceAI RAG SystemsAI Agents+6

3 Containers

Hister

6.0k

Hister is a private search engine that indexes the full contents of web pages and local files for searching via web, terminal, and MCP clients.

AI RAG SystemsModel Context ProtocolSelf Hosting Solutions+1

Single Container

Apache Solr

1.7k

Apache Solr is an open source multi-modal search platform for full-text, vector, and geospatial search.

Search EnginesPermissive LicenseDatabase Management+2

Fess

1.1k

Fess is an enterprise search server that crawls and indexes content from web, file system, and data store sources and provides a browser-based administration UI.

Search EnginesPermissive LicenseSelf Hosting Solutions+1

bitmagnet

4.4k

A self-hosted BitTorrent indexer, DHT crawler, content classifier, and torrent search engine with a web UI and GraphQL API.

Digital ArchivingP2P File SharingSearch Engines+3

9 Containers

sist2

1.3k

sist2 is a simple incremental search tool for scanning files, extracting text and metadata, and providing a web-based search interface.

Search EnginesDocument ManagementAutomation Tools+3

Meilisearch-UI

780

An open-source admin dashboard UI for managing Meilisearch instances.

Search EnginesDatabase ManagementSelf Hosting Solutions+1

Open Archiver

2.4k

Open Archiver is a self-hosted platform for archiving, storing, indexing, and searching email from major providers and mail formats.

Digital ArchivingCopyleft LicenseEmail Solutions+3

Websurfx

1.2k

Websurfx is a Rust-based metasearch engine focused on speed, privacy, and secure, ad-free search results.

Search EnginesCopyleft LicenseSelf Hosting Solutions

Meme Search

761

A self-hosted meme search engine that indexes memes by image content and text for semantic retrieval.

Search EnginesMedia ManagementSelf Hosting Solutions+2

Jina

21.9k

A framework for building and deploying AI services with gRPC, HTTP, and WebSocket communication.

Search EnginesPermissive LicenseArtificial Intelligence+1

Para

574

Para is a scalable multitenant backend server/framework for object persistence, retrieval, and API-based application backends.

API ManagementPermissive LicenseAuthentication Services+3

Open Core

Aleph

2.4k

Aleph is a tool for indexing large collections of documents and structured data for browsing, search, and cross-referencing entities against watchlists.

Search EnginesKnowledge ManagementPermissive License+3

Amgix

Amgix is an open-source hybrid search system that provides ingestion, embedding, keyword/semantic retrieval, and ranking behind a REST API.

Search EnginesAI RAG SystemsSelf Hosting Solutions+2

Single ContainerFully FOSS

ElasticSearch

78.3k

Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine, scalable data store, and vector database for production-scale workloads.

Search EnginesDatabase ManagementAnalytics Tools+1